Online User-Generated Contents for Performance Measurement of Cultural Institutions

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of online User-Generated Contents (UGCs), especially in textual form, as tools for Performance Measurement (PM) of cultural institutions. Even if previous studies recognized the potential of relying on data shared online by users to understand their behaviours, scant literature shows how to extract knowledge from online UGC texts and how to use these data to account for users’ perspectives in order to measure performances and support decision-making within organizations based on such information. This research wants to acknowledge and contribute in filling in this gap in current literature. Design/methodology/approach: From a methodological perspective, this research will be elaborated in three phases. The first phase will consist in the definition of a theoretical framework for measurement of performances through online data among which textual online UGCs analysis. This will be achieved based on the definition of a taxonomy of mathematical models that have been used in extant literature to capture and represent semantical and syntactical properties of text, combined with the identification of different types of text-based indicators to account for textual forms of online UGCs. In a second phase, the framework will be implemented in the context of cultural institutions, by means of a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. In particular, quantitative methods will be used for the statistical analysis of online text generated by users and particular attention will be reserved to the description of the procedure to collect, manage, pre-process, elaborate, interpret and report such analyses and results. Qualitative methods, such as case studies, will contribute in supporting the applicability of the proposed framework in specific cultural institutions. Findings: This research aims at offering three main results. One expected result will be the definition of a methodological procedure to source a performance measurement system through online UGCs of textual format, highlighting the difficulties of undergoing the whole process of collecting, managing, maintaining, elaborating and interpreting unstructured data such as online UGCs. Another result of this research will consist in the identification of topics discussed by different groups of online users and in the discussion of the heterogeneity of topics across groups, characterizing audience segments according to the textual expressions they shared online. This will showcase how the exploitation of online UGCs can increase the knowledge on specific audience segments of cultural institutions based on the themes they review online. As a final result, this research will analyse and discuss cultural managers’ perspective towards the design, usage, reporting and trust of the adoption of online UGCs as management tools. Originality/value: This work will contribute to performance management literature exploring the possibility of including textual expressions of online users’ perceptions into a system for the management of performances of institutions. This will be implemented in the specific sector of Culture, where users assume a key role and their understanding is a topic of central interest for cultural institutions. From a managerial perspective, this work aims to offer cultural managers new ways to monitor performances of institutions, accounting also for the perspective of actual users of cultural services offered.