IJAM Volume 21 Number 1 (PRINT)

FROM THE EDITOR

As we mark the 20th anniversary of the Journal’s founding, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Marilena Vecco, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship, Burgundy School of Business (CEREN, EA 7477, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté), as Associate Editor for themes related to entrepreneurship. Currently her research focus is contemporary art markets and young cultural entrepreneurs.

This Fall 2018 issue provides an inspiring view on management and marketing research in the field of arts and culture. It includes three papers selected as the “best” among those presented at the 2017 AIMAC Conference in Beijing, later revised by their authors. The first, by Anne Gombault, Oihab Allal-Chérif, Aurélien Décamps and Claire Grellier, examines how heritage organizations in South West Europe adopt information and communication technology. Francesco Zanibellato, Umberto Rosin and Francesco Casarin are the authors of the second contribution, which looks into how museums’ attributes influence electronic word of mouth. The third selected conference paper highlights the research of a doctoral student, Li-Min Lin, and her thesis director, Yi Lin, on cost disease in the performing arts in China and the United States.

The topics of the other management contributions in this issue of IJAM relate to arts organizations. Bruce Thibodeau and Charles- Clemens Rüling look at how project champions and followers advance cultural facilities from dormant project ideas to reach the start of construction, based on five case studies. Vasiliki Velli and Kleanthis Sirakoulis use a case-study approach as well, to determine how five Greek theatres measure their performance. They identify three dimensions: financial success, artistic activity and audience satisfaction. Our last management article, by Pascale Landry, deals with succession in the position of artistic director in arts organizations. The author identifies eight theoretical types of succession, four planned and four unplanned.

Finally, an article by Giulia Cancellieri and Alex Turrini contributes to the research on univore and omnivore audiences. These authors focus on practices that foster the development of an omnivore aesthetic disposition by the upper social classes. Unveiling the distinctive traits of voracious and eclectic performing arts audiences may enable marketing managers to differentiate their loyalty-building policies according to the characteristics of attendees.

I wish you insightful reading.

André Courchesne
Editor