Organizing artistic activities in a recurrent manner: (on the nature of) entrepreneurship in the performing arts

Abstract

A majority of performing arts organizations active in classical music, theatre, and contemporary dance rely on funding from “third parties” in order to organize productions in a recurrent manner. We adopt an entrepreneurial perspective to inform the debate on the economic sustainability of performing arts organizations: Is it a “deficit” in entrepreneurial orientation that condemns these organizations to financial dependence? Relying on a comparative case study design (n = 12), we distill a process model of performing arts entrepreneurship (PAE), which we compare with insights on innovative entrepreneurship. Our findings reveal that it is neither a lack of entrepreneurial dynamics nor the presence of opposing logics that creates dependence on multiple revenue streams. The introduction of a second revenue stream follows from adhering to artistic distinctiveness. Implications for practice and theory are elaborated.