
Lecturer in Creative Industries
Roles and Responsibilities
Lecturer in Creative Industries at the University of Edinburgh Business School.
Director of MSc Creative Industries at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Background
I joined the University of Edinburgh Business School in January 2020 from the University of Warwick, where I worked as research fellow on a European project. I received my PhD in General Management from the University of Bologna, Italy. I have been visiting scholar at Columbia University, Department of Sociology, and Freie Universität Berlin, Department of Management. Since 2021, I am the co-organizer of CIC – the Creative Industries Conference.
Research Interests
My research is focused on the creative and cultural industries, with primary applications in the field of electronic music and its acute connections to innovation, identity, and "performance". My work, among other issues, analyses the reception and diffusion of novelty, the generative interaction between producers and audiences, the role of aesthetics in cultural markets, and the nature of creativity as a process that unfolds over space and time. In my research, I use a range of research techniques and methods, including multivariate regression analysis, social sequence, social network, and text analysis, ethnography and interview, and visual analysis.
Selected Publications
Sgourev, Aadland, & Formilan (2023). “Relations in Aesthetic Space: How Color Enables Market Positioning". Administrative Science Quarterly, 68(1): 146–185.
Formilan, Cattani, & Ferriani (2021). "Trajectories of Consecration: Signature Style and the Pace of Category Spanning". Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 75: 39–63.
Formilan (2021). "Style Typologies and Competitive Advantage". Advances in Strategic Management vol. 42 (Aesthetics and Style in Strategy): 19–47.
Formilan & Stark (2020). “Underground Testing: Name-Altering Practices as Probes in Electronic Music”. The British Journal of Sociology, 71(3): 572–589.
Research Video
Giovanni Formilan discusses his research on the creative industries, particularly in the music field. He investigates artistic identity, market dynamics, and patterns of mobility.