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Rethinking Museum Visitors: Using K‐means Cluster Analysis to Explore a Museum's Audience
Author(s) -
Krantz Amanda,
Korn Randi,
Menninger Margaret
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
curator: the museum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.312
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 2151-6952
pISSN - 0011-3069
DOI - 10.1111/j.2151-6952.2009.tb00358.x
Subject(s) - unpacking , cluster (spacecraft) , computer science , sociology , linguistics , philosophy , programming language
Understanding visitors is a necessary and complex undertaking. In this article, we present K‐means cluster analysis as one strategy that is particularly useful in unpacking the complex nature of museum visitors. Three questions organize the article and are as follows: 1) What is K‐means cluster analysis? 2) How is K‐means cluster analysis conducted? 3) Most importantly: What are the applications of K‐means cluster analysis for museum practitioners? To answer these questions, we present five steps that are vital to conducting a K‐means cluster analysis. We also present three cases studies to demonstrate differences among the results of three K‐means cluster analyses and provide practical applications of the findings.