Monica Calcagno is an associate professor in the Department of Management, Università
Ca’ Foscari di Venezia; e-mail: calc@unive.it. Claudio Biscaro is a doctoral student at the
Scuola Superiore di Economia, Venezia. The authors acknowledge James Bradburne and
Graziella Battaglia at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and Cristina Bucci and Chiara Lachi at
L’immaginario.
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Int. Studies of Mgt. & Org., vol. 42, no. 2, Summer 2012, pp. 43–56.
© 2012 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. Permissions: www.copyright.com
ISSN 0020–8825 (print)/ISSN 1558–0911 (online)
DOI: 10.2753/IMO0020-8825420203
MONICA CALCAGNO AND CLAUDIO BISCARO
Designing the Interactions in
the Museum
Learning from Palazzo Strozzi
Abstract: In cultural productions, and specifically in the context of museums and
exhibitions, the process of construction of meanings has historically involved
the audience in a relationship with the product. Nevertheless, this relationship is
still designed using traditional language aimed at constraining the interpretation
within the pattern suggested by the producer and reducing the room left for free
interpretation by the user. Innovation, then, takes place in the offer of services
and tools to support the process, and not in a proposal of a new approach to the
construction of meaning. Our research discusses a case of an Italian cultural
institution as a model for proposing a new approach to the process of interpretation
of the relationship between the users and the product. The innovation in this case
is the result of a redesign of the language offered to the users, and it is aimed at
involving them in the process of sense making. Our article sheds light on the way
in which innovation of language may impact the world of signs and symbols that
determine the meaning of the product.
The process of consumption is grounded mainly in the relationship between the
consumer and the product. This relationship refers to two major dimensions: the
functionalities—what the product is able to perform—and the symbolic content
(Blumer 1969) or meanings—the emotional content and the language spoken by
the product itself (Eco 1975; Margolin and Buchanan 1995; Monö 1997; Peirce
1935; Verganti 2003). The language can be identified as “a particular meaning [that]