Market Backbones : On the Making and Shaping of Market Infrastructures

Bulawa, Nicole and Wang, Linghui and Jacob, Frank (2026) Market Backbones : On the Making and Shaping of Market Infrastructures. In: Marketing.Neu.Denken : Impulse für eine Disziplin im Wandel. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden, pp. 401-420. ISBN 9783658493707

Abstract

Markets are an integral part of our economic and social world, and they need an infrastructure to support and underpin them, i.e. a market infrastructure. Despite their critical role in the functioning of a market, little is known about how market infrastructures can be utilised in the making and shaping of markets. This is largely due to our limited understanding of them, but also because market infrastructures are complex, making their socio-material arrangements difficult to grasp. In the literature, market infrastructures and their role in creating and changing markets are becoming increasingly important. However, the extant body of research has not yet been consolidated, making it difficult to identify where further insights are needed to support practitioners in their efforts to shape the underlying infrastructure of a market. To this end, this book chapter illustrates how market infrastructures are built and the key role they play in the making and shaping of markets, particularly in the establishing, legitimising, ordering, and envisioning of markets.