Coherence Within and Across Categories: The Dynamic Viability of Product Categories on Kickstarter

Abstract

How does the viability of a product category evolve over time? Studies abound on how categories emerge and become established, or fall out of use. However, extant research assumed that categories evolve independently of one another. In contrast, we consider both intra- and inter-category dynamics. Extending the insight that categories are dynamically shaped by actors’ efforts to position their products, we argue that these efforts not only alter the degree of coherence that products exhibit within a focal category (i.e., what a category is about), but also across a set of related categories (i.e., what a category is not about). We explain shifts in a category’s viability by theorizing the ‘classification’ and ‘valuation’ benefits that intra-category coherence affords, and how these benefits are contingent on inter-category coherence. Importantly, the interaction between both forms of coherence may flip the effect of intra-category coherence. We find support for our argument by examining 170 categories on a daily basis over an 11-year period on Kickstarter, one of the most important crowdfunding platforms. By providing a nuanced understanding of category dynamics, our research sheds new light onto the evolving viability of categories.