Lecture about Museum Entrepreneurship during Cultural Entrepreneurship and Leadership Autumn Academy

2. Entrepreneurial practices in museums
Dr. Trilce Navarrete | Erasmus University Rotterdam
Online Autumn Academy | Cultural Entrepreneurship & Leadership | 19 November 2021

5. Entrepreneurial practices
• Museums are institutions that care for our past for our education and
entertainment in the future.
• Due to their high sunk costs and costly capital, museums have a
tradition of renting the use of their physical capital (building,
collections), with few venturing to rent their know-how.
• During the pandemic, new business models were considered, with a
focus online (freeing income from physical dependency).
• New business models trends:
• Product development (tangible)
• Service development (intangible)
• Network development (resources)

6. Product development
During the pandemic, there was a visible increase in museum online
shops (NL)
Registered museums 439
Online museum shops 91

7. Product development
• Current product availability are in the lower segment
• Museums provide a range of product diversity
60%
90%

8. Product development

9. Product development
• Does it support the core activities of the museum?
• What stakeholders are activated?
• Who bares the risk?
• How does it relate to the social context?
• Diversity
• Environmental transition
• SDG
• Does it make use of digital innovation?

10. Service development

11. Service development

12. Service development
• Memberships are traditionally
found in museums, not yet online
• Yearly memberships ranged from
€0 - €15,000
• 60% memberships provided
amount option
• Benefits included free entrance
ticket, discounts, VIP services,
contribution to museum

13. Service development

14. Service development
YOUR COST
OUR DELIGHT

15. Digital Culture
2019
NESTA

16. Service development
• What would a ‘Spotify’ membership in a museum
look like?
• And a ‘Lego’ service?
• Can AI provide new personalized services?
• Can museums exploit their role as providers of a
knowledge infrastructure?
• What is their new role in the value chain of
information goods?

17. Network development
• Crowdsourcing inputs has a long tradition, with the Friends of the
museum organization and the many volunteers contributing

18. Network development
• Through commissions, open calls or hackathons,
museums can reach a grater pool of skills and
overall resources
• Such model requires a new organizational
structure / philosophy

20. Network development
• Technology allows for faster, larger, and wider network input
• Are museums ready to involve the public?
• Citizen science
• Participatory management
• Co-ownership
• New business models are required for the changing market – of
platforms and data.
• Can museums learn from the platform model?
• Value proposition – for each partner
• Value creation – from each partner
• Service provision - what do museums provide?

21. Entrepreneurial practices in museums
• Museums remain looking inwards, protecting the past
• Entrepreneurs look outward, innovating for the future
• Digital technologies can introduce novelty – and facilitate
organizational innovation as well as exchange of creative ideas
beyond the museum walls
• The new market is networked

22. Thank you