Are consumers or firms the catalyst for cultural trends?

Answer 1

I suppose it varies, depending on what kind of cultural change you are considering. For example, if you are talking of material culture, new technology, and the like the initiative seems to require a firm to design, manufacture, and promote the new technology. But is this really true? It depends on how far back you go. Wozniak and Jobs were individuals who were making tech devices in a garage or basement somewhere around San Jose, I believe — rumor has it, that originally they put together blue boxes for phone freaks — and then decided to build a few small computers for people who were too clumsy, or too busy, to do it for themselves. Jobs, however, saw that they were getting more orders than they had anticipated, and Apple was created — i.e., there was a movement, from individual hobbyists, to a firm, to individual customers buying the small firm's products, etc..

In some areas, where social innovation is occuring at the community level, there is an observation that the individual as catalyst is giving way to community networks as caatalyst. As new possibilities develop, the nature of the catalyst may be changing and widening.

Answer 2

Both. The firms advertise what they view as the new trends, and the consumers decide with their $$$.