Relationship marketing in museums: influence of managers and mode of governance

ABSTRACT

On the bases of relationship marketing and social capital, this paper aims to explore whether museums’ external relationships depend on managers and internal relationships as well as on mode of governance. The empirical findings of a hierarchical regression analysis for a sample of 556 museums indicate that close relationships with the external environment require managerial social capital and a supportive culture that favours internal cohesion. Finally, public museums directly run by government entities remain too bureaucratic and lack incentives to promote internal cohesion as well as relationships with customers and other stakeholders. Implications for managers are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Relationship marketing
• social capital
• mode of governance
• museums

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación [ECO2012-38552].

Notes on contributors

Carmen Camarero

Carmen Camarero is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Valladolid (Spain). Her research is mainly focused on business and consumer relationship marketing, online consumer behaviour and marketing for heritage and cultural organizations. She has published articles in journals such as Journal of Services Research, Public Management Review, Tourism Management, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Cultural Economics, International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing and Journal of Advertising.

María-José Garrido

María-José Garrido is Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Valladolid (Spain). Her current research focuses on non-profit marketing, new technologies and e-marketing and internal marketing. She has published different articles in journals in her field of research, including Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Cultural Economics, Tourism Management, and Journal of Cultural Heritage.

Eva Vicente

Eva Vicente is Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Valladolid (Spain). Her current research is mainly focused on public management, cultural economics, heritage policy and cultural heritage management. She has published several articles in journals in her field of research such as Public Management Review, Review of Public Economics, The Service Industries Journal, Journal of Cultural Economics, Tourism management, and Journal of Cultural Heritage.

María Redondo

María Redondo PhD in Marketing, is Assistant Professor at the University of Valladolid (Spain). Her research focuses on relationship marketing and marketing in cultural organizations. She has published in several international refereed journals such as Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Journal of Cultural Economics. She has professional experience in business incubators, marketing plans and advising entrepreneurs.