More on Collaboration and Innovation
20 August 2013 at 9:51 am Peter G. Klein 5 comments
| Peter Klein |
Following up my earlier post on artistic collaboration, and its relationship to entrepreneurial collaboration, here’s a quote from Paul Cantor on his new book, The Invisible Hand in Popular Culture: Liberty vs. Authority in American Film and TV:
Many people who condemn pop culture and dismiss it as artistically worthless dwell on the fact that films and television shows are almost never the products of a single artist working on his own. It is therefore important to show that many of the great works of high culture grew out of a collaborative process too. There is nothing about cooperation in artistic creation that precludes high quality. Too many cooks may spoil the broth, but they may also each add a distinctive flavor and work together to bring the recipe to perfection. The processes of synergy and feedback work in popular culture just the way they do in other areas of human endeavor. This is all part of my defense of popular culture — to demonstrate that the conditions of production in film and television are not necessarily incompatible with artistic as well as commercial success.
Likewise, entrepreneurship and innovation are collaborative media — which is easy to see once you realize that entrepreneurship is not about recognizing “opportunities,” but acquiring and controlling resources that are used in production.
Entry filed under: - Klein -, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, People.
Organizations and Markets 
1.
Richard Ebeling | 21 August 2013 at 8:59 am
Oh, no, Peter! You’ve become an “Obama-ite.”
We never do it on our own!!
The earth is moving under my feet. (And its not because I’m in love.)
2.
Peter Klein | 21 August 2013 at 9:06 am
Richard, you may now address me as “Comrade” . . .
3.
Will Rinehart (@WillRinehart) | 21 August 2013 at 5:37 pm
I think, wrongly, many people believe that the production of art achieves authenticity only when it is created in a sphere distinct from the “market process.” However, an economist will quickly realize all of the paradoxes inherent with this viewpoint. The best artists were first artisans, passing down their skills and techniques to the best of the age. Very few of the great artists did not have workshops with Van Gogh probably the most well known.
The art market, from my understanding, is very much undertheorized in economics, but there are some interesting insights we can glean. This recent paper is especially illuminating in its exploration of innovation: http://orgsci.journal.informs.org/content/early/2013/04/22/orsc.1120.0819.abstract.
4. Rafe’s Roundup 23 August | Catallaxy Files | 22 August 2013 at 8:39 pm
[…] The invisible hand in popular culture, h/t Peter Klein. […]
5.
sd | 26 August 2013 at 12:22 am
the art market is hardly undertheorized. Perhaps if you take your blinkers off and look at work by Harrison White or Paul DiMaggio, you’d find an extensive body of work in organizational sociology that has explored market and status mechanisms in art worlds