Divided We Stand, United We Falter? Social Movements in Scotch Whisky Distilling, 1680 – 1940

Abstract

Organizational forms rarely go uncontested, with various societal actor groups seeking to influence forms’ legitimacy, thereby affecting organizational vital rates. Yet our understanding of the effectiveness of social movement coalitions (SMCs), the banding together of these actors to jointly pursue shared goals, remains limited. Our focus is on the professional whisky distilleries of Scotland, from their emergence in 1680 until their mothballing in 1940. During a centuries-long struggle, temperance associations, the Church of Scotland, and Liberal Party politicians challenged distilleries on moral and legal grounds, framing them as sources of societal depravation and erosion of the moral character of the Scots. As a countermovement, whisky industry associations, in coalition with industry-sponsored charities and Conservative Party politicians, highlighted distilleries’ important economic role and their symbolic value as emblems of Scottish culture. Our analysis shows that both groups of actors, when acting alone in either societal or political arenas, had intuitive negative and positive effects on the survival of whisky distilleries. However, when banding together in coalitions, the net effects on organizational failure rates wane.