The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Culture Italian style: business and the arts

Culture Italian style: business and the arts
Culture Italian style: business and the arts
Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate the practice of business investment in arts and culture, and provide a better understanding of this phenomenon from a competitive strategy perspective.
Design/methodology/approach – Our understanding of the way in which companies build relations with the arts and cultural world is very limited. Many studies have looked at the marketing implications but have not really expanded on the larger impact of these activities on overall company strategy and results. The competitive advantage/competitive strategy framework provides a new perspective on the issue and highlights how the different ways in which businesses collaborate and build relations with the arts can be understood as an integral part of the company's activities. In order to illustrate how arts and culture can impact on companies' competitive advantage we present a series of case studies from Italy.
Findings – The case studies presented provide a useful set of tools for other companies, involved in supporting the arts or considering similar activities, to benchmark their activities and the nature of their involvement against some successful international case studies.
Originality/value – The paper is an original attempt to situate a common business practice such as business support of the arts in a larger understanding of our socio-economic context. Such practices are usually dismissed as simple philanthropy, although they can have a strong connection with the competitive strategy of a company and be a source of competitive advantage, particularly in a new economic era where aesthetic, creative and symbolic values attached to goods and services are becoming increasingly important.
37-44
Comunian, Roberta
b1544603-a6ea-4f7f-b551-debe9e2ffc91
Comunian, Roberta
b1544603-a6ea-4f7f-b551-debe9e2ffc91

Comunian, Roberta (2008) Culture Italian style: business and the arts. Journal of Business Strategy, 29 (3), 37-44. (doi:10.1108/02756660810873209).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate the practice of business investment in arts and culture, and provide a better understanding of this phenomenon from a competitive strategy perspective.
Design/methodology/approach – Our understanding of the way in which companies build relations with the arts and cultural world is very limited. Many studies have looked at the marketing implications but have not really expanded on the larger impact of these activities on overall company strategy and results. The competitive advantage/competitive strategy framework provides a new perspective on the issue and highlights how the different ways in which businesses collaborate and build relations with the arts can be understood as an integral part of the company's activities. In order to illustrate how arts and culture can impact on companies' competitive advantage we present a series of case studies from Italy.
Findings – The case studies presented provide a useful set of tools for other companies, involved in supporting the arts or considering similar activities, to benchmark their activities and the nature of their involvement against some successful international case studies.
Originality/value – The paper is an original attempt to situate a common business practice such as business support of the arts in a larger understanding of our socio-economic context. Such practices are usually dismissed as simple philanthropy, although they can have a strong connection with the competitive strategy of a company and be a source of competitive advantage, particularly in a new economic era where aesthetic, creative and symbolic values attached to goods and services are becoming increasingly important.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2008

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 64149
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/64149
PURE UUID: 1b2caeaa-3219-4351-8bbf-012c5e0fe541

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 Dec 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 11:46

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Roberta Comunian

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×