Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness

The origin of the concept of "embeddedness", this article has been highly influential in guiding how social scientists conceptualize the interplay between markets and social relations. Rejecting the extremes of an "under" and "over" socialized approach, the article casts the market as "embedded in a network of social relations that do not determine, but certainly influence how individuals behave." This model is explored in the context of malfeasance and the problem of markets and hierarchies.