Entrepreneurship - the key for a successful museum

Coman, Adela and Pop, Izabela (2012): Entrepreneurship - the key for a successful museum. Published in: International Conference on Entrepreneurship Education - A Priority for the Higher Education Institutions (October 2012): pp. 60-65.

Abstract

For many people, museums are institutions that exist solely to preserve in time and ensure the conditions for keeping alive the memory of its citizens regarding the historical elements that characterize the past of a society. As incredible as it may seem, in addition to this role, museums also have an important contribution both to the creation of a proper system of social values and to the increase of the regional economic development. Museums operate by the same rules as any other organization: they have certain goals which, in order to be achieved, require processing resources which have to be turned into outputs. Furthermore, the business functions such as research and development, production, marketing, personnel, finance and accounting are also found in museums. Given the existing similarities, some questions arise: should entrepreneurship be applied to museums as it is for private organizations, or should it not? What would be the effects of an active, innovative and creative museum behavior, focused on opportunities and results? Would it be ethical for museums to adopt an entrepreneurial behavior or should they be strictly limited to the achievement of current activities? This article aims at making a brief analysis of the roles played by museums in the market, the distinctive features of the museum entrepreneurship and, accordingly, the organizational, social, and economical effects that would result from applying/using entrepreneurship in museums.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: entrepreneurship, museums, market, society
• Subjects: L - Industrial Organization > L2 - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior > L26 - Entrepreneurship; L - Industrial Organization > L3 - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise; L - Industrial Organization > L3 - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise > L31 - Nonprofit Institutions ; NGOs ; Social Entrepreneurship

References

Klein, P., G., Mahoney, J., T., McGahan, A., M., Pitelis, C., N., “Toward a Theory of Public Entrepreneurship”, DRUID Working Paper No. 10-07.

Griffin, D. (2002). Entrepreneurship in the Arts: Entrepreneurship in Museums, The Kenneth Myer Lecture by the George Fairfax Fellow in Arts & Entertainment Management.

Klamer, A. (2011). Cultural entrepreneurship, The Review of Austrian Economics, no. 24, pp. 141-156.

Hood, C. (eds.), Bernier, L., Hafsi, T., (2007). The Changing Nature of Public Entrepreneurship, Public Administration Review, pp. 488 – 503.

ICOM code of ethics for museums (2006), http://icom.museum/, retrieved on August 20th, 2012.

Association of Art Museum Directors (2001), “Revenue generation: an investment in the public service of art museums”, http://aamd.org/papers/ , retrieved on August 16th, 2012.

Rentschler, R., Geursen, G. M. “Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Leadership in Non-Profit Performing Arts Organisations”, http://web.ewu.edu/, retrieved on August 9th, 2012.

Coman, A., Pop, I. (2012). Why do museums matter?, The International Conference in Economics and Administration, Bucharest, pp. 121-133.

Feldstein, M. 1991. The Economics of Art Museums. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Scott, C. 2007. “Measuring Social Value,” in Museum Management and Marketing, Sandell, R. and Janes R.R. (eds), London: Routledge.

Ballard, L., (2002), Scholarly Symbiosis, Paper presented at the INTERCOM Conference Leadership in Museums: Are our Core Values Shifting, Dublin, Ireland, October 16 – 19, 2002.

Rentschler, R., Geursen, G. M. “Marketing and entrepreneurship in the third millennium: the case from art museums”, http://anzmac.info/conference/, retrieved on August 9th, 2012.

Rentschler, R. (2001). “Entrepreneurship: From denial to Discovery in Nonprofit Art Museums?”, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, http://eprints.qut.edu.au/, retrieved on August 9th, 2012.

Durel, J., W., (2009), Entrepreneurship in Historical Organizations, History news, pp. 20 – 25.

Dees, J.G, (2001). “The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship”, http://www.caseatduke.org/documents/dees_sedef.pdf, retrieved on August 6th, 2012.

Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Management Activity Reports, http://www.cultura.ro/, retrieved on August 17th, 2012.

Bran Castle, Ticket price, http://www.bran-castle.com/ , retrieved on August 19th, 2012.

National Museum Peleş, Visiting fees, http://peles.ro/, retrieved on August 19th, 2012.

DiMaggio, P. (1982). Cultural entrepreneurship in nineteenth-century Boston. The creation of an Organisational Base for High Culture in America, Media, Culture and Society, 4, pp. 33-50.

Colbert, F. (2003) Entrepreneurship and Leadership in Marketing the Arts, International Journal of Arts Management, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 30-39.

National Museum of Natural History Grigore Antipa, http://www.antipa.ro/, retrieved on August 15th, 2012.