Art for Whose Sake? Managing Professional Autonomy and Empowered Clients in the Porcelain Capital of China

Abstract

Existing research suggests that experts often protect their professional autonomy by rejecting lay clients’ feedback or passing it to intermediaries (e.g., managers and agents). However, the rise of review platforms and disintermediated marketplaces has empowered clients to publicly share challenging feedback, and experts’ defensive tactics may further erode public trust in their services. In contrast, our qualitative study of 67 porcelain artists in China reveals that experts can effectively translate clients’ feedback to preserve their professional autonomy. These artists decomposed and distilled their expertise—differentiating the essential, identity-defining aspects from the more-peripheral, expendable ones—allowing them to incorporate clients’ feedback into the latter aspects while retaining control over the former ones. This strategy enabled the artists to integrate client-driven creations into their professional identity as artistic experts, thereby preserving their professional autonomy. Notably, not all artists adopted this strategy. Those who considered their work as an indivisible whole were financially compelled to bend to clients’ demands, or they chose to exit the profession. These findings present a paradoxical view of professional autonomy, suggesting that experts can maintain their professional freedom by granting clients limited and selective influence, thereby fostering clients’ compliance and public recognition in an era of increasing influence by lay audiences.