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Daniel Hjorth

Professor

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How Aesthetics and Economy Become Conversant in Creative Firms

Author

  • Robert Austin
  • Daniel Hjorth
  • Shannon Hessel

Summary, in English

Research on creative organizations often highlights a concern that economic influences on creative work might crowd out aesthetic influences. How this concern can be managed, however, is not well understood. Using a case study of an economic/aesthetic conflict within a design firm, we develop theory to describe how the economic and aesthetic can be constructively combined. We propose the concept of conversation as a way of theorizing a constructed sociality via which creative firms manage this conflict; we also propose the concept of ensemble as a way of theorizing a conversationally nurtured but fragile form of intensified sociality that most successfully combines conflicting influences when it can be achieved. Together, these theoretical conceptualizations contribute new insights and help organize a fragmented landscape of ideas about work in creative firms.

Publishing year

2018-11-01

Language

English

Pages

1501-1519

Publication/Series

Organization Studies

Volume

39

Issue

11

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Topic

  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • conversation
  • creative economy
  • creative firms
  • ensemble
  • group creativity
  • organizational aesthetics

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0170-8406