TY - JOUR
T1 - Economies of scope in artists’ incubator projects
AU - Whitaker, Amy
N1 - Funding Information:
The author wishes to thank Esther Robinson, Guy Buckles, Will Toms, Titus Kaphar, Jason Price, Will Goetzmann, Roman Kräussl, Angie Kim, Abdiel Lopez, Kay Takeda, Patton Hindle, Hannah Grannemann, Sandy Lee, Neil Alper, students in the Hybrid Practice class at NYU, and participants in the Leveraging Creativity Research Workshop at Indiana University, especially the workshop convenors Joanna Woronkowicz and Doug Noonan. The author also thanks the anonymous reviewers for their comments which greatly strengthened the paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Although economies of scale are relatively well studied in the arts, economies of scope have received less attention. Yet recent trends toward freelancing and technological connectivity make scope economies especially timely in addressing structural challenges to artist-led incubators. This paper offers a conceptual framework for cooperative strategies that employ economies of scope both in the economic sense of joint production and in the financial sense of risk pooling. This framework distinguishes franchise, federation, and resource-sharing organizational structures as developed through case studies of two US-based organizations: ArtBuilt and REC (Resources for Every Creator), placed in a larger context of cooperative organizational strategy in the USA and Europe. The proposed strategies of cooperative networks (quasi-franchises, federations, or resource-sharing networks) also draw on a literature of spatial agglomeration in creative industries. The framework leads to more speculative ideas of “balance-sheet philanthropy” through credit backstopping by foundations, and of novel investment trusts that can be piloted across a range organizations including foundations, grant-makers, artist residency programs, and even for-profit companies engaged in reinsurance. The paper contributes managerial tools and strategies for the creative engagement of capacity building in arts organizations.
AB - Although economies of scale are relatively well studied in the arts, economies of scope have received less attention. Yet recent trends toward freelancing and technological connectivity make scope economies especially timely in addressing structural challenges to artist-led incubators. This paper offers a conceptual framework for cooperative strategies that employ economies of scope both in the economic sense of joint production and in the financial sense of risk pooling. This framework distinguishes franchise, federation, and resource-sharing organizational structures as developed through case studies of two US-based organizations: ArtBuilt and REC (Resources for Every Creator), placed in a larger context of cooperative organizational strategy in the USA and Europe. The proposed strategies of cooperative networks (quasi-franchises, federations, or resource-sharing networks) also draw on a literature of spatial agglomeration in creative industries. The framework leads to more speculative ideas of “balance-sheet philanthropy” through credit backstopping by foundations, and of novel investment trusts that can be piloted across a range organizations including foundations, grant-makers, artist residency programs, and even for-profit companies engaged in reinsurance. The paper contributes managerial tools and strategies for the creative engagement of capacity building in arts organizations.
KW - Creative industries
KW - Cultural economics
KW - Economics of art and literature (Z11)
KW - Entrepreneurship
KW - Property and intellectual capital (O34)
KW - Property rights (P14)
KW - Real estate services
KW - Social innovation
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U2 - 10.1007/s10824-021-09417-4
DO - 10.1007/s10824-021-09417-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105260259
SN - 0885-2545
VL - 45
SP - 613
EP - 631
JO - Journal of Cultural Economics
JF - Journal of Cultural Economics
IS - 4
ER -