How Do Mainstream Cultural Market Categories Emerge: a Multi
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by YorkSpace HOW DO MAINSTREAM CULTURAL MARKET CATEGORIES EMERGE: A MULTI- LEVEL ANALYSIS OF THE CREATION OF ELECTRONIC DANCE MUSIC PIERRE-YANN DOLBEC A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ADMINISTRATION SCHULICH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO NOVEMBER 2015 © Pierre-Yann Dolbec 2015 ii Abstract In my research I explore how a new market category is created in an existing market. I contribute to existing research in marketing by developing a novel framework that conceptualizes markets as constituted of three levels, and by explaining the contribution of each level to the creation of a new market category. My findings emerge from a qualitative inquiry of the creation of the category of Electronic Dance Music (EDM). I find that each level contributes differently to the creation of a mainstream cultural category. Local innovation networks (or LINs) unite consumers and producers and provide unique elements that facilitate the creation of new cultural products by consumers. Niches serve as a bridge between these local networks and a mainstream market. Niche actors contribute to the creation of a boundary infrastructure that supports the transfer, translation, and transformation of the knowledge associated with an innovative cultural product. This, in turn, facilitates the movement of an innovative cultural product from a local network to a mainstream market. Mainstream actors diffuse elements of the innovative cultural product and open what Bourdieu calls “a space of possibles”. Niche entrepreneurs and peripheral mainstream actors seize the opportunity to engineer a new cultural category. I discuss the theoretical implications of this research in regard to the conceptualization of markets as uni-level vs. multi- level, and the conceptualization of market creation from a categorization perspective. I provide strategic recommendations to facilitate the movement of a product from a niche to a mainstream market (i.e., “selling out”). I also provide managerial recommendations based on the use of boundary objects as instruments of power. iii Acknowledgements I am deeply thankful to a number of people who have contributed to my growth as a scholar and to the successful completion of this dissertation. But most importantly, I am thankful to those who have made this experience rewarding and gratifying. First and foremost, I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Rob Kozinets, as well as my thesis committee members, Eileen Fischer, and Markus Giesler. Not only did they contribute to the completion of my dissertation through their support, encouragement, guidance, and constructive criticism, but they were unequivocally a tremendously positive influence in shaping the scholar I am today. Not only have I learned how to better my research projects from their comments on my work, but I have also understood how to be a better scholar by interacting with them. A number of colleagues at Schulich have also shaped my development as a scholar. The professors at the Schulich Marketing department, Russel Belk, Sammy Bonsu, Peter Darke, Ashwin Joshi, Theodore Noseworthy, and Detlev Zwick, have all led by example. I also want to thank the members of my examining committee, Rob Bowman, and Jay Handelman. I am thankful to my colleagues and co-authors for the friendship, support, conversations, feedback, mentoring, time, effort, late night beers and morning coffees, and for everything that makes the endeavor of a scholar worth doing. Akhila, Alex, Alladi, Ana, Andre, Andrew, Anton, Aron, Ashlee, Avi, Burçak, Caroline, Daiane, Dannie, David, Diane, Diego, Eric, Fleura, Gokcen, Hamed, Henri, Jeff, Joachim, Jonathan, John, Joonas, Julie, Kamila, Luciana, Mandy, Marcus, Marie-Agnès, Matthew, Michelle, Myriam, Nicole, Niklas, Robin, Ronan, Russ, Richard, Rodrigo, Serena, Stephen, Tatiana, Yesim, and Zeynep. To my friends and family, I am thankful for their guidance, thoughts, for their friendship and continued support. To Dina, who supported me despite my ever-changing and often over-loaded schedule, provided encouragement, showed (and I am pretty sure sometimes feigned) interest in my work, and let me workshop ideas with her. I am also extremely grateful to the people I have interviewed, who sometimes spent countless hours discussing electronic music with me, who opened their network and shared their ideas; to the people I met during shows and festivals, who gladly took time to teach me about their favorite act; and to all online participants who make electronic music a thriving community. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship program, the Social and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et Culture, which all greatly helped support my research. Without further ado. iv Table of contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Table of contents ............................................................................................................................ iv List of tables ................................................................................................................................... vi List of figures ................................................................................................................................ vii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 On markets: existing research and theoretical approaches ............................................................. 5 Innovation in cultural markets: local innovation networks, niches, and mainstream markets ... 9 Defining the theoretical apparatus ............................................................................................ 13 The multi-level perspective ................................................................................................... 13 Wrapping it up ...................................................................................................................... 25 From markets to market categories ........................................................................................... 29 Market categories: a new conceptual perspective ................................................................. 30 What follows ............................................................................................................................. 31 Method .......................................................................................................................................... 33 Data collection .......................................................................................................................... 36 Analysis..................................................................................................................................... 40 Context ...................................................................................................................................... 42 A brief history of electronic music ....................................................................................... 43 A multi-level contextualization ............................................................................................. 50 The role of local innovation networks in the cultural innovation process .................................... 55 Locales in the development of innovative music genres .......................................................... 57 Starting stock ........................................................................................................................ 58 The seeds of a new genre ...................................................................................................... 61 From Big Apple to the FWD>> nights ................................................................................. 68 Champions as local curators ................................................................................................. 76 The role of niches in the cultural innovation process ................................................................... 84 Niche actors and the construction of a boundary infrastructure ............................................... 87 Boundary infrastructure and distributed collective memory .................................................... 88 Crossing the three knowledge boundaries ................................................................................ 94 The role of the mainstream in the cultural innovation process ................................................... 121 Diffusing through adoption ..................................................................................................... 123 Branding electronic music for the masses .............................................................................. 131 Dubstep: the aesthetic catalyst ............................................................................................ 132 Engineering a new cultural category ......................................................................................