A cultural understanding of consumer-driven marketplace dynamics

A consumer tribe can be the breeding ground for entrepreneurial ventures started by consumers. This work investigates the dynamics between the consumer and her/his consumer tribe in the development of an entrepreneurial project. The study focuses on how the consumer entrepreneur can bridge the gap between the micro-level of the tribe’s needs and the macro-level of the marketplace features. The study adopts a netnographic methodological approach to investigate the issues. The consumer turned entrepreneur acts as a cultural mediator who is able to root his venture and customer insights into the affective labour and common ethos of the tribe. The entrepreneur is also a resource integrator and a reconfigurator of market resources who is able to overcome the oppositions between a traditional marketplace and a consumer-driven marketplace. The work contributes to the literature on consumer-driven market emergence in a consumer tribe setting, showing the role of the entrepreneur and its position with respect to the tribe.