Balázs Kovács, Michael T. Hannan
Sociological Science, May 13, 2015
DOI 10.15195/v2.a13
Abstract
A general finding in economic and organizational sociology shows that objects that span categories lose appeal to audiences. This paper argues that the negative consequences of crossing boundaries are more severe when the categories spanned are distant and have high contrast. Available empirical strategies do not incorporate information on the distances among categories. Here we introduce novel measures of distance in conceptual space and derive measures for typicality, category contrast, and categorical niche width. Using the proposed measurement approach, we test our theory using data on online reviews of books and restaurants.
A general finding in economic and organizational sociology shows that objects that span categories lose appeal to audiences. This paper argues that the negative consequences of crossing boundaries are more severe when the categories spanned are distant and have high contrast. Available empirical strategies do not incorporate information on the distances among categories. Here we introduce novel measures of distance in conceptual space and derive measures for typicality, category contrast, and categorical niche width. Using the proposed measurement approach, we test our theory using data on online reviews of books and restaurants.
- Citation: Kovács, Balázs, and Michael T. Hannan. 2015. “Conceptual Spaces and the Consequences of Category Spanning.” Sociological Science 2: 252-286.
- Received: July 21, 2014
- Accepted: September 24, 2014
- Editors: Olav Sorenson
- DOI: 10.15195/v2.a13