Innovation Under a Protected Label of Origin: Institutional Change in Cognac

Abstract

In this study the authors analyze a protected label of origin cluster in France with a homogeneous and explicit institutional framework. The cluster has given birth to both incremental and radical changes in recent decades. By assessing these change processes, the authors disentangle different types of institutional change that have been shaped by preconditions in the cluster—and that in turn shape the cluster on an aggregate level. The study mainly focuses on inefficiencies that emerge over time in the given institutional framework, triggering different types of change. The study’s findings suggest that incremental change processes originate primarily in developments in the regulative and normative dimension of institutions within the cluster, whereas radical change processes require a wider set of preconditions.