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The creative instability hypothesis

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Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of why many ‘stars’ tend to fade away rather than enjoying ongoing branding advantages from their reputations. We propose a theory of market overshooting in creative industries that is based on Schumpeterian competition between producers to maintain the interest of boundedly rational fans. As creative producers compete by offering further artistic novelty, this escalation of product complexity eventually leads to overshooting. We propose this as a theory of endogenous cycles in the creative industries.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Bruce Littleboy, John Hartley and Axel Bruns, as well as two anonymous referees, all of whom provided helpful comments on earlier drafts.

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Correspondence to Peter E. Earl.

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Earl, P.E., Potts, J. The creative instability hypothesis. J Cult Econ 37, 153–173 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-012-9174-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-012-9174-6

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