Everyone’s collections at Art Museums: groundbreaking digital business strategy as cornerstone for synergies

Abstract

Purpose of the paper: This paper aims to investigate how an innovative digital strategy of a museum could develop new avenues for business and social value, looking into its role as a booster of competitive advantage for cultural institutions and as a possible source of socio-cultural development. Methodology: The research project focuses on the analysis of the Rijksmuseum’s re-opening strategy, using a case-based qualitative and recursive approach, where the outcome of each phase has been the starting point of the following phase. Findings: “Open digital-cultural contents” make art and culture more accessible, stimulating people to value Cultural Heritage, heightening the level of cultural participation by lowering the threshold to experience culture and art. This e-strategy has been the precondition to develop synergies and alliances, moving towards a creative economy by catalysing spillovers in a wide range of economic and social contexts. Research limits: This is a case-based research paper with contextual factors, but we consider the data to be particularly suitable for illustrating and extending relationships and logic among constructs. Practical implications: The research contributes to better unlock the potential of the digital-cultural-contents leading to understanding of how to boost the durability of cultural organizations and unlock the potential of cultural and creative industries (CCIs). Originality of the paper: Identifying synergies emerging from museums’ ground-breaking digital-strategies adds significantly to the body of knowledge on the topic of innovation management in the cross-fertilization territories of the CCIs.