Sustainability in italian museums: words and channels

Objectives. This paper aims at understanding if Italian museums are using social networks to communicate social-cultural sustainability and what are the words, among the “sustainability words” are most frequently used within the investigated institutions. This study investigates a sample of 21 museums. Design/methodology /approach. Findings. The paper identifies the keywords, thanks to which social-cultural sustainability is spread by Italian museums. Research limits. As limitation, the sample must be considered. Indeed, it consists of 21 top Italian museums. Other issues could stem the short-term investigation period. Nevertheless, results do provide evidence of the importance of words and channels in communicating sustainability. Practical and managerial implications. The paper provides an overview of social-cultural sustainability – embedded in the mission of almost all the museums – from an Italian perspective. This gives evidence of how Museums are evolving, but they are still lagging behind in the communication of the sustainability that is not of an economic nature. Originality of the study. The topic of sustainability, and particularly social- cultural sustainability, is quite new in the Italian panorama. Literature is scarce and so are the study of cases. This paper is a first attempt in order to bridge the gap.