Caveat Emptor: The Construction of Nonprofit Consumer Watchdog Organizations

Abstract

This article investigates how new organizational forms are constituted as cultural objects. Since new organizational forms jeopardize existing interests, institutional entrepreneurs recombine prevalent cultural materials to frame the form as necessary, valid, and appropriate. When rival entrepreneurs promote incompatible frames, the frame that enjoys greater political support from the state, professions, and other organizations becomes ascendant. Proponents of losing frames can exit, migrate, or convert to the ascendant frame. A case study of the creation of nonprofit consumer watchdog organizations demonstrates how the boundaries of an organizational form and its cultural contents are shaped by politics.

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