Managing the Cultural Business : Avoiding Mistakes, Finding Success

The arts and cultural sector has always been a challenging area in which to find business success; the advent of the global health crisis due to COVID-19 has greatly amplified these challenges. Thanks to the expertise of 22 scholars, this text elaborates on the most common key strategic mistakes and misunderstandings to help arts and cultural organizations finding success.


This book starts by looking at the evolution of competition in those industries. Several new and challenging drivers shape the competitive environments of arts and cultural organizations. A customer-centric approach helps in identifying ten crucial managerial processes in which strategic mistakes are commonly made. This book proposes a revised managerial vision of the key processes that constitute every arts and cultural organization. Each chapter offers an innovative analysis of a classic managerial problem, describing popular mistakes and providing case-based insights derived from real world important examples. Specifically, each chapter elaborates on two illuminating examples, one of which is always chosen among the Italian arts and cultural organizations, thus belonging to the world's leading cultural sector.


Speaking to current and student arts managers, this insightful book channels national and supranational cultural heritage to provide essential reading for managers of present and future arts and cultural organizations.