ABSTRACT

While studies have described the role of international trade fairs in building new industries, few have analyzed the reverse: that of companies detaching from fairs, and the contexts in which such events disappear. We study the processes of attachment and detachment to trade fairs in the television programming and distribution industry, using two polar cases: a recently created trade fair in Africa, at the fringes of the globalized market; and a declining trade fair in eastern Europe, which had once been a hub for international trade. We use quantitative data to characterize the degree of internationalization of these two fairs, and focus with qualitative data on the organization of these events. We show that attachment occurs when a fair is new and unavoidable for industry actors; but in older marketplaces, already integrated in globalized markets, powerful actors can detach from the marketplace and re-embed their commercial interactions into personal networks.

摘要

虽然研究描述了国际贸易展览会在建立新产业中的作用，但很少有人分析相反的情况：公司脱离展览会，以及此类事件消失的背景。我们研究依恋和分离的过程使用两个极端案例参加电视节目和发行行业的贸易展览会：最近在非洲举办的贸易展览会，位于全球化市场的边缘；东欧曾经是国际贸易的枢纽，贸易展览会日渐衰落。我们使用定量数据来表征这两个展会的国际化程度，并重点关注这些活动组织的定性数据。我们表明，当展会是新的并且对行业参与者来说不可避免时，就会产生依恋；但在已经融入全球化市场的旧市场中，强大的参与者可以脱离市场，将他们的商业互动重新嵌入个人网络中。