The paper discusses how the notion of gift economy in sociology can be useful to the research field of substantive organizations. Gift economy refers to a means of trade whose main objective is (re)create or to strengthen the links between people or groups. We start from the assumption that substantive organizations are conditioned by relationship values and because of this should be considered a privileged place for the establishment of a gift economy in modern societies. It can be also explained because a utilitarian evaluation is inadequate in mediating most relationships between people in thistype of organization. Finally an agenda for further research into substantive organizations based on gift economy will be outlined.
Gift economy; Substantive organizations; Market logic criticism; Marcel Mauss