The self-concept of book publishers and its significance for job satisfaction and satisfaction with economic success

The present article analyses two opposing self-concepts of entrepreneurs in the book publishing industry based on the well-known culture/commerce divide that operates in cultural industries. It analyses the effects of the self-concepts on entrepreneurial orientation, intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction and satisfaction with the economic success. The main result of our study is that there are two ways for gaining work satisfaction as a publisher. Both have inherent constraints. Publishers with a strong idealistic orientation to promote cultural goals are often not very satisfied with the economic success of their enterprises. However, their high intrinsic motivation enhances their job satisfaction. Publishers with a strong economic orientation derive their satisfaction primarily from their firms’ success and obtain high job satisfaction from that. Somewhat surprisingly we find a strong relationship between satisfaction with success and intrinsic motivation, a result that seemingly contradicts the crowding-out thesis, which asserts that extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. The limitations of this thesis and of its application to publishers are discussed. The data stems from a survey with responses of 196 publishers.