Business Models for Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse

Literature on business models is a pillar of management research and its recent contributions have broadened traditional frameworks to include sustainability and circular economy issues. However, contributions focused on business models of cultural heritage have always been scarce; moreover, most of the studies on adaptive reuse of cultural heritage are based on the analysis of individual assets. A few studies make in-depth analysis of the business model and they hardly produce generalizable results, due to the idiosyncratic nature of cultural heritage and its link with the cultural, social, environmental and economic context, that makes it diffcult to replicate the process and decisions of reuse (in structural and managerial terms). A wide literature in business and management sciences applied the business model conceptual framework to different industries companies. Recent research tried to apply the concepts developed in business model studies to circular economy, mainly focusing manufacturing industries and new waste management strategies but Business Model perspective and circular economic approaches are completely absent in Cultural Heritage adaptive reuse, while on this issue the perspective of the public economy appears very relevant. Cultural heritage recovery and maintenance has traditionally been in charge to of the public sector, which used public resources to maintain heritage “public goods” in optimal state of conservation and accessibility. Moreover, the public sector (Institutions) has the role of setting the “rules” for heritage conservation, maintenance and reuse, especially to avoid destructive interventions, especially on heritage goods owned or managed by private actors. Public investments have mainly focused on the evaluation of cultural heritage adaptive reuse projects highlighting social and environmental costs and benefts. However, traditional public funding sources and in general public fnancial resources are decreasing. In this context of fragile public fnance, business model and economic sustainability of reuse projects are increasing their importance in order to leverage private investment and to ensure economic self-sustainability, with the main goal to avoid waste of public resources. An increasing overlapping of perspectives has recently attained to Cultural Heritage, some of them within the theories of New Public Management, merging business service approach and governance issues, as cultural heritage management has to comply legal, economic and organizational specifcities. Furthermore, the value generated by reuse initiatives has ambiguous defnitions and a plurality of stakeholders and the presence of network economies make the decision-making processes very complex. The majority of research efforts have focused on case studies. Although this research design prevents fndings generalizability to different industries, contexts, or countries, it is still appropriate to study the early state of art of circular business models in Cultural Heritage Adaptive Reuse (CHAR). The following part of the work offers a literature review of the evolving concept of business model toward sustainability and circularity paradigms, which caused new element addition to the old frameworks in order to enlarge the analysis to determinants and impacts of the business model, which can be studied at enterprise and/ or at network level. A further paragraph describes a set of European reuse projects, starting from the typology of building and location and exploring the new possible use, mainly focusing on the new use function given to heritage buildings of different typologies and set in rural or urban area of different countries. New uses are the base to pitch some typologies of business models and for some generalization that are proposed in a separate further paragraph. Conclusions remind some limitation of the analysis, suggesting further avenues of research.