Performing Arts Entrepreneurship: Toward a Research Agenda

Starting from the position that performing arts entrepreneurship (PAE) deserves its own theoretical treatment in the literature, this article addresses fundamental questions within that subfield. The first step is to define PAE, necessarily incorporating the related concepts of "The Performing Arts Event Cycle" and the "Performing Arts Value Chain." The question of why PAE takes place explores the motivations of performing arts entrepreneurs, looking beyond the traditional profit motive. Where PAE occurs is the next question, taking into account audiences, financial resources, available performance venues, and artistic inputs. The final two questions have to do with the timing of PAE, as well as who engages in this activity. Relevance to existing and future research is discussed, as are implications for practice. KEYWORDS: entrepreneurshipperforming arts organizationsperforming arts value chain Acknowledgments The author gratefully acknowledges that financial support for this research was received from a grant partly funded by WLU Operating funds and partly by the SSHRC Institutional Grant awarded to WLU. An earlier version of this article was presented to the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium, Bergen, Norway (2006). Notes 1. One notable exception is the seminal work by CitationJeffri (1980); however, advances to her work in the last quarter century have been sporadic. 2. It is important to note that many performing arts events are provided free to the "consumer" (e.g., summer street festivals) and would, therefore, not be captured in this survey. 4. This definition is meant to be broad and flexible, including such activities as the circus arts and a variety of different cultural permutations. 5. The predominance of the not-for-profit status has only evolved within the last half century and the differences from for-profit organizations are not always distinct. See Dimaggio (1987) or CitationAuteri (2003) for exhaustive discussions on this topic. 6. The idea of opportunities being created versus found has also been debated in the general case of entrepreneurship (CitationCunningham and Lischeron 1991).