Abstract

LORENC-VALCARCE, Federico. Markets as networks: the embeddedness of private security in Argentina. Convergencia [online]. 2013, vol.20, n.63, pp.125-152. ISSN 2448-5799.

Based on an inquiry into private security in Argentina, this paper explores some hypotheses developed in the field of economic sociology to study markets: on the one hand, that entrepreneurs use their contacts and reputation to create and maintain a clientele; on the other hand, that companies try to fill niches to avoid an open competition with its contenders. Following the ideas developed by Mark Granovetter and Wayne Baker, the paper shows that the development of a market is not the response to an existing demand, but the result of the initiative of entrepreneurs and the strategies of firms, and that markets generally are not organized as simple and homogeneous realities, but as distinct structures of roles based on limited and restrictive networks.

Keywords : networks; markets; competition; capital; private security.

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