Abstract
<p>In recent years, arts organizations in the UK have faced challenging times due to severe funding cuts from government and depressed box office sales during the recession. In the UK’s current cultural policy, ‘social impacts’ of the arts are highly emphasized and state interventions are intensified both in terms of finance and legitimacy. What is necessary for arts organizations to produce social impacts is their active provision of ‘deliberate extra activities’, which are generally conducted in the form of education, community, participation or outreach programs. The Royal Opera House (ROH) case study provides an apt example of how to exercise these activities effectively to deliver social impacts. Based on Rothchild’s theoretical Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability (MOA) framework, this study aims to find out how the UK Royal Opera House stimulated motivation among arts audiences and facilitated opportunities for them, thereby allowed them to translate motivation into action. The results show that the ROH implemented several specific strategies: ‘interest triggerings,’ ‘value creation and transmission,’ relationship building and management,’ and education. These strategies can motivate potential arts consumers to be familiar with classic arts, which lowers psychological barriers and stimulates intrinsic motivation to satisfy long-lasting and self-sustaining cultural needs. </p>
Highlights
In recent years, arts organizations in the UK have faced challenging times due to severe funding cuts from government and depressed box office sales during the recession
This study aims to fill this lacuna, by applying Rothschild's (1999) Motivation, Opportunity and Ability framework to the case of the Royal Opera House
The study found that the Royal Opera House (ROH) motivated and facilitated consumers' opportunities and abilities through a variety of art programs, campaigns, and events
Summary
Arts organizations in the UK have faced challenging times due to severe funding cuts from government and depressed box office sales during the recession. Due to apathy, low involvement, low loyalty or bias about elite culture among the general public, managers experience greater pressure to provide immediate benefit to customers with regard to classic arts such as opera, ballet, and classical music (Kemp & Poole, 2016) This is the reason why it is apt to consider the ROH case study in the context of marketing and public relations. This study aims to fill this lacuna by providing a longitudinal study of examining the ROH’s press releases, website information and promotional activities on its social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook It is beyond the scope of this study to evaluate how applicable the ROH case would be to smaller scale regional arts organizations (see Lee’s (2005) comparative study of four English theatres), it will bring forward valuable insights for relatively large-scale presenting/producing theatres while facilitating the development of intuitive discussion, policy implications and recommendations for the sector.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
