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How cultural organizations’ size and funding influence innovation and performance: the case of museums

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Abstract

Our work pursues a twin aim. Firstly, we explore the influence of organizational size on innovations in museums as well as its impact on museums’ economic, market and social performance. Secondly, we analyse how the (public–private) funding of such organizations impacts innovation and performance. The empirical work is based on information from a survey of 491 museums (British, French, Italian and Spanish). We find that museum size does prove relevant in the commitment to engage in innovation but that public funding of museums does not encourage innovation. We also highlight the importance of the explanatory power of the type of funding on the performance of these cultural organizations. This research also reveals how organizational and technological innovations as well as innovation in value creation in museums enhance economic, market and social performance.

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Acknowledgments

This work is framed within the Research Project SEJ2007-67095/ECON funded by the Department for Research and Management of the National R&D&I Plan (Ministry of Science and Innovation).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration and Marketing, University of Valladolid, Avda. del Valle Esgueva, 6, 47011, Valladolid, Spain

    Carmen Camarero & Mª José Garrido

  2. Department of Applied Economics, University of Valladolid, Avda. del Valle Esgueva, 6, 47011, Valladolid, Spain

    Eva Vicente

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  1. Carmen Camarero
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  2. Mª José Garrido
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  3. Eva Vicente
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Correspondence to Carmen Camarero.

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Camarero, C., Garrido, M.J. & Vicente, E. How cultural organizations’ size and funding influence innovation and performance: the case of museums. J Cult Econ 35, 247–266 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10824-011-9144-4

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