Gatekeepers’ decision-making in the Dutch Jazz Industry

Jazz performances, as any other cultural goods are experience goods, i.e. quality can only be asses post-consumption, which create consumption uncertainty. Quality evaluations of cultural goods require knowledge and expertise which can only be achieved through time and interest investments, i.e. taste formation and accumulation of cultural capital. Consumers lack knowledge and expertise to make quality evaluations, thus, they search for experts’ quality certification. In this study experts are gatekeepers who occupy decision-making functions within an industry and have control over the supply of cultural goods on the market. Because arts industries are characterised by asymmetric information, i.e. unequal distribution of information, gatekeepers have superior market advantage, and may engage in signalling behaviours, creating principal-agent and supplier-induce demand relations. Both analysis assume that agents, i.e. gatekeepers act in behalf of the principals, i.e. consumers but also artists, and impose patrician views under the assumption of having superior industry expertise. This study assumed that gatekeepers have power to shape the market by controlling communication channels that influence artists’ careers and audiences’ consumption, and bear the responsibility of the sectors’ functioning. Focusing on the jazz sector in Netherlands, we conducted a qualitative research, interviewing Dutch jazz experts on the subject of: What are the aspects influencing the decision-making process of gatekeepers in the Dutch jazz industry? We adopted a wide approach of investigation aiming to analyse multiple contexts which may influence gatekeepers’ decision-making. In the process, we attempted to understand the function of the sector and outline the infrastructure of the jazz industry in the Netherlands. Our hypothesis was confirmed, gatekeepers control the communication channels and have the resources to influence the market, however the responsibility of the sector does not stands entirely on their shoulders. Findings revealed that decision-making is influenced by gatekeepers’ taste and preferences, own sense-making and subjective interpretation of artistic characteristics used in selection criteria, the jazz market (i.e. current situation and resources), gatekeepers’ for-profit and non-profit character, the bureaucracy of the employer company, and various interrelations taking place in the sector. It was shown that gatekeepers do not actively engage in imposing a market power.