Managing culture matters: Genre, aesthetic elements, and the international market for exported television

Our research analyzes the international market for exported television. As a culture industry it is complicated by product uniqueness, culturally-based differences in understandings of desirable product attributes, and the considerable uncertainty of successful reception as programs cross regional, national, and international borders. We draw upon the concept of a culture world to examine both the ways in which matters of cultural production and distribution are "managed" through the business arrangements industry participants rely upon and the ways that the attributes of the products themselves are configured and interpreted by buyers and sellers as they cross borders. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved