Summary Strategies in Art & Entertainment
Week 1: Strategy Meets Culture
- Samdanis, M., & Lee, S. H. (2019). Uncertainty, strategic sensemaking and organisational failure in the art market:
What went wrong with LVMH's investment in Phillips auctioneers?. Journal of Business Research, 98, 475-488.
- Dalpiaz, E., Rindova, V. P., & Ravasi, D. (2010). Where strategy meets culture: The neglected role of cultural and
symbolic resources in strategy research. In The Globalization of Strategy Research. Emerald Group Publishing
Limited.
- Holm, D. V., & Beyes, T. (2022). How art becomes organization: Reimagining aesthetics, sites and politics of
entrepreneurship. Organization Studies, 43(2), 227-245
Week 2: Winner-take-all & Superstardom
- Berg, J. M. (2022). One-Hit Wonders versus Hit Makers: Sustaining Success in Creative Industries. Administrative
Science Quarterly, 00018392221083650.
- Frank, R. H., & Cook, P. J. (2013). Winner-take-all markets. Studies in Microeconomics, 1(2), 131-154.
- Adler, M. (2006). Stardom and talent. Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, 1, 895- 906.
- Currid-Halkett, E. (2015). Stars and stardom in the creative industries. The Oxford Handbook of Creative
Industries, 171-185.
Week 3: Performance & Intermediation
- Banerjee, M., Cole, B. M., & Ingram, P. (2022). “Distinctive from What? And for Whom?” Deep Learning-Based
Product Distinctiveness, Social Structure, and Third-Party Certifications. Academy of Management Journal
- Park, M., Leahey, E., & Funk, R. J. (2023). Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time. Nature,
613(7942), 138-144.
- Spitz, A., & Horvát, E. Á. (2014). Measuring long-term impact based on network centrality: Unraveling cinematic
citations. PloS one, 9(10), e108857.
- Kackovic, M., & Wijnberg, N. M. (2022). Artists finding galleries: Entrepreneurs gaining legitimacy in the art
market. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 46(4), 1092-1116.
- Durand, R., & Kremp, P. A. (2016). Classical deviation: Organizational and individual status as antecedents of
conformity. Academy of management Journal, 59(1), 65-89.
Week 4: Creativity & Power
- Harrison, S. H., Askin, N., & Hagtvedt, L. P. (2022). Recognition Killed the Radio Star? Recognition Orientations
and Sustained Creativity After the Best New Artist Grammy Nomination. Administrative Science Quarterly,
00018392221136158
- Juhász, S., Tóth, G., & Lengyel, B. (2020). Brokering the core and the periphery: Creative success and
collaboration networks in the film industry. PloS one, 15(2), e0229436.
- Soda, G., Mannucci, P. V., & Burt, R. S. (2021). Networks, creativity, and time: Staying creative through brokerage
and network rejuvenation. Academy of Management Journal, 64(4), 1164-1190.
- Homewood, C. (2018). ‘Directed by Hollywood, edited by China’?: Chinese soft power, geo- imaginaries, and
neo-Orientalism (s) in recent US blockbusters. In Popular Geopolitics (pp. 174-196). Routledge.
- Yoffie, D. B., & Kwak, M. (2006). With friends like these: The art of managing complementors. Harvard business
review, 84(9), 88-98.
Week 5: Art & Commerce
- Holbrook, M. B., & Addis, M. (2008). Art versus commerce in the movie industry: a two-path model of motion-
picture success. Journal of Cultural Economics, 32(2), 87-107.
- Tschang, F. T. (2007). Balancing the tensions between rationalization and creativity in the video games industry.
Organization science, 18(6), 989-1005.
- Alvarez, J. L., Mazza, C., Pedersen, J. S., & Svejenova, S. (2005). Shielding idiosyncrasy from isomorphic
pressures: Towards optimal distinctiveness in European filmmaking. Organization, 12(6), 863-888.
- Han, J. H., & Pollock, T. G. (2021). The two towers (or somewhere in between): The behavioral consequences of
positional inconsistency across status hierarchies. Academy of Management Journal, 64(1), 86-113.
1
,Week 1: Strategy meets culture
Dalpiaz (2010) – Where strategy meets culture: neglected role of cultural & symbolic resources
How do "cultural capital" and "symbolic capital" enable firms to achieve valuable strategic positions, and how do these
distinct, meaning-based resources compare to and interact with the traditional intangible capitals (intellectual, social, and
reputational) established in mainstream strategy research?
- Cultural & symbolic capital and their interrelationship with other intangible capitals → to understand value
creation process and achieving sustained competitive advantage
o (1) Mechanisms through which resources are used to create value
o (2) how the process of value creation is realized in the marketplace
- Dalpiaz et al. (2010) discuss how cultural and symbolic resources shape strategic decision-making and market
positioning in CCI.
Resource-Based View (RBV)
- RBV = Firms’ resources (tangible & intangible assets) and capabilities are drivers of sustained competitive
advantage.
o Intangible assets = high degrees social complexity and causal ambiguity
▪ Knowledge, identity & culture, reputation, celebrity
o Capabilities = ability of firm to develop & leverage on resources
- Blind spot → RBV criticized for not identifying mechanisms through which resources are deployed to create
value, and the process through which it is realized.
o Too much focus on supply side resources (technical/functional quality of products), and only on
intellectual, social, reputation capital. → ignoring demand side, consumer preferences and how they
perceive and value products.
- Firms strategically accumulate and deploy cultural and symbolic capital to create differentiation in competitive
markets.
- Extending RBV → intangible assets function like traditional economic resources but are shaped by cultural and
social processes.
Core argument (paper) → consumer preferences reflect intersubjective sociocultural meanings and that developing
specialized resources and capabilities for using and leveraging such meanings affects the value-creating potential of a firm's
products.
- Cultural & creative industries (CCI) → consumption is driven by symbolic attributes, sociocultural meaning,
aesthetics, or expressive rather than production/ material characteristics/ utilitarian function of product.
o Lidl vs Balenciaga shirts
Sociocultural meaning = societal level (inter-subjective) meanings that arise from institutionalized schemas and concepts.
So, meaning within society & culture, beyond practical use. Significance attached to product which tells what it represents,
what identity/status it conveys.
Intangible resources
1. Intellectual capital → knowledge & knowing capability of firm
o Technological or process-oriented knowledge)
2. Social capital → relationships that facilitate the circulation of knowledge and access to other resources
o Network ties, reciprocity)
3. Reputational capital → favourable stakeholder perceptions that it can deliver quality
o legitimacy, status, celebrity
o ex: film festival known for high-quality selections
o Streaming service known as reliable and professional
4. Cultural capital → internalized cultural resources deployed in value-creation strategy. Firms that embed cultural
knowledge into products create distinctive products that appeal to cultural elites and niche audiences.
o Knowledge & knowing capability of artistic & cultural movements and social-cultural trends
o Ex: fashion house that deeply understands changing taste, style codes, and cultural references.
o Museum that understands how to frame exhibitions around identity, heritage, and contemporary
relevance.
5. Symbolic capital → stakeholder perceptions that sociocultural meaning in products are socially distinguishing and
identity and status enhancing. Companies built prestige, reputation, and legitimacy by associating with cultural
institutions, artists, and designers.
o Brands, logos, associations
o iPhone not just a phone; for many it signals a certain taste, lifestyle, and social image (also designer
bags, watches etc).
2
, ▪ Social capital is a substitute of economic resources when networks compensate for the lack of
financial resources in order to attain a given goal
▪ Similarly, it may be argued that symbolic capital may be a substitute for economic resources
as its possession may reduce the need for costly investments in advertising.
Market positioning = in CCI, cultural & symbolic resources shape strategic decision-making and market positioning. Firms
compete on symbolic value, not material or technical superiority.
Cultural capital mechanism
- Specialized subset of intellectual capital, however:
o Knowledge: IC relies on determinate knowledge (technical/scientific knowledge—objective
interpretations) → CC relies on indeterminate knowledge (knowledge of meanings and trends:
humanities, art, aesthetics—multiple subjective interpretations).
▪ Synergy: CC can complement IC (e.g., firm needs technical knowledge to manufacture a
plastic chair, but cultural knowledge to design it in a way that becomes an icon of modernism).
o Accumulation: firms accumulate IC by hiring engineers →
▪ CC by hiring ‘carriers’ of cultural knowledge (artists, designers, anthropologists, CEO with
artsy background)
▪ Collaborations with cultural intermediaries to absorb cultural knowledge (museums, design
schools).
▪ Create ad-hoc boundary spanning roles (authenticity keepers, creative directors), establish new
structures (corporate museums, art exhibitions), and alter their New Product Development
(NPD) processes to translate artistic languages into produced goods → to embed CC
knowledge (structural mechanism):
- CC enhances innovation and differentiation.
3
, - Firms that embed cultural knowledge into their offerings create distinctive products that appeal to cultural elites
and niche audiences.
Symbolic capital mechanism
- Specialized subset of reputational capital, however:
o RC = signals quality/competence/reliability (high vs low reputation) → SC = signals status, based on
distinctiveness and firm’s identity meaning (Apple seen as ‘rebellious’).
▪ Gucci & Balenciaga both good reputations, but different symbolic capital (classy vs edgy)
o Accumulation: through inscribing meaning, through:
▪ Product design (shape, color, material)
▪ Branding & communication (logos, brands, advertising),
▪ Intermediaries ( external actors like critics, journalists, celebrities, opinion leaders)
▪ Consumer practices/brand communities (how users display, interpret, and circulate products in
communities)
• Symbolic capital is created with social capital, external actors and communities take
ownership of the brand's meaning.
- SC increases perceived value and customers’ willingness to pay.
- Companies build brand prestige, reputation, and legitimacy by associating with cultural institutions, artists, and
designers.
Value-creation mechanism
- → When firm has cultural resources (knowledge of artistic, sociocultural movements/trends, aesthetics, styles),
and capability to work with them (translate it into products/services that have sociocultural meaning). (i.e. cultural
capital)
- → It creates original products that resonate with complex societal trends without needing to rely on expensive
technological breakthroughs.
o Outcome: strategic renewal → Accumulating cultural capital allows innovating in ways that’s hard to
copy. It can push creation of intellectual capital (discovering new aesthetics requires new technology to
develop those). It helps firms discover new customer segments.
- → This deployment becomes symbolic capital if stakeholders also recognize these meanings as distinctive and
status-enhancing (products are vessels of self-expression)
o Outcome: increased willingness to pay for meaning and status than for mere function.
Risks → accumulation of this capital relies heavily on social capital and gatekeepers, renowned designers, and consumer
communities. It’s hard to capture the economic value they create as these external actors gain significant bargaining power.
Conclusion
- Cultural capital = capability to create meaning
- Symbolic capital = audiences actually seeing that meaning as distinctive and status-enhancing
o Cultural capital helps produce symbolic capital.
o Consumers not only value products for utility. Therefore, firms can create value through meanings.
Firms do this through cultural and symbolic capital, which drives willingness to pay.
o Firm must look beyond technological innovation and recognize “meaning” as rare, inimitable, valuable
resource. Then they can unlock new dimension of value creation, driving willingness to pay based on
socio-cultural resonance rather than utilitarian function.
Example where cultural and/or symbolic capital combine with another type of capital. Explain how this can be converted
into financial rewards.
- Connections to expert selectors (fashion magazines and their editors) in one’s network (social capital) → build and
maintain perceptions about the meanings of a producer/products (symbolic capital) → establish reputation/define
status relative to the competitors (reputational capital).
o Fashion firm can use social capital through ties to editors & magazines to gain access to cultural
gatekeepers. These ties help the firm build cultural capital by learning current aesthetic codes, trends,
and meanings. The firm can then translate this into symbolic capital when its products are perceived as
distinctive and identity- or status-enhancing. This, in turn, strengthens reputational capital by improving
the brand’s prestige and status relative to competitors, which can be converted into financial rewards
through premium pricing, higher willingness to pay, and stronger market differentiation.
CRITICAL VIEW → article usefully expands strategy beyond technology and efficiency by showing that firms also
compete through cultural capital and symbolic capital. It argues that products create value not only through function, but
also through meaning. Article is conceptually strong, but also quite abstract. It argues persuasively that culture matters, yet
it does not test a clear causal model and sometimes leaves the boundaries between concepts such as symbolic capital,
reputation, status, and legitimacy a bit blurry. It also risks implying that firms can strategically “manage meaning” more
cleanly than they often can in practice, even though meanings are co-created by audiences, intermediaries, and broader
culture.
4
Week 1: Strategy Meets Culture
- Samdanis, M., & Lee, S. H. (2019). Uncertainty, strategic sensemaking and organisational failure in the art market:
What went wrong with LVMH's investment in Phillips auctioneers?. Journal of Business Research, 98, 475-488.
- Dalpiaz, E., Rindova, V. P., & Ravasi, D. (2010). Where strategy meets culture: The neglected role of cultural and
symbolic resources in strategy research. In The Globalization of Strategy Research. Emerald Group Publishing
Limited.
- Holm, D. V., & Beyes, T. (2022). How art becomes organization: Reimagining aesthetics, sites and politics of
entrepreneurship. Organization Studies, 43(2), 227-245
Week 2: Winner-take-all & Superstardom
- Berg, J. M. (2022). One-Hit Wonders versus Hit Makers: Sustaining Success in Creative Industries. Administrative
Science Quarterly, 00018392221083650.
- Frank, R. H., & Cook, P. J. (2013). Winner-take-all markets. Studies in Microeconomics, 1(2), 131-154.
- Adler, M. (2006). Stardom and talent. Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, 1, 895- 906.
- Currid-Halkett, E. (2015). Stars and stardom in the creative industries. The Oxford Handbook of Creative
Industries, 171-185.
Week 3: Performance & Intermediation
- Banerjee, M., Cole, B. M., & Ingram, P. (2022). “Distinctive from What? And for Whom?” Deep Learning-Based
Product Distinctiveness, Social Structure, and Third-Party Certifications. Academy of Management Journal
- Park, M., Leahey, E., & Funk, R. J. (2023). Papers and patents are becoming less disruptive over time. Nature,
613(7942), 138-144.
- Spitz, A., & Horvát, E. Á. (2014). Measuring long-term impact based on network centrality: Unraveling cinematic
citations. PloS one, 9(10), e108857.
- Kackovic, M., & Wijnberg, N. M. (2022). Artists finding galleries: Entrepreneurs gaining legitimacy in the art
market. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 46(4), 1092-1116.
- Durand, R., & Kremp, P. A. (2016). Classical deviation: Organizational and individual status as antecedents of
conformity. Academy of management Journal, 59(1), 65-89.
Week 4: Creativity & Power
- Harrison, S. H., Askin, N., & Hagtvedt, L. P. (2022). Recognition Killed the Radio Star? Recognition Orientations
and Sustained Creativity After the Best New Artist Grammy Nomination. Administrative Science Quarterly,
00018392221136158
- Juhász, S., Tóth, G., & Lengyel, B. (2020). Brokering the core and the periphery: Creative success and
collaboration networks in the film industry. PloS one, 15(2), e0229436.
- Soda, G., Mannucci, P. V., & Burt, R. S. (2021). Networks, creativity, and time: Staying creative through brokerage
and network rejuvenation. Academy of Management Journal, 64(4), 1164-1190.
- Homewood, C. (2018). ‘Directed by Hollywood, edited by China’?: Chinese soft power, geo- imaginaries, and
neo-Orientalism (s) in recent US blockbusters. In Popular Geopolitics (pp. 174-196). Routledge.
- Yoffie, D. B., & Kwak, M. (2006). With friends like these: The art of managing complementors. Harvard business
review, 84(9), 88-98.
Week 5: Art & Commerce
- Holbrook, M. B., & Addis, M. (2008). Art versus commerce in the movie industry: a two-path model of motion-
picture success. Journal of Cultural Economics, 32(2), 87-107.
- Tschang, F. T. (2007). Balancing the tensions between rationalization and creativity in the video games industry.
Organization science, 18(6), 989-1005.
- Alvarez, J. L., Mazza, C., Pedersen, J. S., & Svejenova, S. (2005). Shielding idiosyncrasy from isomorphic
pressures: Towards optimal distinctiveness in European filmmaking. Organization, 12(6), 863-888.
- Han, J. H., & Pollock, T. G. (2021). The two towers (or somewhere in between): The behavioral consequences of
positional inconsistency across status hierarchies. Academy of Management Journal, 64(1), 86-113.
1
,Week 1: Strategy meets culture
Dalpiaz (2010) – Where strategy meets culture: neglected role of cultural & symbolic resources
How do "cultural capital" and "symbolic capital" enable firms to achieve valuable strategic positions, and how do these
distinct, meaning-based resources compare to and interact with the traditional intangible capitals (intellectual, social, and
reputational) established in mainstream strategy research?
- Cultural & symbolic capital and their interrelationship with other intangible capitals → to understand value
creation process and achieving sustained competitive advantage
o (1) Mechanisms through which resources are used to create value
o (2) how the process of value creation is realized in the marketplace
- Dalpiaz et al. (2010) discuss how cultural and symbolic resources shape strategic decision-making and market
positioning in CCI.
Resource-Based View (RBV)
- RBV = Firms’ resources (tangible & intangible assets) and capabilities are drivers of sustained competitive
advantage.
o Intangible assets = high degrees social complexity and causal ambiguity
▪ Knowledge, identity & culture, reputation, celebrity
o Capabilities = ability of firm to develop & leverage on resources
- Blind spot → RBV criticized for not identifying mechanisms through which resources are deployed to create
value, and the process through which it is realized.
o Too much focus on supply side resources (technical/functional quality of products), and only on
intellectual, social, reputation capital. → ignoring demand side, consumer preferences and how they
perceive and value products.
- Firms strategically accumulate and deploy cultural and symbolic capital to create differentiation in competitive
markets.
- Extending RBV → intangible assets function like traditional economic resources but are shaped by cultural and
social processes.
Core argument (paper) → consumer preferences reflect intersubjective sociocultural meanings and that developing
specialized resources and capabilities for using and leveraging such meanings affects the value-creating potential of a firm's
products.
- Cultural & creative industries (CCI) → consumption is driven by symbolic attributes, sociocultural meaning,
aesthetics, or expressive rather than production/ material characteristics/ utilitarian function of product.
o Lidl vs Balenciaga shirts
Sociocultural meaning = societal level (inter-subjective) meanings that arise from institutionalized schemas and concepts.
So, meaning within society & culture, beyond practical use. Significance attached to product which tells what it represents,
what identity/status it conveys.
Intangible resources
1. Intellectual capital → knowledge & knowing capability of firm
o Technological or process-oriented knowledge)
2. Social capital → relationships that facilitate the circulation of knowledge and access to other resources
o Network ties, reciprocity)
3. Reputational capital → favourable stakeholder perceptions that it can deliver quality
o legitimacy, status, celebrity
o ex: film festival known for high-quality selections
o Streaming service known as reliable and professional
4. Cultural capital → internalized cultural resources deployed in value-creation strategy. Firms that embed cultural
knowledge into products create distinctive products that appeal to cultural elites and niche audiences.
o Knowledge & knowing capability of artistic & cultural movements and social-cultural trends
o Ex: fashion house that deeply understands changing taste, style codes, and cultural references.
o Museum that understands how to frame exhibitions around identity, heritage, and contemporary
relevance.
5. Symbolic capital → stakeholder perceptions that sociocultural meaning in products are socially distinguishing and
identity and status enhancing. Companies built prestige, reputation, and legitimacy by associating with cultural
institutions, artists, and designers.
o Brands, logos, associations
o iPhone not just a phone; for many it signals a certain taste, lifestyle, and social image (also designer
bags, watches etc).
2
, ▪ Social capital is a substitute of economic resources when networks compensate for the lack of
financial resources in order to attain a given goal
▪ Similarly, it may be argued that symbolic capital may be a substitute for economic resources
as its possession may reduce the need for costly investments in advertising.
Market positioning = in CCI, cultural & symbolic resources shape strategic decision-making and market positioning. Firms
compete on symbolic value, not material or technical superiority.
Cultural capital mechanism
- Specialized subset of intellectual capital, however:
o Knowledge: IC relies on determinate knowledge (technical/scientific knowledge—objective
interpretations) → CC relies on indeterminate knowledge (knowledge of meanings and trends:
humanities, art, aesthetics—multiple subjective interpretations).
▪ Synergy: CC can complement IC (e.g., firm needs technical knowledge to manufacture a
plastic chair, but cultural knowledge to design it in a way that becomes an icon of modernism).
o Accumulation: firms accumulate IC by hiring engineers →
▪ CC by hiring ‘carriers’ of cultural knowledge (artists, designers, anthropologists, CEO with
artsy background)
▪ Collaborations with cultural intermediaries to absorb cultural knowledge (museums, design
schools).
▪ Create ad-hoc boundary spanning roles (authenticity keepers, creative directors), establish new
structures (corporate museums, art exhibitions), and alter their New Product Development
(NPD) processes to translate artistic languages into produced goods → to embed CC
knowledge (structural mechanism):
- CC enhances innovation and differentiation.
3
, - Firms that embed cultural knowledge into their offerings create distinctive products that appeal to cultural elites
and niche audiences.
Symbolic capital mechanism
- Specialized subset of reputational capital, however:
o RC = signals quality/competence/reliability (high vs low reputation) → SC = signals status, based on
distinctiveness and firm’s identity meaning (Apple seen as ‘rebellious’).
▪ Gucci & Balenciaga both good reputations, but different symbolic capital (classy vs edgy)
o Accumulation: through inscribing meaning, through:
▪ Product design (shape, color, material)
▪ Branding & communication (logos, brands, advertising),
▪ Intermediaries ( external actors like critics, journalists, celebrities, opinion leaders)
▪ Consumer practices/brand communities (how users display, interpret, and circulate products in
communities)
• Symbolic capital is created with social capital, external actors and communities take
ownership of the brand's meaning.
- SC increases perceived value and customers’ willingness to pay.
- Companies build brand prestige, reputation, and legitimacy by associating with cultural institutions, artists, and
designers.
Value-creation mechanism
- → When firm has cultural resources (knowledge of artistic, sociocultural movements/trends, aesthetics, styles),
and capability to work with them (translate it into products/services that have sociocultural meaning). (i.e. cultural
capital)
- → It creates original products that resonate with complex societal trends without needing to rely on expensive
technological breakthroughs.
o Outcome: strategic renewal → Accumulating cultural capital allows innovating in ways that’s hard to
copy. It can push creation of intellectual capital (discovering new aesthetics requires new technology to
develop those). It helps firms discover new customer segments.
- → This deployment becomes symbolic capital if stakeholders also recognize these meanings as distinctive and
status-enhancing (products are vessels of self-expression)
o Outcome: increased willingness to pay for meaning and status than for mere function.
Risks → accumulation of this capital relies heavily on social capital and gatekeepers, renowned designers, and consumer
communities. It’s hard to capture the economic value they create as these external actors gain significant bargaining power.
Conclusion
- Cultural capital = capability to create meaning
- Symbolic capital = audiences actually seeing that meaning as distinctive and status-enhancing
o Cultural capital helps produce symbolic capital.
o Consumers not only value products for utility. Therefore, firms can create value through meanings.
Firms do this through cultural and symbolic capital, which drives willingness to pay.
o Firm must look beyond technological innovation and recognize “meaning” as rare, inimitable, valuable
resource. Then they can unlock new dimension of value creation, driving willingness to pay based on
socio-cultural resonance rather than utilitarian function.
Example where cultural and/or symbolic capital combine with another type of capital. Explain how this can be converted
into financial rewards.
- Connections to expert selectors (fashion magazines and their editors) in one’s network (social capital) → build and
maintain perceptions about the meanings of a producer/products (symbolic capital) → establish reputation/define
status relative to the competitors (reputational capital).
o Fashion firm can use social capital through ties to editors & magazines to gain access to cultural
gatekeepers. These ties help the firm build cultural capital by learning current aesthetic codes, trends,
and meanings. The firm can then translate this into symbolic capital when its products are perceived as
distinctive and identity- or status-enhancing. This, in turn, strengthens reputational capital by improving
the brand’s prestige and status relative to competitors, which can be converted into financial rewards
through premium pricing, higher willingness to pay, and stronger market differentiation.
CRITICAL VIEW → article usefully expands strategy beyond technology and efficiency by showing that firms also
compete through cultural capital and symbolic capital. It argues that products create value not only through function, but
also through meaning. Article is conceptually strong, but also quite abstract. It argues persuasively that culture matters, yet
it does not test a clear causal model and sometimes leaves the boundaries between concepts such as symbolic capital,
reputation, status, and legitimacy a bit blurry. It also risks implying that firms can strategically “manage meaning” more
cleanly than they often can in practice, even though meanings are co-created by audiences, intermediaries, and broader
culture.
4