Characterization of cultural enterprises in Spain

Culture is an enriching element of society. Those companies that focus their activities in the cultural field can contribute greatly to the generation of monetary and non-monetary value, and thus, it is important to study the economic impact of the cultural activity. This analysis has not been carried out without difficulties. Apart from the peculiar nature of the cultural product, with a possibly greater symbolic value than the one in use and the existence of sunk costs, we have to add the difficult characterization of what a cultural enterprise is. The authors tried to describe the economic dimension of cultural enterprises in Spain by using the classification model proposed by UNESCO, complemented by the EUROSTAT methodological development. They tried to see the possible differences between cultural and noncultural enterprises and also among the various types of cultural enterprises for this chapter. The results show that cultural enterprises are less profitable than the non-cultural ones, and contrary to what might be expected, they receive fewer subsidies than non-cultural companies.