Assessing the Business Model of Creative and Cultural Organizations Participating in the European Capital of Culture Program

There is an interesting debate around the role played by a European Capital of Culture (ECoC)—a city designated as a cultural capital in its subregion and beyond—in the development and growth of creative and cultural organizations working in that city. While it is widely acknowledged that the mega-event of designating a city as an ECoC has an impact on the city’s broader pro􀁿le and can improve the credibility of the city’s creative o􀁼erings, creative and cultural organizations engaged with the development of such mega-events have had a variety of experiences. This chapter describes the impacts on the business model of some creative and cultural organizations that experienced Matera ECoC 2019, exploring and analyzing them through the lens of the Business Model Prism, a multidimensional framework describing the structure and logic of the business model of a creative and cultural organization. The exploratory research involved 􀁿ve cultural organizations that led as many big projects within the Matera ECoC 2019 program. The analysis of cases reveals various impacts and con􀁿rms the importance of a mega-event like ECoC in boosting business model improvement and generating new growth opportunities. After providing a short view on the evaluation of ECoC impacts, the chapter describes the Business Model Prism and the 􀁿ndings of the case studies analysis. Finally, the chapter provides some concluding remarks and suggests future avenues of research.