Institutional pressures, business model innovations and accounting evidence: the case of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence during the sixteenth century

This study provides insights into the role played by institutionalism in the process of making innovations to the governance and business model used by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (OSMF) during the sixteenth century. Our research relies on institutional theory and archival analyses in an effort to explore how the transition from the Florentine Republic to the Duchy influenced the control structure of the OSMF, which was the organisation that was responsible for the construction and maintenance of the cathedral of Florence, as well as its sources of revenues and costs. In response to pressure from Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, the OSMF transformed into a quasi-public organisation that was financed primarily by private funds from the sale of timber from the Casentino forest, whereas public funding from taxes began to play an increasingly marginal role. The contributions of this study are threefold: (i) it improves our understanding of the relationships among legitimacy theory, coercive isomorphism, and the governance of quasi-public organisations in the sixteenth century; (ii) it innovatively applies the contemporary notion of business models to the institutional context of the late Italian Renaissance; and (iii) it offers a framework for diachronic analyses of financial statements and the corresponding use of accounting as a tool in efforts to explore social history.