Gatekeeper search and selection strategies: Relational and network governance in a cultural market

Gatekeepers play a critical role in determining what creative products eventually reach audiences. Although they have been discussed in the literature on cultural production, they have rarely been studied systematically. In particular, we know little about how gatekeepers use their social networks to manage search and selection processes in markets characterized by excess supply, demand uncertainty, and shifting and socially defined evaluation criteria. In this article, we present the results of a study of nightclub talent buyers in Boston, MA who act as gatekeepers by selecting bands to perform at their clubs. Using social network and cultural domain analysis, we show that search strategies and social networks vary across culturally defined market niches for local rock bands. In a market niche featuring bands playing original music, gatekeepers maintain arm's length relations with many bands but are embedded in dense information sharing networks with each other. In contrast, in a market niche containing bands playing familiar popular tunes (“covers”), gatekeepers maintain close ties with a small number of bands but have arm's length relations with each other. We explain these findings using theories of relational and network governance.

► Gatekeeeper search and selection strategies vary according to market niches defined by the novelty of the creative products being presented to audiences.
► In innovative niches presenting new songs played by emerging bands, gatekeepers have close ties to their competitors and arm's length relations with artists.
► In mass market niches presenting familiar songs played by cover bands, gatekeepers have arm's length relations with their competitors and close ties with a small number of artists.
► Network governance theory explains these findings by showing how ties among competitors serve both governance and cultural functions in markets presenting innovative new artists that have yet to demonstrate mass market appeal.