Bounded careers in creative industries: Surprising patterns in video games

Steven Casper and Cornelia Storz

Industry and Innovation, 2017, vol. 24, issue 3, 213-248

Abstract: We contribute empirical evidence to the literature on careers in creative industries. It has been argued that boundaryless career patterns are at the core of creative industries. We question this widely held argument and show that the most innovative Japanese video game developers make use of employment models that prioritise stable employment and bounded careers linked to it. The paper makes several contributions: First, it carefully describes career development patterns of Japanese video game developers, which have so far not been documented. We hereby contribute to the literature on creative industries by adding an important empirical case of bounded career patterns. Second, we try to explain why Japanese firms stick to traditional practices by addressing the link of bounded careers to integrative capabilities, and discuss what this means for creative industries in general and for video games in particular. We argue that integrative capabilities matter also in creative industries.

Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13662716.2016.1224705 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:indinn:v:24:y:2017:i:3:p:213-248

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CIAI20

DOI: 10.1080/13662716.2016.1224705

Access Statistics for this article

Industry and Innovation is currently edited by Associate Professor Mark Lorenzen

More articles in Industry and Innovation from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().