Abstract
Every year online sales represent a higher percentage of the sales total in nearly all sectors of the economy, and the art markets are no exception. However, there are few empirical studies showing how online sales and digital technologies are transforming the art markets at a micro-level. This study is based on the detailed examination of the financial performance of one of the two largest Portuguese auction houses, Cabral Moncada Leilões (CML), over a period of twelve years (2007–2018), complemented with interviews with its top-managers. It analyses a set of financial indicators (e.g., EBIT, ROA, EQUITY, sales volume, net results, etc.), along with some markers that are specific to the auction sector (e.g., average lot value, number of auctions per year, etc.). From this analysis it is possible to conclude that the deterioration of this company’s financial performance was the driving force that led it to explore the potential of digital economy. In the process, its business model changed dramatically, leading the company to a different market position and to the enlargement of its national and international customer base.
Highlights
The idea of selling art and antiques online was born in the late 1990s, when the usage of the internet was growing exponentially among common users
The goal of this study is to analyze the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) and online sales over
The conclusions that can be draw from its financial performance and strategic management are highly interesting, revealing how the adoption of digital technologies has led to a profound modification of its business model
Summary
The idea of selling art and antiques online was born in the late 1990s, when the usage of the internet was growing exponentially among common users. We are getting more and more dependent on E-commerce (electronic-commerce), namely by the development of M-commerce (mobile commerce), that is, all kind of monetary transactions conducted over wireless telecommunication networks, and by the expansion of U-commerce (ubiquitous commerce), that is, the dynamic convergence of traditional commerce with digital technologies supporting permanent and personalized exchange of information between customers, retailers and cloud computing systems (Wu and Hisa 2004). These new cyber-physical technologies intend to improve the communication between systems using artificial intelligence methods of auto-optimization, self-diagnosis and self-configuring, in the spirit of the so-called Industry 4.0
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