Butiksverksamhet i en kulturell kontext: En studie av museibutikens multipla identiteter

Sammanfattning: During the last decades, museums have become increasingly dependent on commercial activities to support their main activity. As a result, the museum shop has gained importance. The museum shop is a commercial business in a cultural environment, implying a need to maintain different and often conflicting identities. The purpose of this paper is to identify these different identities and to understand the nature of their interaction. Through interviews with managers of 10 different museum shops in Stockholm and observations, four different roles were identified. These were: to generate income, be brand building, be a part of the museum visit and to educate. The role of brand building has not been evident in previous research. However, this study demonstrates how the brand building role may influence the nature of the identities' interaction. We further propose that when several of the identities are present it is possible that their interaction results in synergies. The required effort to create such synergies will be determined by the context of the museum shop. We also conclude that creating synergies is the most effective way to handle multiple identities in a museum context.