Underpinning modern economic sociology theory, the concept ofimersão, as conceived by Granovetter, has been holding against a barrage of criticism. Barber, for example, questions the primacy conferred by Granovetter on the market economy as well as his assigned importance to social structures based on interpersonal relations. According to Barber, two relevant types of economic interactions (besides the market, as previously described by Polanyi) coexist: reciprocity and redistribution. All such interactions are embedded in different types of social structures, in analogy with systems of social stratification. Therefore, this study evaluates the explanatory power of these two alternative conceptions, insofar as they focus on the way entrepreneurs pursue their businesses. For such an endeavor, it relies upon data obtained from a survey of 100 entrepreneurs. The findings indicate an important association between interpersonal relations and the remaining variables. However, Barber’s contributions are not to be dismissed altogether. Moreover, the overall results shed light on aspects hereunto unexplored vis-à-vis the complex processes of market construction.
Embeddedness; Social Network; Social Class; Market; Redistribution; Reciprocity