The Trajectory of Brazilian Craft Breweries in Search of Legitimation and Institutionalization: An Analysis from their Strategic Discursive Practices

Abstract

This work aims to identify and understand the discursive practices conducted by craft breweries in search of legitimacy in the Brazilian brew industry. To this end, we combine strategy as practice, institutionalism and critical discourse analysis. The results show that the Brazilian industry of craft beer is seeking for institutionalization towards the regulatory environment and customers. This quest for legitimacy is based on discursive practices that reveal power struggles with large scale breweries. In this sense, the production and consumption of beer is seen as an ideology characterized by strong confrontation and opposition to institutionalized practices in Brazil. Therefore, possibilities for building through discursive practices, a field conductive to the craft brew movement in Brazil are identified. Ultimately, these discursive practices can lead the microbreweries to emancipate from the field institutionalized by the large-scale beer production.