Power, legitimacy and urgency amongst stakeholders: Setting strategy amongst mainland Scotland’s, rural, independent museums

Data indicates that Scottish museum attendance is rising annually, yet anecdotal comments appear to contradict this evidence. The ResourceBased View suggests variations in performance stem from an organisation’s ability to access and use resources. This perspective is examined through the concept of stakeholder theory. This research investigates the influence stakeholders have on independent, rural Scottish museums a sector regarded as under-researched. This is underpinned by the following: 1. To critically evaluate strategy and stakeholder theory, in relation to not-for-profit especially museums; 2. To assess the salience of stakeholders in mainland Scotland’s independent rural museums; 3. To examine critically how mainland Scotland’s independent, rural museums develop strategy in relation to their stakeholders. Using a case approach to investigate the museums’ strategies it emerged that all museums used their stakeholders to access resources in pursuit of their strategies. One museum had ceased strategizing because of losing the definitive stakeholder’s confidence. Three outliers emerged based on their ultimate governance, but their strategic thinking mirrored similar sized museums in the sample.