Consumer Engagement in the Cultural Sector : Museums and Science Centres

The essence of the book is to investigate the forms, benefits and limitations of engaging consumers in the development of cultural institution offerings. It aims to identify methods for culture product development with consumer engagement, in particular concerning exhibition and educational activities of cultural institutions. The volume provides an extensive literature review of issues related to market orientation, customer centricity, consumer engagement and co-creation of products and services, with an emphasis on the specificity of the cultural sector.

The authors conduct research to capture different perspectives on consumer engagement, including those of consumers themselves, managers responsible for designing the offer and cultural institution employees. They identify forms, success factors of and barriers to involving consumers (visitors) in the development of museum offerings. The combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods provides novel and valuable insights into the phenomenon under study.

This book will be of interest to scholars interested in culture marketing and consumer behaviour, as well as managers of museums, science centres and other cultural institutions.

Magdalena Kosiada-Sylburska is Director of the Science and Technology Centre at the “EC1 Lodz – City of Culture” in Lodz, Poland. She has been employed in this institution since 2015. She holds a PhD in Management. Her scientific and professional interests are related to engaging consumers in designing products of cultural institutions. While working on the project of the Elements Street at EC1, she puts an emphasis on co-creating the zone together with children visitors and their guardians. Her PhD thesis (in Polish), prepared under the supervision of Prof. Paweł Bryła, served as the point of departure for preparing this monograph. She has also published several journal articles and conference presentations on topics related to culture management. She has an MA in Law. She delivered a course on International Business Law at the University of Lodz, Poland.

Paweł Bryła is Full Professor at the Department of International Marketing and Retailing, Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz, Poland. His research interests revolve around consumer behaviour, marketing strategies and international student mobility. He has led three research projects funded by the National Science Centre and two research projects funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education within the Iuventus Plus programme, and he headed the Polish team in an international research project: MERGE, funded by the European Commission. He has authored over 130 publications, including articles in high-ranking international journals (including Appetite, British Food Journal, Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Studies in Higher Education, and Decision) and books in English, coordinating international teams of authors. Recently, he has co-authored a book on consumer ethnocentrism and country-of-origin effect on the food market, published in Routledge. He is an editorial board member of international journals, including European Journal of International Management, Central European Management Journal, and Marketing and Management of Innovations. He received the 20th Anniversary Award for an article in the AIB Insights magazine, the Inaugural Best Reviewer Award in the European Journal of International Management, the Award of the Presidium of the Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Conference of Rectors of Lodz Public Universities, and some other awards for academic excellence. In Google Scholar, he has 2512 citations, with the Hirsch index of 24. Four times he has been included in the list of 2% of the most frequently cited scientists in the world.