An exploratory study of stalled relationships among art museum members

Abstract

Museums must maintain a steady membership base to achieve their organizational objectives. Although many studies look at why relationships succeed, we examine members who fail to transition from an introductory relationship to a mature relationship with an art museum. In two studies examining non-renewing members of a large metropolitan art museum, we find evidence for a phenomenon we call “stalled” relationships, whereby members discontinue their formal museum membership yet maintain a positive psychological affiliation with the museum. Our first study finds that members in stalled relationships often do not view themselves as defectors and do not blame the museum for their non-renewal; they frequently cite personal reasons rather than service failures for discontinuing their membership. Our second study examines this phenomenon in greater detail, exploring the antecedents for stalling and finds that motivations for initiating their membership may help predict when a relationship is likely to stall. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.