Museums are art and cultural organisations that can be powerful levers for local development from a socio-economic viewpoint. Innovation is a key to enabling them to accomplish this task. Emphasis has been placed on the relationship between collaboration and innovation in the existing literature, which focuses mostly on case studies of technological innovation in large cultural organisations. Conversely, this study concentrates on impacts of different collaborative arrangements on technological and cultural innovation in small and medium-sized cultural organisations, specifically museums. Based on a survey on museums in the Valencia region, Spain, the ANOVA method was used to determine if there were differences in innovation outcomes between museums that did, or did not, collaborate with specific actors. The results reveal the collaboration with universities and high-tech firms and inter-museum collaboration can enhance technological innovation while joining professional associations can improve cultural innovation. Based on these results, some policy implications are developed.

The relationship between cities and innovation in present times can be regarded from a distinctive perspective. As it is vital to rethink our development patterns, in order to contrast global warming and its ominous threats, cities are themselves concrete materials for innovation. Therefore, cities challenge the very same concept of innovation by adding the long-term perspective to its social assessment framework. Cities are therefore seen both as hotbeds of creativity and innovative culture and places where different actors (policy makers, civil servants, NGOs, citizens, start-uppers, entrepreneurs, etc.) receive continuous stimuli to engage in innovations that fulfil specific needs (be they market, organisational or community related).

The relationship between collaboration and innovation in cultural organisations is an emerging topic that has drawn particular attention from scholars and practitioners. The main aim of this study is to assess the role of collaboration in the process of innovation in museum organisations. To achieve this aim, first, we develop a four-domain analytical framework by matching innovation types to cultural production processes to reflect the peculiarities of museum innovation. By applying this framework to the multiple case studies from four Spanish museums, we identify three main motivations (supplementing manpower, compensating for the scarcity of knowledge, improving demand-driven innovation) and four forms of collaboration (teamwork, outsourcing, consortium and conversation) and summarise the different modes of collaboration involved in various domains of production and innovation. An assessment is conducted subsequently to evaluate the effectiveness of existing collaborations in achieving technological and cultural innovation in museums. Finally, a list of implications for museums’ innovation management is presented.

Three key concept domains are considered and explored in a unitary framework. They are: innovation, the only possible response to global crises, aiming at transforming behaviours and practices towards systemic changes and transition; design, a way of creatively conceiving, developing and driving forward new practices for undertaking large scale transitions; and cities, seen as the environments where problems present themselves in the most socially relevant way and at the same time as key opportunities for testing and adopting forms of innovation which target global challenges. The chapter positions the three key concepts in relation to the most relevant academic references and to the current debate on innovation processes.

Design policy for innovation and prosperity has been acknowledged and adopted globally. Existing literature on design policy usually adopts a top-down perspective to analyse the components of the design innovation system and ignores the practical needs of practitioners. Our study aims to explore potential opportunities and challenges of design policies for design-enabled innovation from a bottom-up perspective. We firstly discussed the enabling role of design in the context of design as input, output and process of innovation with emphasis on design-enabled innovation conception; then European design policies are reviewed in terms of characteristics, priorities and strategies at EU, national and regional levels. Based on multiple case studies on the SWOT (i.e., Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of 50 European design innovation initiatives, we summarised eight dimensions of SWOT factors—organisation, production, performance, knowledge, environment, market, technology and institution—so as to identify main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that practitioners are facing, and discussed common and specific factors that might influence the identification of SWOT forces by taking into account country and sector factors. We concluded that European design policy is located at a point of intergenerational transition from awareness raising to capacity building, which calls for more coordinated policies to tackle current opportunities and challenges.