Abstract

In collaboration-based creative industries, such as film production, connections to central creators can facilitate individual success; while brokering loosely connected communities provide additional advantages. However, there is still limited evidence on how brokerage in core/periphery networks influence nodal outcomes. In this paper, we argue that links to peripheral creators provide additional and complementary benefits for core members, such as access to novel creative ideas or free capacities. Consequently, those creators who broker the core with the periphery of the network enjoy both type of benefits and thus are more likely to achieve success. To verify the argument, we construct a dynamic network of movie creators based on a unique dataset of Hungarian feature films for the 1990-2009 period. We provide evidence that being in the core and brokering the network at the same time induce individual success together. Then, we construct a new way to capture brokers’ role in core/periphery networks and find that those creators who bridge the core with the periphery have an increased likelihood of award winning.