Standing out: Category contrast and coherence in the Hong Kong film industry, 1975-1997

Abstract

Belonging to a contrasting market category provides legitimacy spillovers and improves the appeal of a producer. Besides improving the average performance of its members, contrast allows disentangling their differential quality, ultimately increasing the variance of their performance. These effects should hold especially true for specialist organizations C i.e., fully dedicated members of a category. Nonetheless, the disciplinary mechanism of contrast is challenged by the existence of partial membership and of diffused straddling among the members of a category. Which alternative disciplinary mechanism may be at work in such cases? Here we propose that category coherence C i.e., the recombination of coherent categories among the members of a category C is a possible answer to this question. The effects of category coherence are advanced with respect to the mean and the variance of the performance of category members and its consequences postulated to be stronger with increasing number of prior violations. The mechanisms of contrast and coherence are juxtaposed in the context of the Hong Kong film industry during the period 1975-1997.