Markets as Meta-Intepretive Systems
Organization scholars and sociologists have developed a rich array of insights about how markets function, and shown that organizational actors enact the market environment in which they operate. Not enough attention, however, has been devoted to the interpretative dimension of markets and to role of organizational interpretative processes in market functioning. In this paper, we examine the functioning of the global reinsurance market – the insurance market for insurance companies – drawing on the interpretative literature in management to offer a renewed conceptualization of markets as meta-interpretation systems. This paper thus contributes to the development of a more comprehensive approach to the functioning of market that extends prior conceptualizations of markets as socially constructed, or enacted. In doing so, this paper broadens the reach of sensemaking and interpretation studies beyond the scope of organizational boundaries. The paper also contributes to the sensemaking literature by documenting ordinary sensemaking and by linking interpretation activities to organizational routines. Finally, the paper complements existing sociological studies on market functioning by revealing the organizational and interpretative basis of markets.