Economics of Memorial Sites: Researching Museums and Memorial Sites

Piotr Cywiński, Ph.D. – historian, doctor of humanities, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Oświęcim, President of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, Chair of the Program Committee and Chief Expert of the Center for Research on the Economics of Memorial Sites of SWPS University.

President, Vice-President and Member of the Board of the Warsaw Catholic Intelligentsia Club. A participant in various cross-national dialogue initiatives, including Polish-Jewish, Christian-Jewish, Ukrainian-Polish, and other borderland dialogue projects. He was in charge of the press accreditation during the 1999 visit of John Paul II to Poland and subsequently a Proxy of the Management Board of the Polish Information Agency. Over the years, he has been involved in various activities related to memorial sites and has held numerous posts, including: Member of the International Auschwitz Council and its Secretary (2000-2006), Deputy Chairman of the Council of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust (2005-2014), member of the Board of Museums by the Office of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage (2009-2018), and member of the Council for the Protection of Memory of Combat and Martyrdom (ROPWiM) (from 2010). In 2017, he was appointed Chairman of the Program Board of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

Author, co-author, and editor of many scientific and popular publications. Recipient of numerous distinctions, including: the Gold Cross of Merit, the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Knight’s Cross of the Belgian Order of the Crown, the Knight’s Cross of the Monaco’s Order of Saint-Charles, the Officer’s Cross of the Greek Order of the Phoenix, the Knight’s Cross of the French Order of Academic Palms, and most recently, the Knight medal insignia of French Legion of Honour.

Adam Szpaderski – is Associate Professor of Management in the Institute of Social Sciences of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at SWPS University, where he is the Head of the Center for Research on the Economics of Memorial Sites.

Author of publications and research projects on economics of memorial sites, praxeology, leadership, and business management. He has developed a praxeological concept of management based on reciprocity, sources of power, and managerial functions. Additionally, he researched applications of praxeology to solve the problem of theoretical fragmentation in management studies. Currently his research focuses on developing economics of memorial sites, a new applied scientific discipline, which by design constitutes a set of empirically- and analytically-based best practices, correlations, dependencies and measures of effectiveness related to the economic, financial and managerial aspects of organization, institutionalization, commemoration, preservation and running of memorial sites.

He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Leadership and Management and the President of the Institute of Management and Leadership.

At SWPS University, he is the Principal Investigator of the research project on the "Key Factors Determining the Achievement of Strategic Goals of Museums and Memorial Sites of the Former Nazi German Concentration and Extermination Camps". He also teaches courses on Advanced Business Development, Leadership and Communication, and Resolving Conflicts and Disputes.