Analysing innovation in museums through qualitative comparative analysis

[EN] The aim of this paper is to analyse innovation in the processes undertaken by museums in the conservation and restoration of artworks. Information from 90 conservation and restoration departments from museums in 43 countries was analysed using qualitative comparative analysis. Two theoretical concepts - knowledge bases (analytical, synthetic, symbolic) and modes of innovations (Science, Technology and Innovation; Doing, Using, and Interacting) - were used to define necessary and sufficient conditions which explain innovation in artwork restoration. Two important results were obtained from the analysis. The first indicated that innovation was explained by the combination of symbolic and analytical knowledge bases (unrelated variety), and high innovation performance was also explained by the related variety in the analytical knowledge base. The second result revealed that innovation is higher when museums cooperate simultaneously with partners using the two modes of innovation.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Knowledge Management Research & Practice, on 22/04/2019, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14778238.2019.1601505