Understanding and Advancing the Concept of `Nonmarket'

Abstract

The term nonmarket is increasingly applied to environments, institutions, organizations, and exchanges that are also labeled as noneconomic and social. Why has this new term been coined and widely adopted, and what are its distinct denotations? The author traces the development of this concept through four perspectives on nonmarket, which are integrated into an overarching definition, after relating them to major theories and pointing to major research challenges. The constituting and correcting of markets, firms, and noneconomic institutions are the central concerns of nonmarket studies that bear on all organizing projects.