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 pub-lishing 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, intrin-sic 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.