The dynamics of risk in innovation: a premiere or an encore?

Sgourev, Stoyan V.

This study examines the mechanisms of risk management in innovation by relating several types of innovation at different risk levels to micro- and macro-level ageing processes. Using archival data from the “Metropolitan Opera” in New York, a time-series analysis reveals how the rate and type of artistic innovation are influenced by ageing at the industry/organizational and executive levels. If the opera repertory has hardened over time, innovation has not stalled, but become of a less risky kind, shifting to reinterpretation of works by way of new conductors and productions, and trying to reconcile pressures toward creativity and stability. New managers tend to promote moderate changes in repertory, without assuming excessive risks. While distinct in nature, opera manifests practices of risk management that seem similar to those observed in other industries.

RISK management in business; ARTISTIC creation; OPERA; REPERTORY theater; METROPOLITAN Opera (New York, N.Y.)

Industrial & Corporate Change, 2013, Vol 22, Issue 2, p549

0960-6491

Academic Journal

10.1093/icc/dts021