Digitizing Cultural Heritage: Evidence From Italian Museums

Abstract

This paper aims to shed light on the link between digitization processes and competitive strategies in Italian museums. It is also addressed to understand how digital skills, held by the museum, do affect the organization's capability to match technological innovation and strategy. In line with the exploratory nature of research, we have adopted the multi-case study approach. Three of the main Italian museums, selected through a convenient sampling, which considers the historical-architectural importance of the site and the collections housed in it, have been investigated through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Cases show how digitization processes are mainly driven by museums' accessibility to technical skills, as well as by the novelty character of digital innovations available. This often brings to underestimate the required alignment between digital contents, digital skills held by the cultural organizations, and types of users. We believe that our research can contribute to a clear acknowledgement of issues concerning the digitization process by managers of the Italian museums, hence leading to adoption choices that keep into account strategic and organizational aspects, besides the technical ones.

Financial Sustainability of Digitizing Cultural Heritage: The International Platform Europeana

“…Another significant cost could be related to the fact that digitizing cultural heritage requires a skilled workforce with expertise in handling and digitizing delicate artifacts, operating specialized equipment, and managing digital assets. Hiring and training staff or outsourcing these services can incur costs (Cori and Fraticelli 2018). Digitized cultural heritage, moreover, implies metadata creation and cataloging.…”