Innovative or Not? The Effects of Consumer Perceived Value on Purchase Intentions for the Palace Museum’s Cultural and Creative Products

A museum’s core activities traditionally focus on such areas as collections’ care, exhibitions and scholarship. Income generation, including retail activities, is considered secondary. Academic research into museums’ merchandise, especially into the perceived value and purchase intentions, is limited. Drawing on literature embracing both core museum functions and marketing, this research, based on the Palace Museum in Beijing, China, explores the impact of the perceived value of a museum’s cultural and creative products on purchase intentions. Combining the results of in-depth interviews with museum visitors and experts, this study defines a construct composed of six perceived value dimensions, namely quality, social, price, innovation, educational, and experience values. A relationship model of perceived value and purchase intentions is proposed. Some 346 valid survey responses were obtained by distributing a questionnaire online and on-site at the Palace Museum, and hypotheses were tested by structural equation modelling. Results showed that innovation and experience values have a significant positive effect on purchase intentions, while quality, social, price, and educational values had no significant influence on purchase intentions. This research outlines feasible strategies and actions for the development of cultural and creative products at museums that have a strong tourism role.