Mirror, mirror on the wall, do I want to know at all? A story about cultural organizations that conduct research on themselves and those that do not

This article concerns the practice of conducting research by Polish public cultural institutions that seek to gain insight about themselves. Thus, the article fits into two theoretical areas of management sciences: learning organizations and knowledge management. We ask why in the opinion of cultural institutions is it worth (or not) conducting independent research? In search of answers, we conducted two complementary studies: a netnography-inspired online query of secondary sources regarding research conducted by Polish cultural organizations; and a survey among 392 such organizations that did or did not conduct research in 2016–2020. The collected material allowed us to discover that certain cultural organizations welcome research, treating it as an opportunity to obtain relevant information, introduce changes, and streamline operations. On the other hand, there are organizations that perceive research as a futile endeavor due to certain objective factors, mostly their own limited resources and the reluctance of potential respondents