Museums as social and cultural institutions should drive innovation to strengthen the relationship with the audience, contribute to social value creation and develop community-oriented processes within cultural ecosystems. The study investigates to what extent Romanian and Italian museums are perceived as innovative by their audiences to understand how a museum could better meet the expectations of the audiences. As social value-oriented institutions, museums should involve their communities to contribute to cultural knowledge creation fostering audience participation by involving the users to co-create public value and shape the museum as an innovation-driven community. In driving innovation, museums are involving their audiences and stakeholders to contribute to cultural heritage knowledge within cultural ecosystems. Museums as community-oriented organizations should drive audience-centered innovation for cultural knowledge creation.