Symbolic Economy and Creative Management: Cultural and Creative Industries Urging for New Approaches

It is hard to apply empirical data to outputs of cultural and creative industries (CIs) due to their embodiment of aesthetics, taste, and experience. This article starts from the production side, showing the value chain model being inefficient to delineate the synchronical process and value accumulation of CIs. The article then refers to John B. Thompson’s allusion to Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of field and capital that defines the logic of the field and establishes a paradigm for CIs analysis. While it is inappropriate to use marketing strategies to decipher the consumption of outputs of CIs as symbolic goods, the examples of publishing industry and Broadway theatre industry explain that not only the consumption of outputs of CIs but also the way to consume such goods need to create experience and lead to accumulation of symbolic value. Therefore, though research on CIs has to consult marketing strategies and business models, it urges mostly a systematic sociology of culture.