Social entrepreneurship for sustainable heritage management – the case of open-air museums

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the specific potentials of open-air museum and heritage crafts cooperation by using social entrepreneurial approaches as a sustainable growth enabler.

Design/methodology/approach

The study utilised literature, reports, questionnaires, interviews and two in-depth case studies to examine the extent and success of current cooperation and the barriers to success affecting both fields on their own. Finally, the study utilised the recently developed social entrepreneurial tool the “modified Social Entrepreneurial Problem and Objective tree (mSEPOT)” in order to test the models ability to analyse a real-world case and demonstrate solutions and improvement to future cooperation in a heritage context.

Findings

While the tool has not been validated in practice, the study offers the first conceptualization of utilising the tool arguing that innovative future approaches to sustainable heritage development are possible and that heritage managers in the mSEPOT have a tool enabling them to engage with social entrepreneurial approaches, ensuring sustainability of development projects in culture and heritage.

Originality/value

While the tool has not been validated in practice, the study offers the first conceptualization of utilising the tool arguing that innovative future approaches to sustainable heritage development are possible and that heritage managers in the mSEPOT have a tool enabling them to engage with social entrepreneurial approaches, ensuring sustainability of development projects in culture and heritage.

Citation

Olinsson, S.B. and Fouseki, K. (2019), "Social entrepreneurship for sustainable heritage management – the case of open-air museums", Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 486-499. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHMSD-02-2019-0010