Arts and Entrepreneurship: Disentangling the Literature

Arts entrepreneurship is not a new area of investigation, but it is far from constitutinga consolidated topic. Scholars coming from several fields rediscovered it only in recentyears, after a period in which it has been slow to emerge. Since the early 2000s, theydeveloped a heterogeneous literature, which is difficult to disentangle. Scholars, followingdifferent perspectives of investigation, have approached many issues revolvingaround this theme. The purpose of this study is to shed light on arts entrepreneurshipliterature, outlining the most significant issues emerged on the phenomenon and theirtrajectories for future development. We attempted to achieve the purpose of this chapterthrough a qualitative analysis of the relevant literature on the topic. Since literature is notconsolidated, we decided to refer to a wide range of resources, considering Scopus database.In this way, we identified about 60 publications. We then classified them based onseveral aspects, including authors, year of publication, source, issues investigated, andlevel of analysis. The content of all publications has been examined in detail and compared,thus getting a comprehensive picture of the literature on the theme. The analysisof the literature revealed the most relevant issues to which scholars are devoting theirefforts. With respect to these, we tried to identify subthemes and we attempted to tracethe trajectories for future research. The first main theme concerns the entrepreneur in thearts, focusing on aspects such as identity and characteristics, and examining training andentrepreneurial education. Among subthemes, we found the relationship between cultureand business and the similarities between the artist and the entrepreneur. Anothertheme regards entrepreneurship and training, which is attracting increasing attention,thanks also to the emergence of specific curricula and artistic incubators. Besides thesethemes, other collateral issues emerged, designing a complex picture. Ultimately, literatureis complex and multifaceted, but it is possible to read it with greater clarity.