Global Networks of the Motion Picture Industry in Los Angeles/Hollywood using the Example of their Connections to the German Market

Abstract

The motion picture industry is one pillar of the so-called “cultural industries” which are highly concentrated in large urban agglomerations. Personal connections to the various informal networks found in these locations play an important role in facilitating information flows and reproduces these clusters' competitive advantage. However, the clusters and their markets do not exist in a vacuum: creative content, capital and creative talent are also traded and connected in global networks, bridging the physical gaps between these creative clusters. Against this background, this paper addresses the issue of how network relations beyond cluster boundaries and across large spatial, social and cultural distances are coordinated in a branch of the cultural industry such as motion picture production.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for financing this research project.

Notes

1. In international movie statistics Austria is normally regarded as part of the German market and distributional territory because it uses the same language.

2. The author's attention was not drawn to Henderson et al. (2002) until after his research assignment work in Los Angeles/Hollywood in the summer of 2004.