Social value in the orange economy: social accounting applied to museums

ABSTRACT

Cultural and creative industries generate $2250b in revenue and 29.5 million jobs worldwide. The Museum sector is highly relevant among them and generates social value for society, taken to be the value created for stakeholder groups. However, the system used to measure their value generation is limited to visitor volume and revenues. Policymakers then assume that the role of those organisations is to generate profit or attract visitors. They produce financial-economic statements and provide further information on visitors and their type and satisfaction, but undoubtedly, museums generate far more than those aspects reflected in financial-economic statements. We selected a key group of museums in order to demonstrate the other aspects positively valued by museums stakeholders. After analysing 104 stakeholder-dialogue interviews, the aspects evidenced were as follows: museums are responsible businesses, generate value for a group of stakeholders, have agreed to establish a common stakeholder map, and museums could work better when aligned.

KEYWORDS:

• Integrated social value (ISV)
• social accounting
• stakeholders
• culture
• orange economy
• museums

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants of the study for their time and valuable insights as well as the anonymous reviewers for their perceptive feedback. Also, many of the ideas for this paper evolved from the US20/11 project experts (UPV/EHU) and FESIDE. We are grateful for the fruitful interactions and discussions that took place during the ARTE meetings of this action, and to participant and organizers of Responsible Business Workshop (RESPAM, Finland & AEDEM, Spain).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and material

It is primary data that we could provide if necessary

Additional information

Funding

US20/11 project experts (UPV/EHU) and FESIDE (BOPV2020).