Business orientation and governance choices in cultural firms: a survey research in the area of Naples

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyze the level of innovation in terms of market and business orientation within cultural firms, to gain competitiveness in the global market. We conducted a census on the population of cultural organizations in the area of Naples. We applied some univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics and multivariate statistical analysis. Results show that the selected cultural firms are still rather conservative, even if we identified three different clusters, with different levels of business and market orientation. Our paper adds content to ongoing research on the topic. It offers a quantitative analysis within a literature that is mainly based on conceptual works. Both the principles and the proposed methodology can be applied, mutatis mutandis, to other geographical contexts in the same sector for interesting comparisons. However, the analysis is focused on a specific area and the selected sample is heterogeneous in terms of firm’s typology (heritage sites,museums, monuments, etc.), reflecting the typical structure of Italian cultural offer.