Paradoxes of Creativity: Managerial and organizational challenges in the cultural economy

摘要

With the shift towards knowledge-based societies, the creation of new ideas has become an even more crucial parameter of economic success. Creativity, as Florida (2002: 4) boldly claims, '... is now the decisive source of competitive advantage.' The challenge of a relentless creation of new genres, formats, and products presumably is most clearly pronounced in the cultural economy. The cultural economy, in fact, has come to be seen as a major forerunner and experimental site for managerial practices of the permanently innovating organization (Caves, 2000; Teece, 2003). Hollywood, in other words, is not only a major hub of movie production; it is also a production model (DeFillippi & Arthur, 1998). The cultural economy includes the artistic core sectors of cultural industries such as art, theatre, film, publishing, music, photography, fashion as well as services like design, advertising, architecture and design industries such as fine furniture, clothing or jewelry (Hirsch, 2000; Scott, 1999). A common denominator of all these industries is that aesthetic attributes are decisive elements of product and service differentiation and value. Competition in these industries, broadly speaking, shifts from the 'use-value' of products to the 'sign-value' of brands and luxury goods (Lash & Urry, 1994: 122; du Gay, 1997).