Social value in the orange economy: social accounting applied to museums

Abstract

ABSTRACT Cultural and creative industries generate $2250b in revenue and 29.5 million jobs worldwide. The Museum sector is highly relevant among them and generates social value for society, taken to be the value created for stakeholder groups. However, the system used to measure their value generation is limited to visitor volume and revenues. Policymakers then assume that the role of those organisations is to generate profit or attract visitors. They produce financial-economic statements and provide further information on visitors and their type and satisfaction, but undoubtedly, museums generate far more than those aspects reflected in financial-economic statements. We selected a key group of museums in order to demonstrate the other aspects positively valued by museums stakeholders. After analysing 104 stakeholder-dialogue interviews, the aspects evidenced were as follows: museums are responsible businesses, generate value for a group of stakeholders, have agreed to establish a common stakeholder map, and museums could work better when aligned.