“The Smell of Victory: Prizes in the fragrance industry”

Sarah Otner

University of Sussex

Abstract: Recent research (Favaron, DiStefano, & Durand, 2022, p. 1) finds that “newly awarded high-status actors modify their self presentation attributes to fit with what they believe audiences expect from the elite.” However, based on extant knowledge about evaluation in cultural fields (e.g., Cattani, Ferriani, & Allison, 2014) and creative industries (e.g., Jones et al., 2016), it is unlikely that actors in those spaces always react as Favaron and colleagues suggest. Instead, it is more likely that the options available to their actors with which to adjust post facto – namely, Pricing (Ody-Brasier & Vermuelen, 2014; Sands, 2020) and Categories (Hannan et al., 2019) – are not available to all producers. Therefore, when those such levers are not available: How else do high-status actors respond to awards? Drawing on recent empirical insights into how actors respond to awards, the present research delivers a sustained investigation of evaluation in the fragrance industry. This in-depth study examines over 100 years of product and process innovations and dynamic personnel exchange networks, with a particular analytic focus on prize-giving. Improving our understanding of how both products and producers are assessed informs our expectations for productivity and career trajectories – which, in turn, have consequences for equality, diversity, and inclusion. That application is especially urgent for the creative labor market, and its role in rebuilding and rebalancing the economy.

Bio:

Dr. Sarah Otner is Associate Professor of Innovation Management at SPRU, part of the University of Sussex Business School. Her research uses multiple methods (from archival research to computational social science) in order to examine the phenomenon of prizes: How they are designed, Whether they work, Who Benefits - and Who Governs. She is an expert on Innovation Challenges, and currently is leading an international one on Metascience. Dr. Otner is part of the Editorial Board of Administrative Science Quarterly, the leading outlet for organization theory and management scholarship, and a Member of the BAM Peer Review College. This is her first visit to Belfast.