Tradition as a Resource: Robust and Radical Interpretations of Operatic Tradition in the Italian Opera Industry, 1989-2011

A major challenge that organizations face in cultural industries in dealing with cherished traditions is how to best mediate between adherence to tradition and pursuit of innovation, how to accommodate renewal without stifling tradition. We address this conundrum by integrating ideas from consumer-oriented psychological research on evaluative judgments and design-oriented innovation research. We show that firms can improve customers’ perceptions of value by offering robust interpretations of traditional products that preserve the most familiar aspects of a tradition while departing from it on more peripheral features; however, when the interpretation is more radical, i.e., it alters core elements of the tradition, customers are more likely to experience incongruity with their schemas, resulting in a negative perception of value. We also postulate that different audience segments will respond differently to the (re)interpreted tradition because individuals may vary in their use of generic schemas depending on their expertise, and different schemas may accommodate smaller or greater changes in a configuration of attributes. We develop and test these hypotheses in the context of the Italian opera industry over the period 1989-2011. The results offer insights into how firms can maintain a sense of continuity with a revered tradition while ensuring its renewal over time.