The first global entertainment company: Explaining Pathé's dominance in the pre-Hollywood film industry

Abstract

For almost a decade before Hollywood existed, French firm Pathé towered over the early film industry with estimates of its share of all films sold around the world varying between 50 and 70%. Pathé was the first global entertainment company. This paper analyses its rise to market leadership by applying a theoretical framework drawn from the business literature on causes of industry dominance, which provides insights into how firms acquire and maintain market dominance. This paper uses evidence presented by film historians to argue that Pathé ‘fits’ the expected theoretical model of a dominant firm because it had a marketing orientation, used an effective quality-based competitive strategy and possessed the six critical strategic marketing capabilities that business research shows enable the best-performing firms to consistently outperform rivals.