Adapting to Crisis: Digital Transformation and Financial Strategies in the Italian Performing Arts Before, During and After COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic had a considerable impact on the performing arts worldwide. Losses of supply and demand were evident during the full period. The paper aims to understand how much the COVID-19 pandemic forced a big sample of the Italian performing arts to cope with stringency and develop a digital transformation, which reckoned the accounting of the Marketing and IT expense, which includes expenses for digital business and communication. A multiple, backward and linear regression was estimated for program service revenues depending on sponsorships and grants, public grants, marketing and IT expense and the personnel expense, before (2019), during (2020 and 2021) and after (2022 and 2023) the pandemic. Results provide evidence of positive and, during the whole period, increasing coefficients for the marketing and IT expense. Managerial implications include reporting, monitoring, and training with digital transformation and social media skills in competitive landscapes of entertainments after the pandemic.