Growing beyond the niche? How machines link production and networking practices of small rural food businesses

ABSTRACT This paper employs a practice perspective to understand the hanging-together of networking and production practices in small craft-food businesses. Based on a case study from a rural region of Germany, we explore how practices are held together by teleoaffective structures and socio-material arrangements, pointing to the role of machines as nodes in networking and production practices. We furthermore demonstrate how the niche-specific mode of these practices facilitates cooperation within the niche but hampers cooperation beyond the niche. Last, the hanging-together of producing and networking practices eventually leads to a niche-specific path for business growth. We add to the blossoming entrepreneurship-as-practice (EaP) literature by delineating how the bundle of entrepreneurial practices of producing, selling, and networking works to constitute a niche business realm, highlighting the agency of matter.