Contrasting alternative explanations for the consequences of category spanning: A study of restaurant reviews and menus in San Francisco
研究了组织跨多个类别经营为何通常处于劣势，对比了两种解释：跨类别者不符合各类别典型特征，以及跨类别者因缺乏专长而质量较低。发现两种机制均存在，且高质量组织能从非典型性中获益。
Recent literature on organizational category spanning demonstrates that organizations that span multiple categories on average suffer social and economic disadvantages in markets. While multiple mechanisms have been proposed to explain this finding, most studies do not test directly nor contrast these mechanisms. In this article, we contrast two of the main mechanisms proposed in the literature: the audience-side typicality-based explanation (category spanners are atypical of each categories spanned) and the producer-side quality-based explanation (category spanners produce lower quality output because they cannot develop expertise in any of the categories spanned). We find evidence for both mechanisms. Furthermore, we argue that quality and typicality interact such that high-quality organizations can benefit from being atypical. Finally, we contrast two kinds of spanning, “fusion” and “food court,” and argue that their effects are different depending on the overall quality of the organization. Our empirical setting is the restaurant domain, and we analyze menus and reviews of 474 restaurants located in San Francisco.