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For centuries, the Roncal Valley, in the Navarrese Pyrenees, has pleased the world's palates through the unique cheese that bears its name. The first Spanish cheese to receive Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status, Roncal owes its signature piquant bouquet to a closely guarded production process, which has historically used the milk of an indigenous breed of sheep called the latxa. This breed, named after the Basque word for "sour," is productive enough to satisfy the artisanal needs of the local cheese-making industry.

Problems arose, however, when some family farms in adjoining villages began importing assaf sheep from Israel, which could yield more—about seven times more—milk with far less labor. From a profit-driven perspective, replacing the homely latxa with the powerhouse assaf would appear a no-brainer.

Indeed, the Roncal Regulatory Council, with strong representation by the cheese processors, successfully appealed to the European Union to open the PDO to include cheese produced with assaf milk. But the farmers of Roncal protested, winning the next Council elections, and successfully lobbied the EU to rescind the inclusion of assaf milk.

On the surface, centuries-old cheese-making traditions in a remote valley in northern Spain might seem worlds apart from modern business practice. But Sarah Wittman, assistant professor of management at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at George Mason University, argues that the Roncal farmers represent a common type of organizational activity overlooked by past researchers.

Her recent paper in Organizational Theory, co-authored by Frédéric Godart of INSEAD, investigates what motivates "purist" organizations, like the Roncal cheese artisans, for whom success is not entirely defined by market-driven metrics.

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