In this article, we show how ritualized periodic encounters of business partners help to
reproduce business relations and a shared understanding of doing business based on
ethnographic fieldwork at six international trade fairs in three different cultural
industries. We draw on Randall Collins’ theory of interaction rituals (IRs), which
highlights the relevance of emotional contacts in social life. Although Collins’ theory
and his conceptional instruments help to shed light on a neglected aspect in the sociology
of markets, our results go beyond his ethological interpretation of interactions. First,
we conclude that Collins underestimates the direct impact of the uneven distribution of
economic resources on IRs. Second, we observed not only emotional entrainment in IRs but
also the strategic production of emotions.