Constructions, Claims, Resonance, Reflexivity: Language and Market Categorization

Studies on market categorization exhibit substantial agreement that language plays a central role in articulating and constructing meanings among market participants and crafting consensus to produce a collective of interacting market actors. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the growing body of research on language and market categories. This review has two aims. We begin by identifying how scholars have applied a variety of language constructs in category research, providing an understanding of the differences between these constructs and elaborating their uses and functions in the studies on market categorization. The second part of the review then provides a detailed analysis of the applications of these constructs in empirical studies addressing various situations and settings for categorization. We conclude the review by providing a synthesis of the role of language in market categorization and discuss avenues for future research.