Uncovering the worth of the past: the relationship between corporate museums’ strategic orientation and dual performance

Purpose – The main aim of the study is to empirically investigate the relationship between strategic orientation and a dual conceptualization of performance (i.e. non-economic performance and economic performance) in the research context of corporate museums, which are owned and run by private companies. Furthermore, the study aims to explore the nature of the relationship between the dual performance, shedding light on the relevance of non-economic results for this peculiar category of museums. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on survey data from 105 Italian corporate museums, which represent almost the entire population in the country (91%). A structural model was estimated using SmartPLS software in order to examine the direct and indirect effects of strategic orientation on corporate museums’ non-economic and economic performance. Findings – The findings show that only if corporate museums are able to achieve non-economic performance, creating value for the owning company and the local community, they can also have good results in economic terms. Thus, the non-economic performance acts as a mediator into the relationship between strategic orientation and economic performance. Originality/value – The current work is a pioneer study for the empirical investigation of performance within corporate museums. The empirical model of the study, based on a dual conceptualization of performance and a mediation analysis, is completely innovative in this research context.