Corporate Sponsorship in Culture—A Case of Collaborative Marketing by a Global Bank and a Major Art Museum

This paper examines cultural sponsorship from a partnership perspective. It studies the collaboration between two international institutions, a bank and a museum, and their value co-creation with customers and audiences. This in-depth case study of a sponsorship collaboration between a global financial institution (UBS) and a multi-site museum (Guggenheim) evaluates critical aspects of resource integration between the partners with implications for the theory and practice of service innovation. For the bank, the partnership with a major art institution gives access to cultural, symbolic, and social resources that can add value to and differentiate its services. For the museum, the partnership supports its international expansion in terms of audiences and acquisitions of art from regions of the world previously underrepresented in its collection. The partnership also helps to expand the network of museum partners and potential donors. The study contributes to the understanding of co-marketing partnerships between commercial actors and arts organizations and explores critical elements of resource integration in terms of complementary resource mobilization and internal integration.