The role of redeployment in the Hollywood movie industry: Joining the resource-based approach and the relational view

This dissertation is an exploration of the role of redeployment in the Hollywood movie industry with a focus on repeat contracting and rehiring talent and extends the redeployment literature by showing that theories of redeployment can inform choices of firms, even when resources are accessed via contracts. Based on a systematic review that links the antecedents and consequences of resource redeployment, this dissertation’s empirical chapters apply the resource-based approach and the relational view to contemporary Hollywood. In this project-based industry, resources are used and reused in temporary movie projects via contracts. Visual effects and talent are essential resources for making movies in contemporary Hollywood. Thus, in this dissertation, the role of redeployment in repeat contracting is examined by considering factors that could influence the likelihood of repeated contracts between a movie director and a visual effects (VFX) company. This dissertation also examines the role of redeployment in rehiring talent, and especially the impact of rehiring leading actors on the domestic box office revenue of movie sequels. The second chapter is a systematic review that integrates academic research on redeployment from various disciplines. Based on the literature published over the past fifty years, the second chapter synthesizes diverse research perspectives into a framework of redeployment that links its antecedents and consequences. Inducements, as a type of antecedent to redeployment, include resource fungibility, organizational slack, the number of previous collaborative interactions of a firm’s employees, a firm’s past redeployment experience, the relatedness between businesses, and horizontal acquisitions by a firm. The impediments to redeployment include knowledge diversity and the complex operations of a firm. Three antecedents—a firm’s previous performance, a firm’s modular form, and environmental uncertainty) have dual effects on a firm’s likelihood of redeployment, and act as both inducements and impediments. As for the consequences of redeployment, the decision to redeploy resources may increase a firm’s performance. In addition, redeployment has an inferred effect on a firm’s performance. Some inducements or impediments also influence a firm’s performance, conditioned on the likelihood of redeployment. Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 are empirical chapters in which the antecedents and consequences of the role of redeployment in Hollywood are examined. Chapter 3 addresses the antecedents of redeployment in repeat contracting. This chapter focuses on the factors that lead to the likelihood of repeated contracts between a movie director and a VFX company in movies that contain visual effects. The effects of a relationship between a movie director and a VFX company are examined, including the VFX company’s experience with the focal movie director and the average box office revenue associated with contracts between a movie director and the focal VFX company. In addition, it addresses the features of the VFX company, such as specialized services as a subcontractor and the volume of ongoing projects of the VFX company. This chapter finds that (i) a VFX company’s experience with the focal movie director has a positive effect on the likelihood of repeated contracts, (ii) the average box office revenue of movies that a movie director has made with the focal VFX company has a positive effect on the likelihood of repeated contracts, (iii) the degree of specialized services of a VFX company has a negative effect on the likelihood of repeated contracts; and (iv) the volume of ongoing projects of a VFX company in the same year compared to the average number of movies per year in the previous three-year period has a negative effect on the likelihood of repeated contracts. Chapter 4 focuses on the consequences of redeployment in rehiring talent. This chapter shows how rehiring talent increases the revenue of a project—in particular, the effect of rehiring leading actors on movie sequels’ box office revenue from 1980 to 2019. By applying the resource-based approach, this chapter finds that (i) the quantity of rehired actors has a positive effect on domestic box office revenue of movie sequels, (ii) the rehired actors’ quality of experience positively moderates the relationship between the quantity of rehired actors and the domestic box office revenue of the latter sequel, (iii) the time gap of rehiring actors between two sequels negatively moderates the relationship between the quantity of rehired actors and the domestic box office revenue of the latter sequel, and (iv) the collaborative experience between the rehired actors and newcomers has a positive effect of the domestic box office revenue of movie sequels. The final chapter provides a summary of the dissertation chapters. Chapter 5 includes conclusions of studies, contributions to the redeployment literature, limitations, and directions for future research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Ao, Jiayue (Julie)

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mahoney, Joseph
• Sakhartov, Arkadiy
• Somaya, Deepak
• Schijven, Mario
• Shamsie, Jamal

• Redeployment
• Hollywood
• Resource-based Approach
• Relational View

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Jiayue (Julie) Ao

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/120364

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F120364