Program of Fundamental Studies of HSE University

The Academic Research Group “Management of Cultural Heritage Sites” was established in 2025. The group’s first project, “Impact Investing for Industrial Cultural Heritage Sites: Motives, Incentives, Outcomes,” focuses on studying impact investing as an innovative phenomenon in mobilizing financial resources for the preservation and development of industrial cultural heritage sites.

The aim of this project is to analyze the theoretical aspects of impact investing as an innovative process, identify best practices for collaborating with investors to preserve and develop cultural heritage sites, and develop recommendations for public authorities to support and stimulate this activity.

The research aims to identify, substantiate and systematize promising areas of museum activity in the context of the transformation of the digital environment to solve cultural, social, and economic problems of museum development.

As a result of the conducted research, the main directions of transformation of the digital environment of museums were identified; various types of online educational resources of museums were systematized from the point of view of their applicability in formal and non-formal education; a system of digital methods used in marketing and fundraising activities of museums was developed; the main directions of collaborative activities in the digital environment were identified; recommendations for monetization of online museum products were developed.

The research is aimed to justify and develop of the strategy of the museum’s activity modernization, aimed at improving and developing the work formats with the different groups of museum visitors. The development of the strategy was based on the theoretical basis of the strategic planning of museum activities, as well as on the retrospective experience of modernizing the work with visitors.

This study was supported by the Union of Russian museums. Based on the provided studies, the authors developed several methodological recommendations for the modernization of the museums’ interaction with visitors. The recommendations cover the most sought-after directions of museum activity, including the development of museum digital space; the management of excessive tourist flows; modernization of the events and post-events activities of museums in terms of interaction with visitors. Museum specialists are also recommended to modernize their practices in working with schoolchildren, young people, visitors of “third age”, as well as inclusive groups.

The aim of the project was to develop a new approach to the managemant of post-event activities as a tool for building visitor loyalty in order to prolong the positive effect of events on the activities of cultural institutions. The methodology of this work implied a series of studies with the aim of deeply analyzing the studied issues in the concept of “eventfulness - post-event-loyalty”. The research design included an assessment of the digital activity of visitors of “Night of Museums” event on VKontakte social network; assessment of the current state of post-event activity on the example of the case of the “Night of Museums - 2019” and assessment of its effectiveness; identification of the features of the formation of loyalty among various groups of visitors of the event and interest in attending post-event activities. The result of the project implementation was the development of recommendations on network activity, formats of post-event activities, the formation of loyalty of event participants to organizations conducting them.

The aim of the project was to study how cultural and event activities in various formats for different target audiences are an important tool for attracting attention and investment to revitalized territories. Based on the results of the work, it was concluded that such an event-driven development of the revitalized territories as new brands, attractive for both citizens and tourists, leads to a positive development of the city as a whole. This is due to the fact that adjacent territories and infrastructure develop together with the revitalized objects, and this development is scaled over time. In addition, the event organizers were encouraged to actually test the demand for certain types of cultural and event activities in the early stages of the project's inception and formation, as this allows to announce the event and attract the attention of current and potential visitors through the distribution and reception of information through friends, acquaintances, relatives. At the same time, it was noted that the promotion of special niche events can be carried out through cooperation with organizations that have a suitable target audience for such events, which can help attract tourists to events and venues.

The aim of this project was to study the influence of destinations brands on their competitiveness by identifying constituents of brands and destinations sub-brands and developing a more effective marketing communications system and identifying the strong constituents of a destination brand. In the course of the study, the definitions of the destination brand, image and reputation as components of the marketing mix for the territories were studied and the principles of building the brands of the territories were formulated taking into account the interests and involvement of key stakeholders in this process. Using methods such as analysis of regulatory documents, interviews with experts and questionnaires of tourists, the components of the St. Petersburg brand were investigated and relevant trajectories and development factors of St. Petersburg as destination were identified. In addition, as a result of the analysis of social networks and tourist sites, the effectiveness of promotion of the Estonian brand in the Russian and Finnish target markets was analyzed, and the characteristics of the consumption of the tourism product among the studied target groups were highlighted.

This project was aimed at research on the mechanisms for effective promotion of the organization of cultural and creative industries in the Internet space, research on the effectiveness of promoting festivals through web analytics tools, research on the audience of classical music festivals and exploration of the atmosphere of museum and park complexes. Along with quantitative methods of web analytics, qualitative methods were also applied (about 50 in-depth interviews with representatives of cultural and creative industries and more than 150 express interviews with visitors to events in this field were conducted, large amounts of open data in the Internet were analyzed, and observations were made in regard of the subjects of research for three weeks and even data on the GPS-coordinates of the survey sites in 13 royal residences in Europe were collected). As a result, conclusions were drawn about the promotion of the organizations under study in the digital space as well as recommendations were given on their development.

The aim of the study was the formation of new theoretical and practical assumptions about the creative potential of cultural tourism, which in turn is realized on the basis of innovative methods of cultural institutions and creative industries. The study was conducted through an in-depth interview with the leaders and managers of festivals, museums, exhibition projects, IT companies, event agencies, creative spaces, travel agencies and hotels, offering exclusive services for tourists and organizing various events on their basis. As a result, this method revealed a number of innovative approaches to the supply and promotion of cultural values. At the second stage of the work, the case of the Palace and Park Complex "Peterhof" was investigated. Using the method of mapping consumer behavior of visitors, observing and conducting a sociological survey of visitors to a cultural heritage site, it was revealed that the absence of maps in the park negatively affected the behavioral practices of visitors to the park, reducing the chances of their returning as visitors.

The aim of the project was to study the innovative nature of the activities of museums and other cultural institutions in the framework of the "Night of Museums" event. The research methodology included surveys of visitors of museums and other cultural institutions (libraries, art centers, lofts, etc.) in 2012 and 2013. Visitors were asked to answer a number of closed and open questions about their motivation for participation in the event, level of satisfaction and demographic nature. At the second stage of the study, in the same years, expert interviews were conducted with the managers of museums and other cultural institutions that took part in the event, as well as third-party experts in the field of management in the fields of culture and tourism. As a result of the analysis of the interview, the degree of innovativeness of the product specially prepared for the event was revealed and the prospects for using the developed products in the future daily work of the museum were determined. The main incentives for participation in the event for cultural institutions were identified, and the development potential of such creative projects in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities was analyzed.

In the project's boundaries a survey of experts was conducted to obtain empirical and factual material on the forms and prospects of interaction between creative industries and cultural heritage in Russia. Recommendations were developed to regulate the interaction of cultural heritage and creative industries in individual industries for more effective use of this interaction in solving social and economic problems of the territories.