The Sustainable Strategic Innovation Adopted by the Archaeological Museum of Taranto “MArTA” Which Drives the Repositioning of Taranto as a Cultural Tourist Destination

Policymakers’ strategic choices are directed to seek the endogenous resources to create sustainable development paths in Taranto, a city known as a symbol of industrial pollution because of its steel mill. The research objective is trying to give a strategic framework in order to start development paths, thus making the city of Taranto rediscover a cultural and tourist vocation, thanks to its historical endowment of local resources. The analysis of the archaeological museum of Taranto, “MArTA”, clarifies how a sustainable museum model can help local development and civic innovation thanks to its inclusion potential and its ability to involve various local stakeholders. Therefore, the paper aims to shed light on the path of sustainable strategic innovation undertaken by museum organizations, in particular by the MArTA museum organization. Faced with the social, economic and technological changes that have characterized the last few decades, museums have gradually initiated transformative policies of their core concept. In this way, they have rediscovered themselves as an active part in the process of social innovation and territorial development, following the Sustainable Development Goal 11 of the UN 2030 Agenda. In-depth interviews with the museum management, the local community and the local public and private stakeholders involved in the socio-economic development of the city will be adopted. The paper provides policy indications to public decision-makers operating in the cultural sector and in the local administration in order to design and develop a management model that responds to a systemic perspective.