The adoption of laser technology by art restoration firms

The cultural heritage of a country, includes all historical, artistic, archaeological, ethno-anthropological, archivial and bibliographic goods. As well as being important for their cultural and social value, cultural heritage goods are also important for economic reasons. In order to preserve and enhance the large variety of fixed and movable artworks, innovative technologies, materials and methodologies must be used. Despite the importance of the art restoration sector in Italy, as well as in many other European countries, this industry has often been ignored by management studies. For these reasons this study focused on Italian art restoration firms, with particular reference to their adoption of innovative technologies such as laser technology. The specific objectives were to identify the demographic, organizational and strategic characteristics of Italian art restoration firms and analyse the firms’ innovative profiles and the factors that influence their decision to adopt or not to adopt laser technology. A survey was carried out using postal questionnaires and a database of 100 companies was created. The identification of the factors that affect the adoption of new technologies is important for the Government in Italy as well since it plays a key role in the art restoration industry in implementing a strategic innovation policy.