A Fuzzy Cognitive Map based approach to disclose value creation dynamics of ABIs

Purpose - In today’s business landscape, organisations are struggling to face difficult management challenges, increase value embedded in their products/services, create new competencies capable of driving business growth and new business solutions, and spur resilience and innovativeness. The planned managerial use of art forms to address management uncertainties and business problems (i.e. Arts-based Initiatives) can sustain organisations in their efforts to face today’s competitive challenges and improve their value creation capability. Arts based Initiatives (ABIs), indeed, are a catalyst, a lever, and a trigger to support and drive organisational changes and develop its capacity to compete. But how do ABIs contribute to improve value creation capacity of an organisation? The answer relies on transformational power of art forms. Art forms can improve both knowledge domains grounding how employees work in organisations, making their working activities engaging, fulfilling and joyful, and the knowledge dimensions characterising an organisation’s infrastructural components, particularly developing their incorporated intangible value dimensions. The adoption of ABIs within organisations seems fruitful, however how to plan and evaluate comprehensively the impacts of these initiatives still remains a challenge. More generally a better understanding of the dynamics linking ABIs to business performance is required. This study proposes the use of Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) to model, understand and dynamically analyse the integration of ABIs in the operation and strategy of an organisation. Referring to the “Arts Value Map” framework (Schiuma, 2011), the paper suggests the use of FCM as a dynamic modelling tool to analyze, test the reciprocal influence, simulate and predict the behaviour of factors involved in value creation dynamics. Design/methodology/approach – FCM is a well-established artificial intelligence technique, incorporating ideas from artificial neural network and fuzzy logic, which can be effectively applied in the domain of management science. This paper proposes the use of FCM as a tool for detecting and interpreting relations between the entities involved in the value creation activated by ABIs as well as for understanding its structural properties and dynamics. Originality/value –This paper offers a fresh approach based on fuzzy cognitive mapping technique to help align business strategy and the design and implementation of ABIs within organisations. An ABI can have a relevant impact on organisational performance only if it is integrated in the organisational strategy and/or responds to the achievement of operational objectives that are consistent with the strategic intents. The FCM, as powerful tool for analysing and simulating complex systems, elucidates how ABIs can drive business performance improvements. Practical implications – The proposed approach can help managers to better understand how ABIs create organizational value by developing organisational knowledge domains. Using the fuzzy cognitive mapping technique managers can improve their capacity to plan and assess ABIs in the light of business performance.