Authenticity is hard to come by, especially for a business. And yet these days the conceit of being authentic has become an indispensable and ubiquitous selling point, most frequently employed by restaurants but also by the makers of such common consumer goods as shoes and furniture — and even such unlikely products as cosmetics and vacation tours.
Few people have studied or thought more about authenticity, both as a tangible attribute and as a social construct, than Glenn R. Carroll, the Laurence W. Lane Professor of Organizations at Stanford Graduate School of Business. We talked to him recently about how authenticity is created, how it’s defined, and why consumers are increasingly drawn to it.
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