Weak Sauce: Authenticity, Selling Out, and the Skateboard Industry: A Study in Community Resiliency

• Main Author: Kemp, Thomas A
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2024
• Subjects: authenticity; community resilience; institutions; intangible value; skateboarding; Economics; Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/economics-faculty-pubs/229; https://doi.org/10.1080/00213624.2024.2344440
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

That market-based institutions have a disruptive effect on the community is well-known by advocates and detractors. Studies have shown that a stable sense of community positively affects human well-being, growth, and economic stability. Using a combination of textual and ethnographic analysis, we examine the churn of skateboard companies over the last fifty years. We argue that the skateboard industry is a useful case study to understand the institutions that foster community resiliency—for both good and ill. This work contributes to the literature in two ways: first, by demonstrating the relationship between intangible firm value and community, and second, by bridging the gap between economic and the sociological literature on authenticity.