Hypes and the birth of new sustainable market categories – a socio-cultural perspective on the emergence of the meat substitute category in Finland

Hypes can be a significant contributor in the mainstreaming of sustainable products. Former research on hypes has been supplier oriented, and thus little is known their effect new market formation. Our paper contributes to this gap by examining establishment ‘meat substitute’ category Finland using press articles, retailer interviews consumer panel data. We show how emergence legitimation meat substitute depended heavily hype arising around single product, called Pulled Oats (PO). This was anchored its association with trendy socio-culturally relevant values practices. further discover that had positive spill-over effects other novel products but not longstanding vegetarian protein sources such as tofu or tempeh. discuss contribution these findings literature sustainability transitions, especially regarding socially constructed boundaries fact PO lacked disappointment phase typical cycles.