Examining the Entrepreneuring Experiences of Opera-workers in Creating Different Forms of Value

<p><strong>Studies on entrepreneurial work in opera are rare, and scholarly interest in the experience of opera-workers has been limited. Yet, in a market economy where opera-workers are producers, audiences are customers, and financial return on investment is limited, understanding how opera-work creates value becomes critical. This research examines the experiences of opera-workers in deploying entrepreneurial practices in value-creating work. Positioned at the novel intersection of arts entrepreneurship with value and opera studies, the study uses social bricolage as a framework for entrepreneurial action and considers multiple forms of value creation. It draws from a set of 50 semi-structured interviews, conducted in three rounds, with seventeen opera-workers based in New Zealand.</strong></p><p>The research offers two sets of findings. Firstly, it identifies the types of economic, aesthetic and social value created through opera entrepreneuring for the opera-workers themselves, opera audiences and society. Within these broad categories of value, the research also reveals that opera-workers confront contradictions and tensions between aesthetic and economic value, as well as between aesthetic and social value. Secondly, the findings explicate the characteristics of entrepreneurial opera-work, demonstrating that it is not only entrepreneurial by necessity, but that it exhibits the criteria of social bricolage in distinctive ways. The analysis illustrates the six criteria of making do, limitations and constraints, improvisation, social value creation, stakeholder participation, and persuasion. Importantly, it also extends these criteria by offering in-depth contextualisation of their role in opera-work. The thesis contributes to the arts entrepreneurship literature by extending theory on social bricolage and tailoring each of its criteria for entrepreneurial opera-work. It forwards an expanded definition of arts entrepreneurship, which acknowledges the significance of both management and creative work. Simultaneously, the research contributes to the literature on value in the arts industry and proposes a new framework for economic, social and aesthetic value creation through entrepreneurial opera-work. A secondary contribution is made to the opera studies literature by offering a definition for entrepreneurial opera-work which highlights its distinctiveness as a creative and a management practice that is highly relational and multi-levelled. Altogether, this thesis offers new insights as it examines how opera-workers use entrepreneurial methods to create various forms of value that enable opera to flourish in the twenty-first century.</p>