IJAM Volume 9 Number 3 (PDF)

EDITOR’S NOTE

This issue has two main themes: management and marketing. Three articles are devoted to each.

The first article in the management section deals with leadership, specifically that of the orchestra conductor, the person who is the pillar of a the company’s artistic performance. Finland is known as a particularly fertile breeding ground for conductors, many of whom go on to make their mark on the world stage, where they are recognized for both their artistic and leadership qualities.

The second article looks at the school-to-work transition and examines how young visual artists succeed in penetrating a highly competitive market.

Finally, institutions of higher learning that train cultural managers could draw inspiration from a proven tool for evaluating university teaching programs, the Baldrige approach. The authors of our third article explain how those responsible for teaching programs can take advantage of this method to improve their offerings.

The first contribution in the marketing section of this issue looks at programming strategies; this article examines the theory of business relationships in distribution networks. An exploratory study leads the authors to develop hypotheses on the impact of the relations between producers and distributors based on theatres’ programming decisions.

The last two articles deal with the relationship of organizations with their audiences. Terry O’Sullivan describes the experience of British cultural organizations that use virtual communities to forge ties with their customers. Our Company Profile looks at how the Metropolitan Opera’s database management system was developed, its usefulness in improving relations with customers, its impact on ticket sales, and how it has been successfully adopted by other companies.

Please enjoy!

François Colbert
Editor