On the economics of physical and digital collections in museums

Museums have been studied by economists in terms of their contribution to the eco­ nomy, by the creation of jobs or attraction of tourists, and in terms of their structure and behaviour as firms. In this chapter, we will draw an organizational framework to discuss the market conditions where museums perform, determined by costs and use of technology, which define market concentration and product differentiation as well as ability to innovate. We close with a discussion on organizational performance as it may be applied to museums managing physical and digital collections.