Abstract
The recent narrative on museums as catalysts of innovation and growth considers their relations with other cultural and creative industries (CCIs) to be very important. We argue that most relations museums establish with CCI firms and institutions are unlikely to produce strong positive externalities that make the latter more innovative. To prove this claim, we propose a conceptual framework qualifying project-based and supply chain relations between museums and CCIs as either strong, moderate, or weak links, according to their potential in terms of knowledge spillovers from museums to CCIs. We apply this taxonomy to data collected from 261 Polish museums. Our findings indicate that strong links are outnumbered by moderate and weak ones. We then suggest that the traditional missions of museums, in particular education and conservation, need to be more thoroughly assessed in terms of their direct and indirect contributions in order to fully capture the impact of museums on innovation in the wider economy.
Highlights
The role of innovation in fostering economic growth is well established in macroeconomics (Barro and Sala-i-Martin 2003; Romer 1996), and recent contributions highlight that creative professions may play a role in making a nation or a region1 3 Vol.:(0123456789)Journal of Cultural Economics (2021) 45:671–704 more innovative (Cerisola 2019; Rodriguez-Pose and Lee 2020)
We propose a re-discussion and re-valuation of the role museums can play in fostering innovation
We argue that the mediating role of other cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in channelling museums’ stimulation of innovation is likely to be overrated
Summary
The role of innovation in fostering economic growth is well established in macroeconomics (Barro and Sala-i-Martin 2003; Romer 1996), and recent contributions highlight that creative professions may play a role in making a nation or a region1 3 Vol.:(0123456789)Journal of Cultural Economics (2021) 45:671–704 more innovative (Cerisola 2019; Rodriguez-Pose and Lee 2020). 2), and so policy documents have begun including them in agendas for innovation, highlighting the need for them to closely interact with other CCIs. The very presence of interactions is considered as evidence of their being part of the cultural and creative sector, as well as a positive element in terms of the enhancement of the overall impact of CCIs on innovativeness. The very presence of interactions is considered as evidence of their being part of the cultural and creative sector, as well as a positive element in terms of the enhancement of the overall impact of CCIs on innovativeness This has put pressure on museum directors. Their core missions have long been collection, conservation, research, exhibition, and education. In this article, we aim to highlight that museums do produce positive externalities for the local and regional economy in terms of a higher level of innovativeness, but probably not primarily through their relations with the CCIs
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