Managing and Evaluating the Performing Arts: Value Creation through Resource Transformation

This article proposes a framework conceptualizing the artistic dimension of organizational performance in performing arts organizations that is grounded in empirical findings from case research in two world-renowned institutions. Thus, the framework is embedded in the specific artistic and institutional contexts it aims to represent, reflecting the real-life complexities of intertwined management and artistic practices. Using resource and competence thinking to analyze artistic processes in the performing arts, the framework captures how resources are deployed, developed and ultimately transformed to create and sustain artistic achievement. The concept entangles aspects of evaluation and strategic development, offering an alternative to mainstream management and evaluation approaches to arts management research that, by putting artistic work at the center of the inquiry, is informed by insights from the field.