Spatial dependence in museum services: an analysis of the Italian case

Abstract

In this paper we investigate whether the services offered by museums are affected by the choices of neighbors, and we discuss whether the evidence can document that competition processes are at work. Specifically, we take into account the Italian case, where governmental and private museums co-exist. Resorting to Spatial Autoregressive Models, we show that a significant influence of neighbors' choice concerning service supply does emerge. However, we cast several doubts that this piece of evidence can be solely due to sound competition among museums.

Networking and spatial interactions: What contributes most to increasing museums' attractiveness?

“…Interactions with neighbours may, on one hand, improve service quality, visibility and reputation, but they can also be a source of frictions due to conflicts of interests between co‐localized actors and reduced access to resources. In this framework, the papers by De Graaf et al (2009), Cellini et al (2020) and Kim et al (2022) are the only contributions investigating the presence of spatial effects across Dutch, Italian and London attractions, respectively. In particular, De Graaf et al (2009) estimated different gravity models for 108 Dutch museums, proposing several modifications to capture museum heterogeneity and spatial relationships.…”

Eppur si muove: an evaluation of museum policy reform in Italy

“…The supply of all these services has been driven by the increasingly stringent budget constraints experienced by public museums in recent years. Indeed, as underlined by Cellini et al (2020), "museums supply complementary services as potential alternative sources of revenue, sometimes necessary to support the traditional 'corebusiness' of museums, namely conservation, research, and exhibitions".…”

“…Moreover, these complementary services, at a time of stringent budget constraints, are potential alternative sources of revenue. Cultural economic literature concentrates on the spatial effects of the supply of such services, which are well documented in the international(Borowiecki, 2015;Özdilek, 2013) as well as Italian(Cellini et al, 2020) context.…”

Choices on museum attendance: An agent‐based approach

“…Meanwhile, a set of administrative reforms have also been implemented, with the final aim of providing museums and similar institutions with larger artistic and managerial autonomy. Likely, these reforms have contributed to a more qualified supply of additional services (Bertacchini et al., 2018; Cellini, Cuccia, & Lisi, 2020), that could have played a role in increasing museum attendance. In 2018, the Italian Government has changed the rule on the free admittance to state museums on the first Sunday of each month, positing that this rule has been simply driving to crowd‐out paid visits, especially in high‐season months.…”