Great, Madama Butterfly Again! How Robust Market Identity Shapes Opera Repertoires

Abstract

We develop a theoretical framework to explain how two aspects of market structures – divergent and convergent audience preference and within- and between-category competition – shape market identities. We focus specifically on robust market identities, an under-researched type of identity, and argue that robust market identities, defined as balanced membership in divergent social categories, are most prevalent in markets with more divergent audiences and less within-category competition. We test our arguments in the U.S. opera market. Statistical analyses of 96 opera companies’ opera repertoires from 1995 to 2005 support our arguments: U.S. opera companies enact robust market identities by systematically balancing conventional and unconventional operas depending on the divergence of their audiences and the competitive pressure from other opera companies.

Keywords: identity, status, category, robust, niche width, audiences, competition, opera, arts