Innovative Financing Instruments for Cultural Organizations: A Typology and Barriers to Implementation in Germany with a Comparative Perspective on Italy

This master's thesis examines the barriers faced by publicly funded, highbrow cultural institutions in Italy and Germany when assessing, testing, and implementing “innovative” financing instruments. The research builds on a problem constellation combining the merit-good/quasi-public-good characteristics of cultural provision and the productivity gap (cost disease) with decreasing public funding and reinforcing external shocks and transformation processes that intensify pressure for revenue diversification. Barriers are conceptualized as cumulative constraints across the innovation process (awareness, experimentation, routinization) and as formal and informal mechanisms within a multi-level framework (macro, meso, micro). Innovative financing instruments are defined functionally as a reconfiguration of capital sources, actor constellations, and financing logics beyond the traditional pillars of public funding, earned income, and donations. Methodologically, the study employs a three-stage explanatory sequential mixed-methods design: a systematic literature review, a comparative analysis of the German and Italian cultural funding systems, and a categorization of potential instruments into five clusters; a quantitative online survey (Germany n=54; Italy n=20); and semi-structured expert interviews in Germany (n=9). Findings indicate three primary implementation barriers common to both countries: lack of staff time for experimentation, increased administrative burden, and limited institutional and legal leeway within cultural policy contexts. In Germany, budget rules (earmarking, reporting burdens, annuality) and municipal fiscal pressure restrict experimentation; in Italy, constraints relate inter alia to rigid core funding channels (including FSNV/FUS) and low accessibility/complexity of EU programs. The thesis concludes with brief recommendations for cultural management and policy.