Aligning Market Strategies, Digital Technologies, and Skills: Evidence from Italian Museums

This chapter aims at shedding light on the degree of alignment between market strategies and digitalization processes in Italian museums housed in historical sites. The on-the-field analysis, namely, highlights choices concerning the adoption of digital technologies and the development of digital skills. The research is qualitative in nature and is based on a multi-case study. The sample has been built according to the following criteria: (a) combination of historical and artistic importance of the site and relevance of the collections housed in it and (b) variety of the sample, in terms of ownership, year of foundation, annual number of visitors, and characteristics of the collections hosted. The variety of the analyzed sample allowed us to identify different approaches to digitalization processes. Moreover, our research provided new insights in order to understand how held or accessible digital skills drive decision-making process regarding the deployment of technologies. Research findings provide indications to the museums’ managers that are currently engaged in the challenge of digitalization, in order to foster a better alignment between market strategies and digital technologies.