Balancing Art and Commerce: How Business Actors Navigate Competing Logics

What is it about?

This study examines how business actors operate within complex institutional environments shaped by both artistic and commercial expectations. Institutional logics—shared systems of meaning and norms that guide behavior—are open to interpretation, allowing actors to engage with them creatively. The research highlights how these actors navigate and balance the coexistence of aesthetic and market logics, revealing the interpretive processes that underpin their everyday practices. Drawing on an inductive case study of the Ontario wine industry, the study shows that actors use distinct scripts to navigate and reconcile two dominant logics in their field. The “farmer” and “artist” scripts reflect the aesthetic logic, emphasizing craftsmanship, authenticity, and creativity, while the “business professional” script aligns with the market logic of profitability and efficiency. Actors flexibly shift among these scripts depending on audience, without a fixed link between logic and audience. For practitioners, the study underscores that navigating multiple institutional expectations requires interpretive flexibility. Business actors who face competing pressures from creativity and commerce can benefit from the ability to shift between roles and scripts depending on situational demands. This adaptability enables them to address diverse stakeholder expectations while maintaining legitimacy and coherence within complex institutional settings.

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Photo by Marius Ciocirlan on Unsplash

Photo by Marius Ciocirlan on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This research deepens understanding of institutional complexity by illustrating how actors actively interpret and engage with multiple logics rather than simply conforming to them. By identifying specific scripts that embody aesthetic and market orientations, it offers insight into how legitimacy is constructed through flexible and context-dependent practices. As organizations increasingly operate in environments where artistic authenticity and commercial viability coexist, this study provides timely lessons on balancing creativity and professionalism. Success in such settings depends not on exclusive commitment to one logic but on the capacity to interpret, blend, and transition between institutional expectations with skill and awareness.