Spanning and Coherence in Cultural Evaluations

• In Event: 2241 - New Consumption Research: politics, class and networks

Abstract

This paper joins existing work in categorization, networks, status, and prizes in order to interrogate the theoretical tension between category coherence and novelty, specifically in consumer markets. The literature on cultural holes suggests that rewards come from novel combinations (i.e., spanning cultural holes is advantageous for the agent). In contrast, the literature on category coherence claims that violating categorization rules (i.e., being incoherent) delivers a penalty to the agent. Together, existing knowledge would argue that innovations derive from spanning cultural holes, but that these innovations might not be rewarded – and moreover, might be punished – due to doubts of legitimacy and ensuing confusion in how to classify the object. We test these questions in the context of literature, specifically mass-market book publishing and prestige contests therein. This context provides access to both top-down (i.e., publisher blurbs and professional criticisms) and bottom-up (i.e., consumer-generated) processes of classification, evaluation, and reward. We use a new technique—referred to as textual spanning—to operationalize the extent to which a book draws in dissimilar reviewers and thereby bridges a cultural hole, or draws in relatively homogeneous reviewers and thereby reproduces the coherence of the genre.

Authors

• Dustin S. Stoltz, University of Notre Dame

• Sarah M. G. Otner, Imperial College Business School