Artisanal or Just Half-Baked: Competing Collective Identities and Location Choice Among French Bakeries

By conceptualizing similarity among firms in terms of overlapping resources, research on location choice has found that similar tend to locate far from one another. Yet, a resource-overlap perspective may not always align with decision-makers’ classifications. In this article, we propose new entrants also perceive firm similarities collective identities, and examine how competition between identities influences entrants’ location. Our arguments center the distinction unaffiliated traditionalists, actors who are loyal values practices originally associated label emphasize autonomy, affiliated modernists, reinterpret using different seek consistency. Analyzing entry 177 artisan bakers within city Lyon 1998 2017, find where prior had located previously. To differentiate through competition, however, some prefer locations closer encroaching their identity, most evident traditionalists choosing near modernists. integrating collective-identity choice, show sociocognitive basis classification shapes competitive behavior.