In these cases economic activities such as "provisioning" are "embedded" in non-economic kinship, religious and political institutions.
Economic decision-making in such places is not so much based on individual choice, but rather on social relationships, cultural values, moral concerns, politics, religion or the fear instilled by authoritarian leadership.
Consequently, any analysis of economics as an analytically distinct entity isolated from its socio-cultural and political context is flawed from the outset.
A substantivist analysis of economics will therefore focus on the study of the various social institutions on which people's livelihoods are based.
The substantive economy is an "instituted process of interaction between man and his environment, which results in a continuous supply of want satisfying material means.
In processes of clientelization the cultivation of personal relationships between traders and customers assumes an equal or higher importance than the economic transactions involved.