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Describes various types of university library exhibitions, lists their objectives and highlights their role as a publicity strategy. Presents the results of a study of exhibitions mounted at Abubaker Tafawa Balewa University, in Nigeria, from 1990‐1993. Finds that anniversary events are the most frequent subject for exhibitions, followed by those for the promotion of library services. Offers a number of recommendations for successful exhibitions, which can be used as an influential public relations strategy for the promotion of the library’s services.

Since our reform and open policy has been adopted, our exhibition industry has increased rapidly. Exhibitions are unique amongst new and established media in enabling customers, prospects and industry colleagues to meet face to face. With the development of network economy, e‐commerce plays a major role on new economy stage. Undoubtedly, it will work on exhibition industry. This paper probes into how to combine e‐commerce with the exhibition industry effectively with particular reference to PR China.

This paper presents a survey of research using a questionnaire to investigate the role of exhibitions in Nigerian university libraries. The study revealed that exhibitions are not taken seriously as a means of attracting both potential users in a society with poor reading culture and more funds for library development. None of the responding university libraries had any written policy on exhibitions nor made budgetary provisions. Between 1991 and 1995, only 83 exhibitions were organized, an average of 16 per academic year. The occasions attracting exhibitions were major anniversaries such as convocation, national day, students' orientation and displays on subjects of general interest. About 50 per cent of the libraries hold exhibitions irregularly. The problems associated with the effective management of library exhibitions were highlighted, while suggestions were proffered to make exhibitions meaningful in Nigerian university libraries.

Trade exhibitions have become a multi‐million pound business, with a bewildering array of events taking place in the UK alone. Yet how many companies can claim to be satisfied with the return on cost and effort? Geoffrey Lancaster and Howard Baron carried out a detailed survey at one exhibition. The first part of this article reports on the findings and, using these as a base, the second part is a step‐by‐step guide to efficient exhibition planning, staging and follow‐up.

Purpose – The chapter explores the development and impact of the Museums Victoria’s exhibition World War I: Love & Sorrow, which aimed to present an honest, graphic and challenging account of the experience and effect of World War I on Australian society. The paper describes the exhibition content and uses a range of methodological approaches to study its emotional and other impacts.

Methodology/Approach – A range of evaluation methodologies are used: visitor observation and summative evaluation collected in the months after the exhibition opened, and quantitative and qualitative studies produced in 2017. Comparative assessment of a large sample of visitor comments cards was also undertaken. The more recent evaluations focused particularly on emotional impacts.

Findings – The research finds that emotion is central to the success of the exhibition: underpinning the exhibition concept, guiding the research process and selection of interpretative approaches, and shaping visitor response.

Originality/Value – The emotional aspects of museum work have received relatively little attention, and few studies focused on the evaluation of visitor emotions have been published. The chapter uses a case study to highlight the role of emotions in museum exhibitions and historical interpretation, argues for more central place for emotions in historical enquiry, and addresses concerns about subjectivity, authenticity and evidence.

This study aims to investigate how art events can enrich novice visitors by transforming their practices.

This research uses an interpretive case study of the art exhibition “1/1/1/1/1” in the Oppenheim gallery in Wroclaw. It draws on multiple sources of evidence, namely, novice visitors’ interviews, observation including photo studies and content analysis of art-makers’ mediation sources. This study is an example of contextual theorizing from case studies and participatory action research with researchers as change agents.

The evidence highlights that aesthetic values and experiences are contextual to practices and are transformable into other values. The findings illustrate the role of practice theory in studying how art-makers inspire the transformation of practices, including values driving the latter.

The findings provide implications for transformations of co-creating contextual values in contemporary visual art consumption and customer experience management.

Practical implications to arts organizations are also provided regarding cultural mediation conducted by art-makers. Exhibition makers should explain the meanings of the particularly visible artefacts to allow visitors to develop a congruent understanding of the meanings. The explanations should not provide ready answers or solutions to the problem art-makers suggest to rethink.

The social implication of our findings is that stakeholders in artistic ventures may undertake adequate, qualified and convergent actions to maintain or transform the defined interactive practices between them in co-creating contextual aesthetic values.

The study provides new insights into co-creating values in practices in the domain of contemporary art exhibitions by bringing the practice theory together with an audience enrichment category, thus illustrating how novice visitors get enriched by transforming their practices led by contextual values of “liking” and “understanding”.

Monika Fabijanska's groundbreaking exhibition The Un-Heroic Act showcased 20 representative artworks to survey the iconographic variety of representations of rape in contemporary women's art in the United States since the 1960s. Organized by the Andrew and Anya Shiva Gallery at John Jay College, City University of New York in 2018, the exhibition's wide range of pieces was brought together in dialogue for the first time to confront prevailing sexual violence misconceptions, rape myths, and to fill the void in women's art history.

In this chapter, Fabijanska is interviewed to glean insight into the curatorial strategies she deploys as challenges and sensitivities surrounding rape play out in the context of an art exhibition and catalog. Although The Un-Heroic Act has attracted substantial media coverage and scholarly attention, the role of curatorial intention and considerations in mediating difficult content to viewers in an educational setting, and shaping understanding of a complex issue, has not yet been explored in depth. Through this interview, these pertinent questions are unpacked.

Addressing some of the curatorial challenges she faced, Fabijanska brings to light the value that exhibition texts, audience engagement programs, contextualizing comments, and teaching hold. She shares her careful selection process, highlighting the necessity of taking a collaborative approach and working toward crafting “safe spaces” within which difficult questions can be broached.

This study proposes a literature review and, based on the findings, the authors develop a conceptual framework, attempting to explain how technology may influence visitor behavior and eventually trade show performance.

The present research explores the role of visitors in the trade show context. The analysis specifically focuses on the variables that influence visitors’ participation at business-to-business trade shows and how their satisfaction and perception can be related to exhibition performance. The authors also take into consideration technological trends that prior to COVID-19 pandemics were slowly emerging in the trade show industry.

The findings highlight a continuity between pre-, at and postexhibition phases. Visitors’ behavior represents a signal of how a trade show is perceived as postexhibition purchases and next visit emerge as signals of an exhibition evaluation in relation to visitors’ perception. Besides being urgent tools for the continuity of the sector due to the pandemics, emerging technological trends can be key elements in understanding visitors’ behavior and in boosting their interest and loyalty toward trade shows.

The paper proposes a conceptual model including top notch and innovative technological trends to improve the understandment of visitors’ behavior. Both practitioners in companies and academics might find the study useful, given the digital uplift generated by the pandemics.

Augmented reality (AR) is an emergent technology that has been impacting and beneficial to various industries. This is especially the case in the tourism industry since the COVID-19 crisis. To enable and enhance the museum experience, AR technology can be used as a tool to manage visitors' experiences and adapt to the digital transformation of industries. This research work aims to explore the acceptance of museum visitors for the adoption of this technology. For this purpose, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is used as the research lens.

The authors collected 316 responses from a survey handed out to prior visitors of immersive exhibitions shown via AR at the Atelier des Lumières in Paris and analyzed them through a structural equation model approach.

The study’s findings explain the behavior of visitors when attending immersive exhibitions according to the TAM and highlight two new constructs that need to be considered when using the TAM with AR technology: user satisfaction and social mimetism.

The study’s findings support that implementing AR technology in the museum industry provides great opportunities for the tourism industry to recover from the economic crisis that followed from the COVID-19 health crisis. The authors identified new thriving concepts in the 21st century with the rise of social media, such as social mimetism, that propels visitors to have a positive attitude and intention to attend immersive exhibitions.

This paper aims to first, identify the external and internal factors that a company needs to analyze when formulating its digital platform strategy. Based on the framework of PESTNPG (political economic social and culture technological population and globalization) and internal analysis a company should analyze both internal and external factors to formulate its digital platform strategy. For companies from emerging markets the institutional-based market created by national or local governments is important for digital platform strategy. Second dynamic capability theory and its linkages to digital platform strategy. The dynamic capabilities view is considered as a primary theoretical lens in the strategy literature to analyze a company’s strategies to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. To carry out a successful digital platform strategy companies need to build strong dynamic capabilities to capture or create opportunities and reconfigure their resources simultaneously. Third the advantages and disadvantages of different digital platform strategies (i.e. an independent digital platform and online–offline integration platform) and the possible consequences and risks of different strategies. It is important to evaluate different types of digital platform strategies that require different capabilities in terms of business structure product structure revenue structure organizational structure and technology architecture. A company needs to link these capabilities to a digital platform strategy to enable the integration (or separation) of online business with offline business. It also increases the accuracy and efficiency of online business. Fourth key points of digital platform strategy implementation. Companies need to identify key profit models for their digital platform to promote business growth and financial returns. It is equally important to increase customer value by leveraging its digital exhibition platform and to learn to use digital technology to foster organizational dematerialization.

Zhejiang Meorient Commerce & Exhibition Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Meorient”) was a leading company in the exhibition industry in China. The unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 plunged Meorient into a state of emergency that forced it to fight for survival. Further, China had launched a national strategy of Digital China, which created new market opportunities for Meorient. As a result, Meorient gradually developed and launched its digital exhibition services in 2015. Meorient suffered significant losses in 2020 due to COVID-19 and had to formulate a new strategy based on a digital exhibition platform in 2021. Chairman Pan Jianjun had two options. One was a purely digital platform strategy without the original offline exhibition business. The other one was an online and offline integration strategy. Which option was the best way forward for Meorient? Pan had to make a choice. Some of the top management team members believed Meorient should completely transform into a digital platform company and provide comprehensive online digital exhibition services. Over the previous 20 years, Meorient had accumulated a large amount of data from domestic and foreign exhibitors and professional buyers and had gradually developed a digital exhibition platform. It was one of the companies that pioneered digital transformation within China’s exhibition industry. More conservative thinking held that Meorient's strategy should focus more narrowly on the integration of online and offline exhibition businesses. Toward the post-pandemic era, China’s national strategy of “Digital China” accelerated the development of digital infrastructures. During such critical transitional period, Meorient had to choose wisely if it was to sustain its profits or even survive.

The case is aimed at students in undergraduate, MBA, short course executive, EMBA or other executive education programs, especially where digital transformation is featured subject matter.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy