Diffusion of Digital Innovation in Museum Education: Pandemic Effects and Adopter Characteristics

Abstract

This study is the first known attempt to employ Roger’s diffusion of innovation (2003) theory to analyse how innovation spreads across Latvia’s entire museum sector over time and how the museums classified as earliest innovation adopters in museum education differ from the rest of the pool. The study rests on a quantitative strategy. The results of the study suggest three aspects that differentiate earlier adopters from non-adopters in museum education: (1) financial aspect – resources, funding diversification and dynamics during pandemic, (2) museum aspirations towards overall digital development and (3) communication function performance to serve the society. Moreover, available funding per se is insufficient to predict the adoption of digital innovation in museum education. Although, it has a substantial impact, it plays out only in conjunction with two other factors – prior experience in onsite museum education and prior introduction of digital innovation in other areas of museum work.