Originality, influence, and success: A model of creative style

Caterina Adelaide Mauri; Karol Jan Borowiecki

doi:10.1007/s10824-023-09481-y

Originality, influence, and success: A model of creative style

Caterina Adelaide Mauri, Karol Jan Borowiecki

Sociology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

79 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Creative workers strive to achieve success and influence by producing original output. In this paper we define and measure originality and influence, based on a new model of style. We apply the methodology to Western classical music composed since the 15th century, and test it using extensive data on the content of musical compositions, popular success, and biographical information. We find that more original composers tend to be more influential upon the work of their later peers and more successful with present-day audiences. A positive association between originality and influence also holds across works by a given composer.

Original language	English
Article number	s10824-023-09481-y
Pages (from-to)	221-258
Number of pages	38
Journal	Journal of Cultural Economics
Volume	48
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-023-09481-y
Publication status	Published - 22 Sept 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Daniel P. Gross, Andrea Ichino, John O\u2019Hagan, Noam Yuchtman and audiences at the European Historical Economics Society Conference (Paris), the 24th Dynamic Economics, Growth, and International Trade Conference (Odense), the 9th European Workshop on Applied Cultural Economics (Copenhagen), and seminar participants at the University of Bergen for many helpful comments. We also thank Harvard Business School Division of Faculty and Research and the University of Southern Denmark for financial support.

Publisher Copyright:
© European Union represented by the European Commission, Joint Research Centre 2023.

Keywords

Creativity
Innovation

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title = "Originality, influence, and success: A model of creative style",

abstract = "Creative workers strive to achieve success and influence by producing original output. In this paper we define and measure originality and influence, based on a new model of style. We apply the methodology to Western classical music composed since the 15th century, and test it using extensive data on the content of musical compositions, popular success, and biographical information. We find that more original composers tend to be more influential upon the work of their later peers and more successful with present-day audiences. A positive association between originality and influence also holds across works by a given composer.",

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Originality, influence, and success: A model of creative style

Abstract

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Keywords

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