Organizational and Epistemic Change: The Growth of the Art Investment Field
46 Pages Posted: 7 Sep 2013 Last revised: 26 Apr 2017
Date Written: September 15, 2016
Abstract
What can studying the creation of knowledge tell us about how new technical fields emerge and develop? This paper shows how a knowledge community may be necessary to support the legitimacy of new products that undergo performance evaluation before purchase. Using historical and ethnographic data covering half a century, we review the growth of the art investment field through an epistemic cultures lens. Technical knowledge about the financial characteristics of art has been developed alongside practical knowledge about how best to structure investment ventures. Investment venture success has been determined by legitimacy as much as by profitability, given durable expectations about the evaluation and monitoring of investments. The growth of knowledge, practices and tools was thus a necessary condition for the recognition of artwork as an asset class. Crucially, the epistemic cultures approach highlights deepening knowledge, resources and professional expertise, and their development through experimentation, failures and negative knowledge. This shows accounting issues contributing to technical field legitimacy and emergence, such as the role of knowledge production, valuation practices and receptive environments, and the distinction between legitimate investments that can be valued and investment venture profitability.
Keywords: Accounting and financial knowledge claims; Art investment; Epistemic cultures; Performance measurement; Technical fields; Valuation practices
JEL Classification: A14, D02, D40, D80, G11, G20, L10, L80, N20, O30, Z11, Z13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Art as an Investment and the Underperformance of Masterpieces
By Jianping Mei and Michael Moses
-
Art as an Investment and the Underperformance of Masterpieces
By Jiangping Mei and Michael Moses
-
How Did Japanese Investments Influence International Art Prices?
By Takato Hiraki, Akitoshi Ito, ...
-
The Careers of Modern Artists: Evidence from Auctions of Contemporary Paintings
-
Testing for Reference Dependence: An Application to the Art Market
By Alan Beggs and Kathryn Graddy
-
The Collateral Value of Fine Art
By Rex Thompson and Clare Mcandrew