Phygital Museums as Catalysts for Inclusivity,Well-Being,and Human-Centric Cultural Experiences Across Physical and Digital Spaces

Abstract

Despite the growing prevalence of phygital experiences across consumer life, existing scholarship lacks a comprehensive theoretical understanding of how phygitalization modifies and amplifies the museum's purpose and value creation path. While practical efforts to digitalize museums have proliferated, theoretical work in marketing and cultural studies has yet to capture the full complexity of this shift, often focusing narrowly on customer-centric or techno-functional approaches. In particular, the museum is still widely conceptualized as a repository of cultural value, rather than as a site of dynamic co-creation within broader social ecosystems. This conceptual paper addresses these gaps by theorizing the museum as a phygital ecosystem. We propose a novel three-level, tri-dimensional framework that captures how value in museums is not only created, but also co-created and amplified through interdependent multi-stakeholder and technology dynamics, extending the museum's space, time, and scope. Rather than treating digital technologies as external add-ons, we conceptualize phygitalization as a transformative force that reconfigures the spatial and relational boundaries of cultural experience, extends its temporal reach, and redistributes agency among institutional and non-institutional actors. Theoretically, we extend phygitalization, new museology, and macromarketing literature by positioning the phygital museum as an inclusive ecosystem of collective meaning-making and a human-centric institution devoted to stakeholder well-being. Practically, we offer cultural professionals actionable insights on how to design, govern, and evaluate phygital strategies in inclusive and sustainable ways. Ultimately, the paper calls for a reimagining of the museum as a relational infrastructure, where phygital strategies enable multi-stakeholder engagement and foster public value beyond its walls.