Structure, Creativity or Identity? What Makes Artistic Innovators Famous Beyond their Peer Network?

• In Event: 228 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Creativity and Collaboration

Abstract

Fame is a crucial resource and a key metric of success. Yet, little is known about the factors that shape fame. We examine the influence of social structure on the fame of innovators. The innovators we study led a paradigmatic shift in the history of modern art—the early 20th century (1910–25) abstract art movement. We find that an artist in a brokerage rather than a closure position is likely to become more famous. This effect occurs because a broker’s alters are more nationally diverse i.e. they are likely to differ more from each other’s nationalities. Moreover, we find that artists with nationally diverse networks were recognized as more creative in the contemporary media, although experts do not now evaluate these artists as having been more creative. This suggests that national diversity among an ego’s alters is associated with a more creative identity, though not necessarily with creativity itself. Our conclusion is that networks in our context served mainly as prisms, facilitating the fame of innovators by shaping their creative identities, rather than the actual creativity of artists. We discuss the industry and institutional conditions that allow us to reconcile this result with others elsewhere that find that networks contribute directly to creativity.

Authors

• Mitali Banerjee, HEC Paris

• Paul L. Ingram, Columbia University