Connoisseurship consumption and market evolution: an institutional theory perspective on the growth of specialty coffee consumption in the USA

Abstract

How does the increasing prevalence of connoisseurship consumption affect the market? Drawing from institutional theory, we develop answers to this question. Inspired by the legitimacy concept, we evaluate the specialty coffee consumption context in order to advance and systematically analyze the role of connoisseurship consumption in the market. In extensive qualitative study, 542 newspaper articles from 1980 to 2013 were collected, and 265 were analyzed. This research offers two main contributions to the existing literature. First, several types of cultural-cognitive legitimacy (including consumer generational, health concerns, and taste) began to shift in the 1980s, which increased the connoisseurship consumption and affected the market well into the 2000s. Second, connoisseurship consumption arises when marketplace actors intersect with the tastes and desires of consumers.