Navigating the Institutional Logics of Markets: Implications for Strategic Brand Management

Abstract

Adopting an institutional theoretic framework, this article examines the evolution and competitive dynamics of markets composed of multiple practices, beliefs, and rule systems. The 30-year historical analysis of the U.S. yoga market illustrates the coexistence of spirituality, medical, fitness, and commercial logics. Using data gathered through archival sources, netnography, in-depth interviews, and participant observations, the authors link shifting emphases on institutional logics and their sustenance to institutional entrepreneurs’ accumulation and transmission of cultural capital, strategies to legitimize plural logics, distinct branding practices, and contestations among the pervading logics. The study offers a managerial framework for managing conflicting demands of logics, conveying brand legitimacy, and creating a coherent brand identity in plural logic markets; in addition, it develops a theoretical account of links between institutional logics, competitive dynamics, and market evolution.