How much it’s worth : adapting a business operation model for assessing and selecting compatible businesses at heritage premises in Hong Kong : the cases of Tai Kwun and 1881 Heritage

Abstract

To obtain funds for conserving and maintaining cultural heritage or historical sites, they deserve to be rationally assessed and analyzed for their business model. Different historical sites are faced with different choices of how to operate their business during their planning stage. When it comes to commercialization, how to choose an appropriate business model has become a critical issue. Since most of the previous studies on business models focused on famous and popular industries, few scholars focused on the choice of business models for the development of historical sites. This dissertation takes two representative historic sites in Hong Kong, Tai Kwun and the 1881 Heritage, as research cases, trying to find a business model suitable for developing and utilizing historical sites and using the Porter's Five Forces Model as the currently proposed methods. As well as research recommending adjustments to Porter's Five Forces model. After research, it is found that (1) the overall business operation model of Tai Kwun has no significant problems, and still some recommendations for the cultural conservation can be better considered. However, Tai Kwun also needs to strengthen its publicity, give full play to the uniqueness of Tai Kwun culture, and attract more users to visit. (2) The commercial operation mode of the 1881 heritage has certain drawbacks, and there is a certain degree of excessive commercial-oriented operation, which will damage the cultural value of the historical site. Hence, it may be necessary for government departments to intervene in the usage of the 1881 heritage, to a certain extent, to limit the excessive erosion of the cultural value of the historical sites by over-commercialization.