Inventing Water Lilies: Latour-Marliac and the Social Dynamics of Market Creation

This article uses a sociology of markets perspective to examine the processes by which Bory Latour-Marliac created the market for colorful hardy water lily hybrids in the late 19^th century. The paper explores how Latour-Marliac ‘invented’ the product in question and how he developed the consumer market for it. The empirical data on which this work is based were gathered from the firm’s archives and cover the period 1881 to 1891. The main finding of the research is that Latour-Marliac made deft, intentional use of his commercial, professional and personal networks in order to create the market for colorful water lily hybrids. While responding to a call for more historical approaches in economic sociology, the paper makes an empirical contribution to the field with its empirics. It makes a theoretical contribution with its application of Burt’s (1992) structural holes theory to the findings. It shows how the level of analysis used when treating questions related to innovation accompanied by market creation -- firm versus actor (entrepreneur) – can significantly affect the conclusions that are drawn about the social dynamics observed.