Reaching for the stars: The importance of reputational rank in creative career development

Abstract This study draws on vacancy competition and the role-theoretic perspective on reputation to develop and test a sociological theory of how reputation formation and creative career development coevolve in project-based labor markets in the cultural industries. We use vacancy competition to emphasize the importance of identifying the correct reference groups and the role-theoretic perspective on reputation to emphasize the importance of reputational rank within the correct reference group. Specifically, we distinguish between local reputational rank among the peers at the same career stage, entry reputational rank among the peers from the same entry cohort, and global reputational rank among all the peers in an industry. However, unlike prior sociological research on creative careers and reputation, we argue that local reputational rank, not entry cohort or global reputational rank, predicts career development. We find support for our arguments using a comprehensive sample of complete career trajectories of successful and unsuccessful aspirant film directors that graduated from The National Film School of Denmark between 1968 and 2013.