TOWARDS AN INDEPENDENT CORPORATE MUSEUM? INSIGHTS FROM EUROPE AND ITALY

Corporate museums are cultural institutions that preserve corporate heritage and communicate at the same time the evidence of a past and still current culture: the corporate culture. Companies that invest in opening an exhibition space tell their story, their relationships with stakeholders and with the territory in which they operate, the encounter between industrial design and high culture, their know-how. Corporate museums are a varied group of institutions, and it is quite difficult to find a universally valid definition. Nevertheless, there are some aspects which are sensitive for each corporate museum, as well as for cultural institutions. This is the case of costs reduction as well as financial resources and their acquisition. In fact, even large companies do not always ensure enough financial availability to their corporate museums. In addition, some companies consider corporate museums as costs rather than a long-term investment. Reviewing the literature on corporate museums and thanks to qualitative research, the paper investigates the prevailing features the new corporate museums, laying the foundation for future research in the field, to explore if and how a company-independent corporate museums could achieve financial sustainability.