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The purpose of this research is to explore the economic and social arguments used in support of government assistance for cultural well‐being, and the accounting measures used to capture cultural well‐being at a regional level in New Zealand.

Accounting information reported in city council annual reports is used to examine expenditure on cultural well‐being. The research investigates possible relationships between regional economic growth and regional expenditure on arts, culture and heritage. It also investigates justifications for expenditure on activities classified under the category of arts, culture and heritage in the annual reports produced by New Zealand city councils.

In most regions, funding for cultural activities has increased over the past ten years. The findings of this research indicate there is no significant relationship between funding on cultural activities and regional economic growth. Instead, the research highlights the emphasis placed on social benefit arising from funding cultural activities.

The research is limited by access to comparable data. Accordingly, not all New Zealand regions are included in the analysis, resulting in a small number of observations. Moreover, robust city‐based measures of economic growth are unavailable, resulting in the use of labour force participation as a proxy for economic growth, together with the elimination of some regions in part of the analysis.

Extant literature indicates that government expenditure on artistic and cultural activities is undertaken for reasons that include: possible economic benefit or generation of externalities, mitigation of market failure, educational purposes or improved national identity. In New Zealand, the “merit good” argument prevails with the objective of spending on artistic and cultural activity by local government expected to generate social rather than economic benefit.

In line with the reappraisal of the welfare state concept started in the 1980s and culminated in the recent economic crisis, governments have reduced the public funding available to cultural institutions. Thus, cultural institutions have progressively adopted more market-oriented practices, rethinking their relationship with the world of business in order to get additional economic resources. This chapter addresses corporate support to the arts and culture in the case of Italy, a country where government has traditionally played a central role in supporting culture. Drawing on the extant literature on sponsorships and corporate philanthropy, we propose a cluster analysis carried out on 160 investments in artistic or cultural activities made by 95 mid-sized Italian companies between 2008 and 2015. Results provide an up-to-date empirical evidence of corporate giving patterns in Italy and suggest an original typology of business investments in the arts and culture. Our study, focusing on the case of a Latin country and on a sample of mid-sized companies, extends the empirical settings usually investigated. Moreover, different from previous studies, we elucidate the influence that the characteristics of supporting organizations have on business investments in the arts and culture.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of the environment on the financial performance in public sports agencies at the local level.

The influence of the socio-demographic, socio-economic and political environment on the financial condition of municipal sports agencies in Spain from 2003 to 2011 was studied by several regression models.

The results show a negative influence of the size of the population and a positive influence of the municipal taxes per capita. The influence of the political context is not demonstrated. However, the set of variables only explain a small percentage of the variance.

The main limitation of this study is the possible existence of other non-controlled environmental variables. However, this study approaches genuinely the effect of the environment on municipal sports agencies, which has important research implications as it shows additional information to be contrasted with other researches in different countries or regions.

The information provided in this study will be of great importance for managers to select more objectively other entities in benchmarking development.

Finally, this study uses a non-exploited database and redirects performance management studies to other areas of service provision such as sport.

El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar la influencia del entorno sobre el rendimiento financiero de las agencias de servicios deportivos municipales.

Se ha analizado la influencia del entorno socio-demográfico, socio-económico y político sobre la condición financiera de las agencias de servicios deportivos municipales en España, del 2003 al 2011, a través de diversos modelos de regresión.

Los resultados muestran una influencia negativa del tamaño de la población y una influencia positiva de los impuestos municipales per cápita. La influencia del contexto político no queda demostrada. Sin embargo, el conjunto de variables utilizadas solo explica un pequeño porcentaje de la varianza.

La principal limitación de este estudio es la posible existencia de otras variables del entorno que no han sido controladas. Sin embargo, este estudio es pionero al analizar la influencia del entorno en agencias deportivas, lo cual conlleva implicaciones de investigación ya que muestra información para ser contrastada con nuevos estudios en otros países.

La información proporcionada en este estudio será de utilidad para los gestores, al poder seleccionar de forma más objetiva otras entidades para el desarrollo de actividades de benchmarking.

Por último, este estudio utiliza una base de datos no explotada, redireccionando los estudios de gestión del rendimiento a otras áreas de servicios concretas como la deportiva.

The purpose of this paper is to examine, through a microeconomic analysis, the extent to which trip characteristics influence tourism expenditure in 14 emerging urban-cultural cities in Andalusia (Spain).

This analysis was carried out using an ordinary least squares method, which measures influence on tourism expenditure based on the trip characteristics of tourists visiting emerging urban-cultural cities. For this, the authors used 3,030 surveys conducted on tourists who, in 2013, visited 14 emerging urban-cultural cities in Andalusia (Spain).

It was confirmed that certain trip characteristics – type of accommodation, length of stay, trip planning and internet use – determine tourism expenditure in these destinations. The findings provide stakeholders in these destinations with information for the implementation of policies aiming to increase revenue in destinations where tourism development levels are still in their infancy and where, therefore, there are many unexploited opportunities.

First, this study identifies those trip characteristics which influence tourist expenditure in emerging urban tourist destinations. These destinations, to date, had not been previously analysed in expenditure segmentation studies. Second, aside from the factors traditionally analysed in scientific literature, other trip-specific variables were considered; these relate to the means by which tourists familiarise themselves with their destination and the way in which they plan their trip (use of the internet), as the rise of new technologies has radically changed tourism.

This study aims to contribute to the existing literature by empirically investigating the impact of digital competitiveness and technology on corruption under the moderating effect of some cultural and economic control variables and providing evidence on the links between corruption and various cultural dimensions at the country level.

The cross-sectional sample covers 61 countries (41 high-income and 20 lower-income countries) during the 2016–2020 period, and the analysis was carried out for both the full sample and the subsamples.

The results provide clear evidence supporting the hypothesis that digitalisation and technology significantly affect the perceived level of corruption under the moderating role of cultural framework and economic development. Furthermore, the most significant cultural dimensions of corruption are individualism versus collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation and indulgence versus restraint, even if, in some cases, its influence might be felt differently when the results are estimated on subsamples. Thus, in the case of indulgence versus restraint, high-income countries with higher indulgence scores would register higher scores for the corruption perception index and thus a better control of corruption, while for lower-income countries, the more indulgent these countries are, the weaker the corruption control will be. Furthermore, our results validate a powerful and significant correlation between the index of economic freedom and corruption in both digitalisation and technology.

This study may have relevant implications for policymakers who need to recognise the role of digitalisation and technology in the fight against corruption but considering the cultural and economic characteristics specific to each country.

To the authors' knowledge, the relationship between digital competitiveness, technology and corruption within an economic and cultural framework, while highlighting the differences between high-income and lower-income countries, has not been previously documented in the literature. Thus, this article argues that the level of digital competitiveness and the adoption of technology would significantly impact the level of perceived corruption, although this impact could be felt differently by countries in the high-income category compared to countries in the lower-level income category.

In the spirit of ‘Europe of the Regions’, local authorities are responsible for responding to the main interests, needs and preferences of the country’s citizens. Regional and local administrative authorities provide citizens with the necessary public goods, which reflect the trend towards ‘glocalisation’ in public administration at the European level, more significantly in the states in which the political system recently became democratic. With this background, the effectiveness of local self-government depends not only on local authorities’ decision-making freedom but also on (financial) support for it through decentralisation, and the member states of the European Union (EU) employ different strategies to achieve the same goal, with varying degrees of success. Within this context, our chapter offers a comparative analysis of the administrative, financial and local self-government decentralisation in member states, which include the southern and eastern regions on the outer edges of the EU. The general goal of our study is to identify the main trends in the present administrations and their challenges, as well as best practices that can offer lessons to other member states which are reforming their administration through decentralisation. In addition to the identified challenges, solutions and best practices, our study reveals a tendency towards consolidation at the level of regional government not only in the terms of legal responsibility but also of administrative budgets, thus generating an assumption of improvement in the general quality of governance in the member states.

Emerging initiatives in British Columbia and elsewhere clearly suggest that by working with tourism stakeholders, the wine industry can not only contribute to the development of rural tourism, but it can also gain valuable direct marketing and value added sales advantages. For these benefits to be fully realized, more must be known about the character of travel markets interested in wine tourism. To provide insights into BC's domestic wine tourist markets, this research involves two overriding phases of investigation. Initially, it conducts an overview analysis of BC's domestic wine tourists. The second phase of the study involves describing a small but valuable and growing niche market of culturally oriented wine tourists. It then suggests several product development strategies suited to attracting and retaining such wine tourists. The strategies relate to incorporating a range of wine and non‐wine related activities into the tourism experience, creating strong connections between local wines and regional cuisine, building cultural and heritage dimensions into wine tourism product packages, incorporating and promoting environmentally friendly resource management practices; and, protecting wine tourism landscapes. While the empirical part of this investigation is focused on BC wine tourists, the findings provide insights into strategies suited to other wine producing regions in Canada and elsewhere.

The impact of event quality on expenditure and visitors’ loyalty has been an issue seldom analyzed by festival literature. These same incidental relations were not assessed from a temporary perspective in the case of recurrent cultural events. This paper aims to explore these causal relationships and to report on the moderation effect of the temporary inquiry on the editions of the festival.

Nine hypotheses were examined through squares SEM techniques, and the model validation was carried out by assessing the measurement and structural model. In addition, a multi-group analysis was performed to test the temporary moderation effect. Finally, a survey was applied during three successive editions (2013 = 164 cases, 2014 = 154 cases, 2015 = 128 cases).

The local and ephemeral nature of the festival favors immediate consumption, and the budget share increase among categories passes through diversification to stimulate purchases. In this particular context, the moderation induced by the sequence of editions had a conclusive impact on the analyzed relationships, generating the need to focus on the temporary variability to understand and operate the recurrent events.

The strengthening of the festival went through a stage where it opened to other segments of visitors despite the dominant opinion to preserve the local character of the event. In addition, this study clarifies that a retrospective analysis of previous editions, when compared to the stationarity perspective of the festival, allows a better understanding of the required upgrading to preserve visitor loyalty.

El impacto de la calidad del evento en el gasto y la lealtad de los visitantes ha sido un tema pocas veces analizado por la literatura de los festivales. Estas mismas relaciones incidentales no fueron valoradas desde una perspectiva temporal en el caso de eventos culturales recurrentes. El artículo explora estas relaciones causales e informa sobre el efecto moderador de la investigación longitudinal de las ediciones del festival.

Se examinaron nueve hipótesis a través de técnicas de cuadrados MES, y la validación se llevó a cabo mediante la evaluación del modelo estructural y de medición. Además, se realizó un análisis multigrupo para probar el efecto de moderación longitudinal. Los datos analizados provienen de encuestas aplicadas durante tres ediciones sucesivas (2013 = 164 casos, 2014 = 154 casos, 2015 = 128 casos).

El carácter local y efímero del evento favorece el consumo inmediato, y el aumento de la participación en el gasto entre categorías pasa por la diversificación que permite estimular la compra. En este contexto particular, la moderación inducida por la secuencia de ediciones incidió contundentemente en las relaciones analizadas, generando la necesidad de prestar atención a los cambios temporales para comprender y operar los eventos recurrentes.

El fortalecimiento del festival pasó por una etapa donde se abrió a otros segmentos de visitantes a pesar de la opinión dominante de preservar el carácter local del evento. Además, este estudio aclara que un análisis retrospectivo de ediciones anteriores, en comparación con la perspectiva de la estacionariedad del evento, permite gestionar la actualización necesaria que permite preservar la lealtad del visitante.

This chapter explores differences in fringe, distant, and remote rural public library assets for asset-based community development (ABCD) and the relationships of those assets to geographic regions, governance structures, and demographics.

The author analyzes 2013 data from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture using nonparametric statistics and data mining random forest supervised classification algorithms.

There are statistically significant differences between fringe, distant, and remote library assets. Unexpectedly, median per capita outlets (along with service hours and staff) increase as distances from urban areas increase. The Southeast region ranks high in unemployment and poverty and low in median household income, which aligns with the Southeast’s low median per capita library expenditures, staff, hours, inventory, and programs. However, the Southeast’s relatively high percentage of rural libraries with at least one staff member with a Master of Library and Information Science promises future asset growth in those libraries. State and federal contributions to Alaska libraries propelled the remote Far West to the number one ranking in median per capita staff, inventory, and programs.

This study is based on IMLS library system-wide data and does not include rural library branches operated by nonrural central libraries.

State and federal contributions to rural libraries increase economic, cultural, and social capital creation in the most remote communities. On a per capita basis, economic capital from state and federal agencies assists small, remote rural libraries in providing infrastructure and services that are more closely aligned with libraries in more populated areas and increases library assets available for ABCD initiatives in otherwise underserved communities.

Even the smallest rural library can contribute to ABCD initiatives by connecting their communities to outside resources and creating new economic, cultural, and social assets.

Analyzing rural public library assets within their geographic, political, and demographic contexts highlights their potential contributions to ABCD initiatives.

This chapter sheds light on long-term trends in the level and structural dynamics of investments in Russian human capital formation from government, corporations, and households. It contributes to the literature discussing theoretical issues and empirical patterns of modernization, human development, as well as the transition from a centralized to a market economy. The empirical evidence is based on extensive utilization of the dataset introduced in Didenko, Földvári, and Van Leeuwen (2013). Our findings provide support for the view expressed in Gerschenkron (1962) that in late industrializers the government tended to substitute for the lack of capital and infrastructure by direct interventions. At least from the late nineteenth century the central government's and local authorities' budgets played the primary role. However, the role of nongovernment sources increased significantly since the mid-1950s, i.e., after the crucial breakthrough to an industrial society had been made. During the transition to a market economy in the 1990s and 2000s the level of government contributions decreased somewhat in education, and more significantly in research and development, but its share in overall financing expanded. In education corporate funds were largely replaced by those from households. In health care, Russia is characterized by an increasing share of out-of-pocket payments of households and slow development of organized forms of nonstate financing. These trends reinforce obstacles to Russia's future transition, as regards institutional change toward a more significant and sound role of the corporate sector in such branches as R&D, health care, and, to a lesser extent, education.