Arts and culture management : Academic research, a key factor for its development: heterogeneous topics that drive knowledge of the sector

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an overall picture of the five articles included in this issue highlighting their contributions and revealing the importance of academic research for arts and culture management as a nascent topic in the Latin American context. Design/methodology/approach This paper elaborates a critical description of the main aspects of the papers included. The contributions are grouped together around central topics pertaining to arts and culture management such as: audience creation and environment; museums, competition and efficiency; and management skills and entrepreneurship. Findings The contributions of the articles are as diverse as the topics included in them. Some highlight the importance of the context in audience creation processes, others reveal the determinants of the institutional variables in the efficiency of artistic organisations, and a final one, reveals the deconstruction of an artistic genre and its contribution to the comprehension of organisations’ innovation processes. However, the most important contribution, within the Latin American context, consists basically in a process of dissemination and knowledge of the research developed in different international contexts and which may apply to the analysis of arts and culture management in the region. Originality/value As noted in the body of this paper, the topic of cultural management is novel and has acquired notable importance in developed economies in which the arts and culture sector has strategic value. Latin America reveals an institutional revolution which situates the cultural sector in a predominant position where its contribution to the creation of social and economic value turns it into a key field in Latin American societies. Arts and culture constitute a factor of value creation which requires carefully planned and pertinent management processes. This publication, through its five contributions, all European, is a valuable tool of dissemination for knowledge and management in Latin America, where academic research into the sector is, as yet, incipient.