http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1317-1477
Abstract
One of the most-discussed tensions in the cultural and creative industries is that between art and commerce, creativity and business, the artistic and the economic logic. This paper investigates in how far this discrepancy manifests itself in young musicians’ career identities. Based on extant qualitative research, we distinguish between bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities. The goal of our study is to understand whether the two compete (stand in tension) or cohere (harmonise). We address this in a quantitative manner, by surveying 146 music students from two Dutch music schools. An exploratory factor analysis reveals three components of musicians’ career identities, which pertain to ‘open-mindedness’, ‘career-mindedness’ and ‘money-mindedness’. The former two unite bohemian and entrepreneurial career identity items. None of the components exhibits exclusively bohemian career identity items. This leads us to conclude that young musicians do not necessarily experience tensions between bohemian and entrepreneurial imperatives. Rather, they hold career identities that combine bohemian and entrepreneurial elements in a synergetic manner.
Introduction
In the arts, and by extension the cultural and creative industries (henceforth, CCI), the vivid ambivalence between bohemian and entrepreneurial imperatives has been well-recognised (Caves Citation2000). However, factual insights into how bohemian and entrepreneurial behaviour relate, in terms of artists’ identity formation, are limited and the few existent findings are inconsistent. On the one hand, there is the view that an orientation towards the market endangers someone’s artistic relevance (e.g., Coulson Citation2012). Also, there is a general belief that someone’s extrinsic motivation, which is triggered by external rewards such as money or appraisal, crowds-out the intrinsic motivation that reflects the inner drive of the artistic genius (Frey and Jegen Citation2001). This tenet implies that creatives must choose between either a bohemian or entrepreneurial approach to the arts, because the amalgamation of both would not work. On the other hand, empirical studies have suggested that bohemian and entrepreneurial identities are able to coexist. For example, Eikhof and Haunschild (Citation2006) found that creatives exhibit entrepreneurial behaviour while being driven by bohemian identities: the artists in their study considered their artistic identity as inclusive of business-related aspects. Also, Beckman (Citation2005) and Bridgstock (2013) found that bohemian and entrepreneurial identities can synergise and together allow for staying adaptable in the process of managing a career in the arts. Such findings suggest that bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities cohere rather than compete.
In the present article, we aim at bringing clarity to the discordance in the literature by examining whether or not a clear distinction between bohemian and entrepreneurial career identity aspects exists in the minds of artists. A career identity, being a major determinant of someone’s motivations, choices and actions related to a career path, is a vital precursor to career development and success (Meijers Citation1998; Murnieks and Mosakowski Citation2007). Specifically, we study the career identities of early stage musicians. In the case of young musicians, identity can be expected to be particularly pronounced and the identification with either one of both a bohemian or an entrepreneurial career identity to be more prominent, as compared to musicians who already built a career or even entered stardom.
Given the potential discrepancy between artistic aspirations and the need to market one’s music, career identity formation in the artistic realm may be a particular challenge. Strong intrinsic motivations and utter devotion to artistic endeavours, regardless of any financial rewards, have for decades been romantically linked to creatives (Pollard and Wilson Citation2013). This ideal resonates the bohemian lifestyle that emerged in the nineteenth century and that was typically associated with artists and intellectuals whose unorthodox and anti-establishment viewpoints and habits stood in stark contrast with the norms lived by the bourgeoisie (Heinich Citation2005; Bain Citation2005). Today still, bohemianism is all about l’art pour l’art – the art for art’s sake – and disregards anything related to commerce, money, and the market (Bourdieu Citation1984, Citation1993; Glinoer, Hülk, and Zimmermann Citation2014). However, from the moment artists want to become professionals and make a living out of their creative practices, they need to confront the market and understand themselves to be its subjects (Bain Citation2005; Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006). After all, economic market forces underlie the CCI as well. As Coulson (Citation2012, 258) utterly describes work in contemporary creative sectors, ‘occupations within the creative industries are robbed of their distinctive practices and their worth as contributors to cultural life, esteemed only if they have economic impact’. The need for a market focus is aggravated by factors such as the stringent labour market conditions that originate in an oversupply of artists, high levels of competition and not seldom low wages (Menger Citation1999). Furthermore, due to the prevalence of short-term or project-based work, many careers in the CCI tend to be portfolio careers and subject to precarity (Menger Citation1999; Bridgstock Citation2005; Ross Citation2009; Oakley Citation2009; Hesmondhalgh and Baker Citation2010). As such, artists must face a range of challenges and incongruities while shaping their career identities.
To study the interplay of bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities, we develop a survey instrument that is able to capture their component parts. Mindlessly borrowing concepts from the more customary business-related entrepreneurship literature and applying those to the CCI may not lead to the most meaningful conclusions about artists’ entrepreneurial dispositions. Therefore, we take up the challenge to elaborate on the scarce theoretical and empirical research on identities and motives in the creative industries while accounting for the peculiarities of arts entrepreneurship. We draw upon pre-established concepts and findings to develop measures that can deepen the understanding of the ambivalence regarding bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities of musicians. As such, our quantitative approach adds to a range of qualitative studies on the topic of artists’ (career) identities (e.g. Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006; Gotsi et al. Citation2010; Coulson Citation2012; Sternal Citation2014; Lindström Citation2016), and supports the generalisability and clarity of previous findings.
Concretely, by means of factor analyses we aim to answer the following research question: Is there a clear distinction between the bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities of young musicians? Doing so contributes to the discussion about the paradox in managing creativity (Caves Citation2000; Townley and Beech Citation2010) and may lead to insights in how to foster the employability and resilience of workers in the CCI, also through education.
Theory
Arts entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship, in a traditional sense of the word, relates to the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of (profitable business) opportunities in order to create future goods and services (Shane and Venkataraman Citation2000). However, because of artists’ strongly pronounced intrinsic motivations, entrepreneurship in the arts may deviate from entrepreneurship in a business environment in the way that arts entrepreneurship does not necessarily involve seeking pecuniary rewards by creating a profitable venture. The practice of entrepreneurship in the arts is more about identifying opportunities that enable the fulfilment of someone’s artistic cravings and vocation, while at the same time (innovatively) creating value for a potential audience and interest on a market (Scott Citation2012). Given the precarious economic market circumstances in the CCI, managing an artistic career and finding employment in itself can already be considered an act of entrepreneurship (Bridgstock Citation2013). As Comunian, Faggian, and Jewell (Citation2011) make clear, especially bohemian artists in the music sector have a hard time finding a creative occupation in the midst of unstructured labour market conditions. Although many young musicians acknowledge the importance of thinking in a business-like or commercial manner (Daniel 2016), they do not want to be entrepreneurs in the first place, but only seek to make a living out of their creative talent (Coulson Citation2012). As a result, most measures developed to assess individuals’ entrepreneurial predispositions in a more traditional sense may be inadequate for the setting of the CCI. To clarify this by one example: the application of the ‘entrepreneurial intentions’ scale (Crant Citation1996, 43) as a precursor to entrepreneurship in the arts may be strongly inappropriate because those are defined as someone’s ‘judgements about the likelihood of owning one's own business’. As such, caution is needed and the creation of proper scales that suit the artistic realm a necessity.
Identity
Identity, commonly understood as the notion of the self (Ghassan and Bohemia Citation2011), is a key concept that underlies individuals’ behaviour (Murnieks and Mosakowski Citation2007). Since people constantly seek to verify their self-conception, identity is the major influencer of someone’s motivation for action (Murnieks and Mosakowski Citation2007). Although they are closely related, identity cannot be equated with ‘role’ (Gotsi et al. Citation2010): whereas someone’s identity is an internal component, someone’s role is the external social position that a person takes up (for example, as a student, professor, musician, family member) (Burke Citation1991). Also, the lines between the notions ‘identity’, ‘mindset’ (Pollard and Wilson Citation2013), ‘lifestyle’ and ‘behaviour’ (Lindström Citation2016) are blurry. Identity research aims at understanding why people behave the way they do, and how they create their motivations and perceptions of the self in interaction with their environment. Indeed, the conditions of an individual’s surroundings are strong influencers of someone’s identity (Du Gay Citation1996). Identity theory has exposed the coexistence of multiple identities, which are developed due to ‘multiple and possibly conflicting influences which operate on people as part of their everyday lives’ (Taylor and Littleton Citation2012, 36). Identities are seldom mono-dimensional but rather a complex blend of coexisting and shifting identities (Tajfel Citation1982; Cameron Citation2004), and coinciding identities can either reinforce or contradict one another (Gotsi et al. Citation2010). Those individuals who perceive identities as contradictory, are likely to experience inner tensions and identity conflicts.
A major aspect of identity is someone’s career or professional identity. Career identity can be understood as a ‘developing structure of self-concepts in their relation to the (future) career role perceived by the individual’ (Meijers Citation1998, 200). It encompasses personal motivations and values related to someone’s professional path (Bridgstock Citation2013). Establishing a career identity addresses issues such as ‘What does work mean in and for my life?’, ‘What do I want to mean to others through my work?’ (Meijers Citation1998, 200) or ‘How can my work advance [my] values?’ (Lingo and Tepper Citation2013, 350). During a life span, (career) identities are steadily being (re)constructed (Gotsi et al. Citation2010). There is a constant flux of the identity structures while an individual learns, gains practical work experience, develops career management skills, and perceives role demands by society.
Artists’ career identities
In the case of artists, presumed to be intrinsically motivated and vocation-driven, the concept of ‘identity’, and particularly ‘career identity’, can be expected to play an important role in their lives and development of a career. Hence, an artist’s career identity will strongly determine which career opportunities he or she will seek and grasp in the future. Inter alia, this learning process is based on an artist’s interaction with the environment and the anticipations and idealisations formed from it (Meijers Citation1998). In the arts, the most-discussed tension is that between art and commerce, creativity and business, or an artistic and economic logic (e.g. Bourdieu Citation1993; Caves Citation2000; Townley and Beech Citation2010). For artists, this tension will manifest itself in the conflict between what we will refer to as a bohemian and entrepreneurial identity. The following sections will discuss what a bohemian and entrepreneurial identity respectively entail according to the literature and it will highlight its prevailing aspects with the aim to develop adequate measures.
The Bohemian identity of artists
During the nineteenth century, the bohemian lifestyle of the avant-garde artist emerged as a way of life that stood in stark contrast with the bourgeois standards of living (Glinoer, Hülk, and Zimmermann Citation2014). Today still, the depiction of ‘the artist as a Bohemian character who adopts a disdainful attitude towards a conventional way of life yet manages to survive on the brink of disaster’ (Bain Citation2005, 29) is still vivid, and glorified by many, not in the least by young, emerging artists (Coulson, Citation2012). As Bain (Citation2005, 41) drew from interviewing numerous artists: ‘being an artist is regarded as a full-time commitment to a distinctive way of life.’ A typical feature of the bohemian lifestyle is the perceived ‘calling’ or the utter devotion to pursue artistic practices (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006). Creatives often report having dreamt about being an artist ever since childhood and perceiving a sense of destiny and urgency in being an artist (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006). Artistic work is thus often considered a vocation sturdily tied up with an artist’s identity, rather than an occupation or profession, or even ‘real’ work. Also in the public perceptions, the work of artists suggests freedom, joy and creativity; all attributes that are commonly associated with leisure time and not so much with labour (Bain Citation2005). Although the desire of many artists would be financial independence and an income derived from their artistic work only, most perceive artistic work as a means to achieve self-fulfilment and personal development rather than a source of income (Bain Citation2005; Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006, Citation2007). This ambition goes hand in hand with artists’ perceptions of success. Bohemian values tend to converge with subjective career success factors (Bridgstock Citation2007; Lindström Citation2016). Individuals who base career successes on subjective factors strongly prioritise personal fulfilment and professional growth over objective success factors such as pecuniary rewards, status, or elevations (Lindström Citation2016). Perceiving career success subjectively engenders being motivated by personal values and autonomy (Bridgstock Citation2007). The ability to create artistic work independently, autonomously, and distant from economic market forces, political and even moral purposes, is therefore key to a bohemian identity (Glinoer, Hülk, and Zimmermann Citation2014). Furthermore, bohemian principles are marked by spontaneity, flexibility and enjoying a living in the here and now (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006). Rather than sacrificing the artistic autonomy and surrendering oneself to market imperatives, artists with a strong bohemian identity may be inclined to take up breadwinning work that is not related to arts (Lindström Citation2016). As such, artistic work is oftentimes subsidised by employment in other occupations (Bain Citation2005; Throsby and Zednik Citation2011). ‘L’art pour l’art’, or the bohemian belief that artistic work is in itself worthy of pursuit, tends to create an antagonism between art and business (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006). ‘Business’ and ‘economics’ are notions that do not sound pleasant in the ears of many bohemian artists. As Lingo and Tepper (Citation2013) point out, artists are widely expected from society as well to negate economically driven behaviour. That is, artists often obtain respect and a good reputation only if they fully and unconditionally dedicate their lives to the arts. Bain (Citation2005) argues that the imagery of the artist being a bohemian rebel creates stereotypes that reinforce artists’ adherence to the bohemian identity – a vicious circle. As a result, artists may view themselves as ‘outsiders’ with a lifestyle distinct from other people in society, especially the bourgeoisie (Lingo and Tepper Citation2013). In order to counteract the sense of isolation they may experience in their artistic practice and to derive a sense of self from a shared (workplace) culture, artists will often choose to gather and work in proximity to their peers (Bain Citation2005). The need to cluster and interact with people ‘of one’s own kind’ (Glinoer, Hülk, and Zimmermann Citation2014, 3 [translated]) suggests the importance for bohemian artists of the collective. In the music world, networks are not just a source of work or income, but they embroil rehearsal and playing opportunities, as well as support and friendship (Coulson Citation2012). An overview of the key features of a bohemian identity discussed in this section is provided in .
Table 1. Item development of the ‘bohemian career identity’ construct.
The Entrepreneurial identity of artists
Although there is no consensus on a single conception of what an entrepreneurial identity entails, empirical work has illuminated its distinctiveness from other identities (Murnieks and Mosakowski Citation2007). A number of studies have shed a light on the entrepreneurial identity of artists. At the uttermost basic level, an artist’s aim to become a professional artist, distinct from an art hobbyist, is considered to originate in an entrepreneurial identity. Scott (Citation2012, 238) suggests that a cultural entrepreneur’s ‘primary life goal is to build an artistic career’. Lindström (Citation2016) argues that an entrepreneurial identity lays at the basis of artists’ reluctance to supplement their art incomes with a breadwinning job that is not art-related. Rather, their goal is to obtain a steady income with their artistic work and to avoid juggling salaried work in areas not directly related to their art. Because of the preference to make a living with art, objective career success factors gain importance for entrepreneurial artists (Lindström Citation2016). These artists experience extrinsic motivations by pecuniary rewards, a good reputation in their field or growing audience numbers. As such, the entrepreneurial identity fosters the recognition of creative goods and services as being embedded in an economic context (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2007). Hence, a certain degree of market orientation is key to an entrepreneurial identity. This is reflected in, for instance, the wish to reach as many people as possible and the tendency to consider audiences’ tastes and preferences (Bradshaw and Holbrook Citation2007). A market orientation also entails someone’s inclination to dedicate himself to more commercial activities, including marketing and management (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2007). Another essential part of an entrepreneurial identity is concerned with the recognition, creation, and exploitation of opportunities of either a commercial, social, or artistic nature (Bridgstock Citation2013). Such opportunity recognition requires openness and flexibility from an artist, especially given the precarious labour market circumstances that typify the CCI (Lingo and Tepper Citation2013). An entrepreneurial identity, therefore, is marked by versatility and someone’s willingness to acquire a broad set of competencies. Visual artists, for instance, may turn to more applied work that is commissioned, whereas musicians may consider engaging with multiple genres, some of which with a larger market appeal. In the case of the latter, as evidenced, musicians may even achieve both higher earnings and greater recognition (Pinheiro and Dowd Citation2009). Furthermore, an entrepreneurial identity is characterised by the willingness to take risks and to manage insecurity (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006; Lindström Citation2016). Related is the entrepreneurial predisposition for problem solving (Bridgstock Citation2011). outlines the key features of an entrepreneurial identity discussed in this section.
Table 2. Item development of the ‘entrepreneurial career identity’ construct.
When artists’ Bohemian and Entrepreneurial Identities meet
While some scholars have argued that bohemian and entrepreneurial identities are incompatible, others hold the view that they can harmonise and blend. The former stance prominently argues that entrepreneurial aspirations diminish and crowd-out artistic motivations and even quality. According to Pierre Bourdieu, who thoroughly discusses the interplay of economic and artistic logics, artistic practices are endangered as soon as they become professionalised (Bourdieu Citation1993; Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2007). Accordingly, only those artists who pursue art for its own sake and not for economic causes, can obtain a high societal status as an artist. In contrast, those artists concerned about commercial successes are most likely to build a poor reputation in the industry (Bourdieu Citation1993; Caves Citation2000). In particular for the music sector, Coulson (Citation2012, 258) posits that ‘the meaning and purpose of the kind of work musicians do may be lost if attention becomes too closely focused on marketability and employability’. She draws from interview data that artists with a focus on innovation and business are harmed and robbed of their worth (Coulson Citation2012). Such arguments often build upon the assumed clatter between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations (Frey and Jegen Citation2001; Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2007). Whereas the bohemian identity is coined by an intrinsic motivation to produce art for art’s sake, the entrepreneurial identity is directed by extrinsic orientation and rewards. Caves (Citation2000, 4) describes this as a ‘problem of coupling creative effort with humdrum commerce.’ Since humdrum inputs - the activities required for reaching consumers, such as promotion and sales activities - respond to economic rewards and involve entrepreneurial efforts, they collide with artists’ innermost need to be creative. By suggesting that artists can improve their artistic quality by concentrating on creative efforts when those humdrum activities are executed by ‘humdrum partners’ (such as record labels in music), between the lines also Caves (Citation2000) articulates the incompatibility of bohemianism and entrepreneurship.
Yet, recent research suggests that bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities can go hand in hand. Artists may stick to bohemian principles while acknowledging the resourceful role of an entrepreneurial career identity as well (Lingo and Tepper Citation2013). Based on a qualitative study of the interplay between bohemian and entrepreneurial identities of theatre actors and its manifestation in their professional lives, Eikhof and Haunschild (Citation2006) have coined the notion of ‘Bohemian Entrepreneurs’ to designate the synergy that these creative professionals incorporated in their lifestyles that allowed for the integration of artistic and commercial values. On the one hand, these actors regarded their work as a vocation, seeking for artistic and personal fulfilment and subordinating private aspects of life to art. On the other hand, they were concerned about their market value and employability as well, and took consciously action to market their creative talents. They strategically built networks of people that could open up career opportunities, and combined their theatre performances with roles in movies to increase their publicity (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006). Similarly, Lindström (Citation2016) investigated visual artists’ identities in a qualitative manner and found that some interviewees simultaneously exhibited bohemian and entrepreneurial identity characteristics by adhering to a bohemian lifestyle and being open to market-friendly behaviour and objective career success factors as well (Lindström Citation2016). For the CCI more broadly defined, Gotsi et al. (Citation2010) found that designers pursued bohemian and entrepreneurial aims concurrently by leveraging the complementarities between those disparate goal-sets. The distinction between the commercial and non-commercial aspects within today’s creative industries may be diminishing, even to the extent that creativity and artistic practices have been acknowledged to be driving forces to economic growth and innovation (Abbing Citation2002; Lingo and Tepper Citation2013). As such, some argue that a purely bohemian identity may not any longer be a badge of authenticity, but rather of precarity and neglect (Glinoer, Hülk, and Zimmermann Citation2014). In sum, the extant literature tends to disagree on the compatibility of two very distinct career identities in the CCI. Only by means of further empirical research in specific settings, this issue can be clearly addressed. We take up the challenge of examining whether or not there is a clear distinction between bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities in the music industry by means of a quantitative approach.
Methods
Research Design
Most empirical research on the bohemian and entrepreneurial identities of artists has been conducted in a qualitative manner, which provides deep contextual insights into artists’ opinions and thoughts. In-depth interviews have been the most common approach for research in the area, because these allow respondents to elaborate and reflect on their opinions and behaviour (e.g. Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006; Coulson Citation2012; Lindström Citation2016). A quantitative approach allows for better generalisability due to a larger sample size (Bryman Citation2012), and it requires researchers to be very accurate in defining, operationalising, and measuring the concepts at stake. Our study is explorative in its nature and will benefit from the academic consensus on just a couple of dimensions that constitute artists’ career identities in order to explore the potential co-existence of bohemian and entrepreneurial patterns.
To understand the structure of the sets of variables in the data set related to career identities, factor analysis is applied - a powerful method for reducing variable complexity and testing measurement integrity. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), frequently utilised in psychology (Field Citation2009), is the most common technique to extract factors and transform the data into a few components that appear to have the same underlying structure. Based on a selection of theoretical statements derived from the literature, we develop items that will have to prove their validity and reliability as the component parts of an overarching factor. In addition to a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we will conduct an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for retaining the fewest possible factors while explaining the most variance of the variables in our sample (Henson and Roberts Citation2006). Indeed, other latent constructs may be underlying our data and may suggest the salience of new multi-item identity measures.
Sample
Our goal was to compose a sample large enough for the analyses and at the same time sufficiently homogeneous so as to avoid the risk of invoking variation associated with personal and socio-cultural characteristics beyond the scope of the present study. In total, we collected 146 responses from music students of two music academies in the Netherlands (Codarts Rotterdam and the Herman Brood Academie [HBA] in Utrecht). The average age of respondents was 21 years and the sample consisted of 83.6% males and 16.4% females. Data was collected in April 2017 by means of a self-completion survey that was distributed either online or in paper by a teacher or one of the researchers. A minimum of five respondents per variable is recommended in order to achieve a sample size appropriate for factor analyses (Field Citation2009). Given the 26 items to measure career identity and the sample size of 146, the ratio of number of respondents to variables is 5.6:1, which is just enough. It has been illustrated that when each factor is defined by several items (four or more) and when communalities are high (greater than 0.60), sample sizes can be relatively small (MacCallum et al. in Henson and Roberts Citation2006). Also, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was calculated. With a value of 0.721 it falls in the category ‘good’ (Field Citation2009, 647). In addition, the Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity verifies that correlations between variables are sufficiently large for PCA (χ2 = 983.079, df =325, p = 0.000).
Data Collection
In order to measure the career identities of students, we developed statements to which students were to indicate how strongly they (dis)agreed on a 7-point Likert scale. In the survey instrument, the 11 statements about bohemian identity and 15 statements about entrepreneurial identity were arranged in a mixed order to mask the underlying concepts. Also, none of the statements explicitly mentioned the notions ‘bohemian’ or ‘entrepreneurial’ to prevent any bias students may have towards these terms. It has been evidenced that artists commonly perceive the term ‘entrepreneurship’ in an economic or business-like manner and associate it with monetary rewards to which they may feel reluctant (Weatherston Citation2009; Sternal Citation2014), although they may exhibit entrepreneurial traits (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006). The survey was created in English; yet, to assure that the respondents of HBA (where classes are taught in Dutch) fully understood all the questions, the researchers translated it.
Measures
The review of the literature provided the basis for the bundle of items that were developed to operationalise the constructs of bohemian and entrepreneurial career identity. For each element of the respective career identity concept identified in and , one or more operational items were created to measure it. We compromised between the subtlety needed to capture the constructs and parsimony.
Bohemian Career Identity
Our review of the literature led to seven aspects related to a bohemian career identity, which were operationalised by means of 11 items. Only the three items used to measure ‘having a calling’ were taken directly from an existing scale, namely one developed by Dobrow and Tosti-Kharas (Citation2011) on ‘calling’, including the realm of music. The items reflect the findings by Eikhof and Haunschild (Citation2006) and Lindström (2016), articulating that artists tend to feel ‘called’ to dedicate themselves to artistic work, perceiving a sense of destiny and urgency about being an artist, often from an early age onward. Two items were developed to grasp subjective career success factors, which relate to intrinsic motivations and personal skills rather than external factors such as money (Bridgstock Citation2007; Lindström Citation2016). Instead of sacrificing their independence from economic market forces, artists with a strong bohemian identity prefer to remain autonomous and take up breadwinning work that assures them a living and guarantees them the freedom to create art that may not be directly marketable. This may lead to the strict separation of artistic creation and work life (Lindström Citation2016). As such, two items were intended to grasp the autonomy-construct. All other constructs (spontaneity, opposing the economic logic, the outsider-perspective and the perceived importance of the collective) were captured by a single item. Constructs and items of the bohemian career identity scale are also to be found in .
Entrepreneurial Career Identity
A total of 15 items make up the entrepreneurial career identity scale (). Two items were constructed to assess musicians’ professionalism. A first item reflects the wish to become a professional musician, which is considered to be a premise for any entrepreneurial endeavour (Scott Citation2012) and to shape an individual’s career identity in terms of values and goals. The second item inquires the aim for artists to make a living from their art and dispense with breadwinning jobs that are not related to arts (Lindström Citation2016). With four items, we aim to assess the different components of artists’ market orientation. Aspiring success among as many people as possible and therefore considering the audience’s preferences is key to market orientation. It also entails someone’s occupation with more ‘commercial’ activities such as marketing and management of creative talent and skills (Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006). The formulation of the five items on opportunity recognition was based on Cardon, Gregoire, Stevens and Patel’s (2013) Entrepreneurial Passion scale, yet adapted to the music domain. The statements aim to gauge someone’s inclination to recognise, create and exploit different types of opportunities. Apart from embracing new opportunities that arise in the environment, an entrepreneurial career identity may also involve the openness and flexibility towards a broad artistic skill set (Lingo and Tepper Citation2013). For musicians, this may be related to playing music of different genres in order to create more possibilities for oneself on the labour market (Pinheiro and Dowd Citation2009). With two items, we try to grasp someone’s openness. Lastly, two items were included to sound out risk-taking and problem-solving attitudes. The latter was based on the measure of problem-solving in the scale for Entrepreneurial Passion by Cardon et al. (Citation2013).
Results
All 26 variables measuring bohemian as well as entrepreneurial career identity were included in the PCA. A Varimax rotation was applied, so that rather few items loaded strongly onto the respective factor, revealing more interpretable factor clusters as compared to oblique rotation techniques (Field Citation2009). A first PCA was run without restricting the number of factors. Based on the theory, we would expect two components to emerge, one reflecting bohemian and another entrepreneurial career identity aspects. However, after five iterations, eight factors had an Eigenvalue larger than 1 (see ), which indicates a substantive importance of those factors (Field Citation2009).
Table 3. Initial Eigenvalues without restricting number of factors
Confirmatory Factor Analysis
When we force the analysis to extract two factors only, no clear distinction between bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities appears. Instead, the two components each contain items of both identities in fairly balanced ratios (2.4:1 and 1:2, see ). Therefore, we conclude that the analysis provides no indication of the existence of two distinct bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities.
Table 4. Factor structure matrix after restricting to 2 factors
Exploratory Factor Analysis
In our initial analysis, there was a clear dominance of three factors with Eigenvalues of 4.8, 2.5 and 2.2, explaining 36.5% of the variance. The scree plot also hinted at retaining three factors, since the inflexion point at which the slope of the curve changes occurred at the fourth data point (Field Citation2009). shows the factor structure matrix of those three components.
Table 5. Factor structure matrix after restricting to 3 factors
18 items with correlation coefficients greater than 0.4 were withdrawn and eight removed. As a factor is a latent construct, at least two variables are needed to define a factor (Henson and Roberts Citation2006), which is the case. The reliability of the factors was assessed by means of the internal consistency method (Nunnally Citation1978). Cronbach’s α -coefficients (Cronbach Citation1951) of two of the factors were above the common threshold of 0.70. The α-coefficient of the third factor was lower (0.593), but based on its face validity we decided to keep it. Our analysis thus results in a three-factor model, consisting of multi-item measures that we label open-mindedness (7 items), career-mindedness (6 items) and money-mindedness (4 items) ().
Table 6. A three-factor career identity structure of young musicians
Factor 1: Open-mindedness
A first factor (Cronbach α = 0.740), accounting for 18.4% of the variance, combines five entrepreneurial and two bohemian career identity items. All of them relate to being open for the new: they touch upon the willingness to scan the music sector for all kinds of opportunities and to engage with multiple genres of music. The construct underlying this factor seems to be an open mindset that is prepared to look for new horizons and think beyond the conventional. Therefore, the label ‘open-mindedness’ has been chosen for this factor.
Since bohemian and entrepreneurial career identity elements group together in this factor, this is the first evidence that there is no such thing as a clear separation between bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities. They seem to be tied together by the personal attribute of open-mindedness. Containing four out of its five initially identified items, opportunity recognition is a big theme in this component. Being involved in multiple genres may constitute opportunities for a musician (Pinheiro and Dowd Citation2009). The two bohemian items of this factor smoothly blend into the opportunity recognition theme. Firstly, autonomy, independence, and freedom (BoAu2) may actually foster opportunity recognition, as the ‘freedom to work outside normal channels’ has been demonstrated to be a prerequisite for entrepreneurial behaviour in the music industry (Peterson and Berger Citation1971, 98). Secondly, spontaneity and open-mindedness may reinforce each other, because spontaneity implies that an individual is adaptable, impulsive, and not disconcerted by the unknown. Spontaneity, in turn, may positively affect the recognition and seizing of opportunities. In this manner, the composition of this first factor could signify that bohemian identity elements might even strengthen the entrepreneurial ones. In the literature, we find some support for this specific bundle of items in relation to artists and their identities. It bears clear resemblance with the ‘adaptive career identity’ that, according to Bridgstock (Citation2013), is one of the most fundamental conditions for a promising artistic career. Developing an adaptive career identity addresses entrepreneurial as well as artistic values simultaneously and in a flexible, open-minded manner (Bridgstock Citation2013). The open-mindedness factor conveys exactly this identity pattern: it does not only include bohemian as well as entrepreneurial items, but it is also coined by the openness and spontaneity required for an adaptive career identity.
Factor 2: Career-mindedness
A second factor (Cronbach α = 0.737), accounting for 9.6% of the variance, consists of four entrepreneurial and two bohemian career identity items. All of them touch upon the career aspirations of young musicians. The component ‘career-mindedness’ transmits the notions of commitment and determination about being a professional musician. The two bohemian items related to having a calling convey a strong intrinsic conviction and passion for being a musician. The entrepreneurial items in this factor pertain to professionalism, along with keeping an eye on the market. The former is epitomised by the goal to make a living with music only; the latter comprises the wish to reach as many people as possible with music, together with the willingness to engage in promotional activities.
Also in this factor bohemian and entrepreneurial items cohere. While the bohemian items reflect the intrinsic motivation of being a musician (having a calling), the aspiration for being appraised by a large audience touches more upon someone’s extrinsic motivations (Bridgstock Citation2007). In contrast with some of the literature (e.g. Frey and Jegen Citation2001), our analysis suggests that young musicians do not necessarily perceive conflicts between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The constellation of our second factor supports Bridgstock’s (Citation2007) finding that artists are often driven by bohemian and entrepreneurial aims at the same time. By itself, the idea of reaching many people may not be an impetus strong enough to devote oneself to a professional musical career. In turn, the mere feeling of being destined to be a musician may not be sufficiently encouraging, as ‘all professional artists desire to share their work with others in some way, and to add value of some kind’ (Bridgstock Citation2013, 129). A calling and being appraised by a large audience seem to jointly create the determinants for young musicians to develop a career as a musician.
Factor 3: Money-mindedness
A third factor’s four items explain 8.5% of the total variance. Even with a relatively low Cronbach’s α value of 0.593, we decided to retain the factor based on its face validity and the recognition that psychological constructs may still be reliable with alpha values below 0.7, especially when they comprise a limited number of items (Field Citation2009). The factor consists of entrepreneurial career identity items only, that all pertain to pecuniary and commercial motives and to understanding the market in order to make a living from it. This last factor lacks any item that can be associated with a bohemian career identity. Inversely, the other factors do not contain any explicit reference to money or commerce, even if they do entail features that are typically associated with entrepreneurship.
Subscale correlations and descriptive statistics
Factors 1 and 2 have similar mean values of around 5.6 (on a 7-point Likert scale). Factor 3 exhibits a mean of 4.6 (). A paired samples t-test confirms that money-mindedness has indeed a significantly lower mean value than open-mindedness (t(145)=12.406, p = 0.000) and career-mindedness (t(145)= 12.502, p = 0.000). The Pearson correlations between subscales indicate that all three identity factors positively yet moderately correlate. The positive correlation of money-mindedness with the other two factors signifies that money-mindedness and bohemian elements do not necessarily exclude one another. The fact that items that relate to money and commerce and items that relate to bohemian identity aspects do not cluster into one factor, does not suggest that they cannot co-exist. If the correlation coefficients of factor 3 and the other two factors would have had inverse signs (positive vs. negative correlation coefficients), we would have been able to conclude that bohemian and monetary items are in conflict.
Table 7. Descriptive statistics and correlations of the three factors
Discussion and Conclusion
The goal of our study was to explore young musicians’ bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities and to test empirically whether they markedly exclude or embrace each other. Whereas the ideal of the Bohemian imagery and the disinclination to entrepreneurship by arts students (and their teachers, for that matter) have been evidenced (Bain Citation2005; Weatherston Citation2009), in today’s global and competitive creative industries some entrepreneurial or ‘under-taking’ attitude may be a necessary asset. Our study draws a more complicated picture than the polarised depictions of creative work that have been recognised previously (e.g., Coulson Citation2012). The more enthusiastic literature (e.g., Florida Citation2002) portrays creative work ‘in an idealised way as free, autonomous and full of choice’ (Coulson Citation2012, 247) and as such underwrites the glorification of the bohemian ideal. Other literature has pointed to the problematic character of this imagery, because of its glamorisation of the precarious position of the artist and its neglect of the socioeconomic losses that artists accrue over time (Bain Citation2005; Ross Citation2009). The autonomy that artists seek to gain in and through their creative work has been labelled a ‘complicated version of freedom’ (Hesmondhalgh and Baker Citation2010) as well, and led to studies deploring ‘its low pay, insecurity and generally exploitative tendencies’ (Coulson Citation2012, 247; Oakley Citation2009). Entrepreneurship-proponents would then suggest to weapon young artists against the severe conditions in these labour markets (Beckman Citation2005). Our findings suggest that young musicians’ career identities do not appear as clear-cut either bohemian or entrepreneurial.
The concept of ‘identity’ took centre stage in our study because, as a notion of the self and reflecting someone’s basic mindset(s), it determines individuals’ behaviour, choices, and motivations (Murnieks and Mosakowski Citation2007; Ghassan and Bohemia Citation2011). People hold multiple identities, and especially in the arts where artistic devotion can be a far cry from the provision of a steady income, it may be a challenge to maintain and manage distinct identities without depleting creative energy reserves (see Bain Citation2005). Specifically, we studied young musicians’ career identities, or the values or sense of meaning that young musicians hold regarding their (future) professional paths (Bridgstock Citation2013).
Based on extant literature we developed measurable items and conducted a survey among Dutch music students. A confirmatory factor analysis did not result in two disparate factors reflecting bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities. This brings us to the conclusion that young musicians do not experience a clear demarcation between them. Of course, the fact that our analysis fails to recognise two separate factors can also be explained differently: our items may not have been appropriate measures for bohemian and entrepreneurial identity aspects. Yet, as they are based on dimensions that were repeatedly prompted in interview-based studies in different settings by reputed scholars (e.g. Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006; Lingo and Tepper Citation2013; Lindström Citation2016), we are inclined to follow the suggestion by Coulson (Citation2012, 258), that ‘enterprise and creativity may need to be discussed in more complex terms’.
Therefore, we continued our examination by means of an exploratory factor analysis. The analysis revealed three factors of musicians’ career identity in which bohemian and entrepreneurial items coalesced, which we labelled open-mindedness, career-mindedness, and money-mindedness. Sufficiently high Cronbach α values confirm the internal consistency of all three factors. While one factor consisted of entrepreneurial elements only, none of the factors exhibited strictly bohemian career identity items. The bohemian career identity may be ‘passé’, or not applicable to Dutch music students, who may have an awareness of the particular requirements that a professional career in music embroils. Two factors are composed of bohemian as well as entrepreneurial career identity items. First, the open-mindedness factor combines the bohemian properties of being autonomous and spontaneous with the entrepreneurial tendency to seek for opportunities. Second, the career-mindedness factor is shaped by the bohemian feeling of having a calling to become a professional musician, while simultaneously being clearly orientated towards the market. Particularly the composition of this factor indicates that bohemian and entrepreneurial career identity elements together trigger students’ determination for a music career. This finding supports the synergetic stance in the literature, which already epitomised the blend of artists’ bohemian and entrepreneurial identities and the fact that many artists (in variously successful ways) navigate along the borders of artistic devotion and market imperatives while they develop their careers (e.g. Bain Citation2005; Eikhof and Haunschild Citation2006; Gotsi et al. Citation2010; Coulson Citation2012; Lindström Citation2016). The compositions of our open- and career-mindedness factors suggest that bohemian and entrepreneurial career identity elements may even be reinforcing each other, rather than standing in each other’s way. The last factor, money-mindedness, consists of entrepreneurial items only, which all pertain to pecuniary or commercial motives. The relative lower mean value of this factor suggests that the young musicians in our sample are less money-minded than they are open- and career-minded.
The correlations between all three factors were found to be significantly positive, a finding that indicates that the three career identity dimensions can and do coexist. In other words, open-, career-, and money-mindedness are not mutually exclusive. This underlines the theory that identities are seldom mono-dimensional but coexisting, and that they can also shift, for example when individuals alternate sequentially between identities because of multiple and possibly conflicting requirements from the environment (Tajfel Citation1982; Cameron Citation2004; Gotsi et al. Citation2010; Taylor and Littleton Citation2012).
Although identity theory has advanced the proposition that the perception of a particular identity is a major precursor of someone’s behaviour and actions, in her study of Canadian musicians, Coulson (Citation2012) exposes that those musicians who regard themselves as a business, and thus may be assumed to have an entrepreneurial mindset, do not differ in actions and attitudes from those who do not. She suggests that a business-like attitude is not the result of an entrepreneurial drive, but from the desire to be a musician. Our study adds to this understanding by overturning the features traditionally associated with either bohemian or entrepreneurial behaviours. The first factor reflects the open-minded musician, for whom autonomy is very important and inevitably guiding his search and recognition of opportunities. The second factor depicts a young musician who realises that in order to transmit his vocation into a professional occupation and sustain a livelihood, he will have to undertake enterprising activity, promote and market himself as well. The third factor represents the true commercial spirit, someone who adheres to the more traditional signifiers of success, including money and popularity. All three factors reflect a mindset rather than an idealised imagery of a (bohemian or entrepreneurial) musician, which may belong to the past.
Our study contributes to a better understanding of what arts entrepreneurship is about. In the music sector, making true the disposition to be a professional musician involves all sorts of arrangements, organisation, cooperation, negotiation, etc. Many professional musicians are not so much the classical (Schumpeterian) entrepreneur but self-employed individuals, ‘enterprising in the way they set about a livelihood in an inhospitable labour market’ (Coulson Citation2012, 257). Managing and enduring any artistic career in the context of a largely competitive and precarious labour market requires entrepreneurial skills and mindsets (Beckman Citation2005; Bridgstock Citation2013). And this is what arts entrepreneurship is all about. It involves innovatively seeking for opportunities that create an interest on the market while simultaneously pertaining to someone’s own artistic desires. It requires a focus of mind, be it on exploration, career development or commercial gains, something young musicians may be particularly aware of.
This brings us to the school environment in which our study took place. Some studies found that arts students are disinclined to entrepreneurship and have a narrow-minded perception about arts entrepreneurship as something that is only geared toward managing a profitable business (Weatherston Citation2009; Penaluna and Penaluna Citation2011). The conclusion of our study that aspects of bohemian and entrepreneurial career identities cohere, directly ties in with the discussion about arts entrepreneurship education. It supports advocates’ view that in order to prepare them for the professional realm, students should be taught bohemian as well as entrepreneurial qualities, attitudes, and skills (Beckman Citation2005; Bridgstock Citation2013). Our results suggest that music students are apt to unite bohemian with entrepreneurial qualities and thus perceive synergies between supposedly contrasting identities. Arts educators could draw on this integrative predisposition by encouraging students to embrace both bohemian and entrepreneurial identity aspects and by helping them to accommodate their potentially disparate identities. Being capable of regulating identities (Gotsi et al. Citation2010) in such a way may be an essential skill for successful career management and enterprising endeavours once students enter the professional realm.
Our exploratory study paves the way for future research. For example, how does someone’s ‘sense of the self’ relate to behaviour or performance? We may expect fundamental differences between open-minded, career-minded and money-minded individuals. Underlying our ‘mindedness’ factors may well be personality traits. Whereas a substantial body of empirical research has created characterisations of the artistic personality (Csikszentmihalyi Citation1990) and the entrepreneurial personality (Frese and Gielnik Citation2014), a good understanding of the ‘creative personality’, or the traits that are beneficial to a career in the contemporary creative industries remains absent. Apart from being able to link personality to business-related outcomes in the CCI such as survival, growth and success, future studies could more strongly relate the creative personality to the human side of work, including employability, resilience and achieving a work/life balance in the volatile and competitive environment that the creative industries are.
As with every exploratory study, especially those that develop scales, replications are needed to overcome its limitations (no pilot, small sample size, contextual). We invite academics and practitioners to use and test our survey instruments in future studies of the identities and mindsets of other student populations (other art forms, other geographical settings) and creatives that have entered the professional realm as well. A whole playfield lays open for identity studies, seeking to establish the co-existence of bohemian and entrepreneurial dispositions, and the interaction, determinants, and effects of creatives’ open-, career-, and money-mindedness.
No conflicts of interest
No funding and grant-awarding bodies involved.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge Pauwke Berkers and Frans Brouwer for fruitful feedback.
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