For art's sake! Artistic and economic logics in creative production

Abstract In creative or cultural production, work practices are shaped by both artistic and economic logics of practice. We apply a practice theory‐framework to qualitative research in German theatres and analyse (i) the nature of the relationship between artistic and economic logics of practice and (ii) how art and business as reference points influence creative production. Exploring logics of practice in theatre reveals a central paradox of creative production: economic logics tend to crowd out artistic logics, and thus endanger the resources vital to creative production. Consequently theatre actors and theatres, as organisations, have to develop means of safeguarding artistic logics of practice in order to delimit the influence of economic logics. The article shows that despite of this need, no respective organizational routines have emerged. Rather, human resource management practices in theatres are highly personalized and theatre artists have to find their own, idiosyncratic ways of dealing with the tension between artistic and economic logics. We argue that the central paradox in creative production, which is caused by the necessity to manage and market habitually incorporated non‐economic norms and values, is also of crucial relevance for other, especially knowledge‐intensive industries. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.