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Arts & Communication

ARTICLE
Business models transformation in the creative

industries: Performing arts organizations in the
post-COVID era

1,2
Silvia Cacciatore *
1 Ministry of Culture, Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity, Rome, Italy
2 Department of Management, Venice School of Management, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy

Abstract
Rapid changes in the business models (BMs) of cultural and creative industries
(CCIs) have occurred recently, owing largely to the dynamics accelerated by the
COVID-19 pandemic and technological evolution, which have resulted in a strong
interconnection between social, cultural, and digital challenges. The present research
highlights the main changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the BM
of 12 Italian performing arts organizations using a mixed research methodology
(qualitative and quantitative) carried out through semi-structured interviews, a
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis, and an analysis of the
economic-financial data of the organizations involved. The paper presents the
study’s main findings and contrasts them with some recent scientific research
*Corresponding author:
Silvia Cacciatore on BM, allowing for comparison and debate on significant issues developed (new
(silvia.cacciatore@cultura.gov.it) technologies and social and environmental impact). The uniqueness of the approach
Citation: Cacciatore S. Business employed in this research lies in recognizing these characteristics, particularly the
models transformation in the challenges of sustainability, as critical in producing value for CCI.
creative industries: Performing
arts organizations in the post-
COVID era. Arts & Communication. Keywords: Business models; Performing arts organizations; Cultural and creative
2025;3(2):2974.
doi: 10.36922/ac.2974 industries; Sustainability
Received: February 20, 2024
Revised: March 17, 2024
Accepted: April 8, 2024 1. Introduction
Published online: October 14, The COVID-19 pandemic triggered both indirect and drastic changes in businesses,
2024 notably in the creative sectors. These changes had a tremendous impact, particularly
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). on performing arts organizations (PAOs), which were forced to suspend activities for a
This is an Open-Access article prolonged period due to theater closures. The subsequent reopening of performing arts
distributed under the terms venues posed significant challenges for the theater and dance industries, largely because
of the Creative Commons
AttributionNoncommercial License, they had to adjust their spaces to comply with regulations that were difficult to implement
permitting all non-commercial use, within facilities that were not necessarily built in a canonical fashion (with stalls, a stage,
distribution, and reproduction in any a proscenium, and a double entrance and exit system). Furthermore, the same internal
medium, provided the original work
is properly cited. organizational structure of creative firms exposed its flaws, exposing its weakness in the
face of a crisis that highlighted the necessity for organized staff in important areas such
Publisher’s Note: AccScience
Publishing remains neutral with as management and external communication.
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional This research aimed to highlight the challenges faced by 12 PAOs operating in Italy
affiliations. that were forced to halt operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These organizations

Volume 3 Issue 2 (2025) 1 doi: 10.36922/ac.2974