Museums as Serigraphs or Unique Masterpieces: Do American Art Museums Display Differentiation in Their Mission Statements?

作者：Paulus Odile^*

来源：International Journal of Arts Management, 2010, 13(1): 12-28.

• Mission
• museums
• lexical analysis
• differentiation
• isomorphism
• strategic balance

The author sets out to measure the strategic equilibrium between differentiation and isomorphism through an analysis of mission statements presented by art museums in the United States. The mission statements are compared with one another, with the mission statements of other samples and with institutional definitions of museum. The results show that museums tend to take a position of strategic balance between differentiation and isomorphism. The museums converge with regard to their program of activities, absence of any mention of employees, definition of quality when referring to professional standards, and the search for qualitative objectives in the reach for visitors. The mission statements mention values, visitors, services provided, raison d'etre and geographical domain. Museums give more importance to communication and education and less to research and preservation in accordance with institutional recommendations. Most museums want to attract the public to their collection, but they differentiate by their local anchoring, their raison d'etre and the mention of some components in their mission statement.

• 出版日期2010