Report on Alternative and Hybrid Business Models: Literature Review and Case Examples

In the last decade, there has been a rapidly growing interest in business model thinking and relevant subdomains (e.g. entrepreneurial business models, digital business models, and sustainable business models). However, only few attempts have been made to examine how the business model perspective can be used to understand the organisational architectures of cultural offerings (hereinafter referred to as ‘cultural business model’).

The aim of this report is to provide a review the nascent academic literature addressing the intersection between business model thinking and cultural heritage. Special attention is devoted to such cases and perspectives that could offer some guidance and experience applicable to the eight rural and remote cultural heritage community areas that constitute the pilot cases of SECreTour. The findings will be used as a springboard to discuss how a business model perspective can contribute to a better understanding of cultural offerings (and vice versa). Likewise, the results can provide inspiration for how to attract tourist and other stakeholders to cultural heritage sites. The findings from the review will be supplemented with insights from the grey literature (white papers, reports etc.) and illustrative case examples.

Some of the key findings from the literature include the following:
• Research on cultural business models is dominated by case studies from the European continent, not least Italy.
• Cultural business models are linked to the geographical location as well as the meanings and feelings associated with them (authenticity, health, tradition etc.).
• Cultural business models often address challenges in the local community (e.g. youth unemployment, depopulation, low educational level etc.). Cultural offerings can be a vehicle for social value creation.
• The review highlights the importance of partnerships and multi-stakeholder collaboration. While individual entrepreneurs can play a pivotal role in pioneering cultural business models, the case studies also highlight the importance of local volunteers, public authorities, other cultural institutions etc.
• Research on cultural business models often draws on social entrepreneurship literature and place-based perspectives, although other theories and models have also enriched the conversations.
• The reviews call for more focus on new types of revenue channels, partnerships, governance mechanism, and contracts. Innovating cultural business models is key for strengthening communities, attracting tourists, and promoting economic development.
• The review suggests that additional attention needs to be paid to innovative ways of supporting local place-identity building and creating adequate place images among potential visitors on a limited budget, given the challenging operational conditions characterizing many remote and peripheral areas.

The review is one of the first attempts to take stock of the literature on cultural business models. Hopefully, the findings can draw attention to some of the dominant barriers and opportunities for maintaining and developing cultural business models. Moreover, we hope the review can be a source of inspiration for changemakers interested in developing new ways to create, deliver and capture value from cultural offerings. First of all, this applies to the eight pilot areas of the SECreTour project, but the ambition is to develop practices and tools that can be transposed also to other remote and rural areas with valuable cultural heritage. Ultimately, this would contribute new perspectives and cases also to future academic work in this field.

This report is part of the SECreTour project funded by the European Commission.