The contingent value of embeddedness: Gatekeeper search and decision making in a local cultural market

In cultural industries, gatekeepers serve a critical function in connecting artists with consumers for their products. However, due to a lack of systematic research on these roles, we know little about how gatekeepers manage search and negotiations in markets characterized by market failures like demand uncertainty, excess supply and ambiguous performance criteria. Existing theories from economic sociology and negotiation do not provide adequate answers because they tend to overlook critical factors like ties among competitors that can be used to govern transactions. This dissertation presents the results of a quantitative field study of nightclub talent buyers in local rock clubs. Using multiple data sets and analytic techniques, I show that in markets for artistic and unique experience products, buyers engage in more (and more social) searches and have low embeddedness with suppliers. In markets for more commercial and substitutable experience products, buyers conduct little search of any kind and maintain embedded relationships with a few suppliers. The study contributes to network, cultural industries and negotiation research by moving toward a contingency theory of market networks that takes into account how gatekeeper search and embeddedness varies across market conditions.