Katarina Ellborg and Marina Jogmark

The entrepreneurial museum explores renewal and value creation

How can museums work entrepreneurially to create value and renew themselves? For two years, researchers Marina Jogmark and Katarina Ellborg at Linnaeus University, together with five local museums, have explored these questions within the framework of the project The Entrepreneurial Museum, which is part of the larger research project InKuiS.

The project has been based on the museums' own needs and challenges, which has led to a diversity of perspectives on entrepreneurship. Through an interactive working method, the researchers have identified strategies, visions and new forms of knowledge exchange that can be integrated directly into the museums' daily activities.

"We are impressed by how museums and cultural heritage organisations work to be relevant to current and future issues. It is brave and important to dare to reconsider your ways of working and collaborate with others," says Marina Jogmark.

Among the participating institutions are Kalmar County Museum, Kalmar Castle, Culture Park Småland, Sagobygden and Blekinge Museum. For Kalmar County Museum, the project has contributed to a new vision and clearer coherence in the activities.

"The county museum became like a miscellaneous store of different activities, and our big challenge was to get everything together and get the employees on board. Through the project, we have gained new ideas and tools," says museum director Örjan Molander.

The research has resulted in both scientific and popular science publications that spread the insights further, both in the museum sector and academia. Work continues to translate the results into practical action and further develop entrepreneurial ways of working in the cultural heritage sector.

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