The UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, encompassing 17 SDGs, highlights culture's role in achieving global sustainability. Museums, increasingly recognized for their contribution to economic, social, and environmental sustainability, have incorporated "sustainability" into their definitions and practices. While various studies document the nexus between SDGs and museum practices, quantitative research on sustainable development within museums, particularly in China, remains limited. This study addresses this gap by developing an evaluation framework to assess museum sustainability in China, specifically focusing on how museums can align their practices with the SDGs and contribute to the achievement of these goals. The research seeks to answer how museums define sustainability strategies according to the SDGs, which indicators should be focused on from visitors' and the museum's perspectives, what evaluation framework can address stakeholder needs and translate them into strategies, and what evaluation method should be designed for the framework.

Existing literature explores the role of museums in sustainable development, encompassing social value, climate change mitigation, digitalization, diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, and community engagement. Studies demonstrate the connection between museum practices and SDGs, with examples of museums publishing sustainability action plans guided by the SDGs. However, there's a need for a framework to guide museums in aligning their practices with the SDGs. National variations in understanding and implementing sustainability principles are also highlighted, emphasizing the importance of a localized approach. The study notes that while previous research primarily focused on defining and illustrating museum-based sustainable development, the effectiveness of such approaches still requires assessment. Existing evaluation models like SERVQUAL and HISTOQUAL focus on visitor service quality but lack comprehensive sustainability metrics. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by offering a quantitative evaluation framework specifically tailored for Chinese museums.

The study uses a DSR model, adapting the driving force-state-response framework to assess museum sustainability. "D" (Driving Force) represents visitor needs, categorized into seven types based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs (convenient and safe facilities, quality offerings, diversified services, positive interactions, attractive exhibitions and education events, abundance and diversity of collections, and innovative environment). "S" (State) characterizes the current status of sustainable practices within museums, based on indicators derived from China's National Cultural Heritage Administration's evaluation standards (professionalism of exhibition and education services, optimizing collection system, intensity of scientific research, standardization of organizational management, extensiveness of cooperation and reciprocity, and support of funding policies). "R" (Response) encompasses sustainability strategies aligned with the SDGs, categorized into social awareness, cooperative support, and internal reforms, each with several specific indicators. A fuzzy QFD model, incorporating Fuzzy sets, SWARA (Step-wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis), PSI (Preference Selection Index), and MARCOS (Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution) methods, is employed for quantitative analysis. The fuzzy QFD model is utilized to analyze the needs of visitors and the status of sustainable practices within museums (D and S), and then shift them into the museum's sustainability strategies (R). This allows for weighting and prioritizing the various aspects of sustainability based on their importance to different stakeholders (visitors, staff, experts). The Zhejiang Natural History Museum (ZNHM) serves as a case study, using data from questionnaires (769 visitors for D, 45 experts for S), in-depth interviews (21 senior ZNHM staff), focus group discussions, and expert scoring to validate the model's effectiveness. A comparison analysis with FF-WSM, FF-WPM, FF-WASPAS, and FF-ARAS methods is also conducted to validate the proposed QFD model.

The study's empirical analysis of the ZNHM yielded several key findings. Regarding visitor needs (D), diversified services were ranked as the most important factor, followed by an innovative environment and quality offerings. In terms of the current state of sustainable practices (S), optimizing the collection system was identified as the highest priority for improvement, followed by the professionalism of exhibitions and education services and securing funding policies. Regarding sustainability strategies (R), the analysis indicated that the ZNHM should prioritize social awareness, followed by internal reforms focusing on social value and governance and professional capabilities, with international cooperation identified as a future step. The specific ranking of R indicators (R1 > R2 > R9 > R8 > R10 > R6 > R4 > R3 > R7 > R5) suggests a clear prioritization of social awareness and internal improvements before moving toward cooperative support and external collaborations. The comparison analysis with other multi-criteria decision-making methods demonstrated the consistency and validity of the proposed QFD model's results.

The findings demonstrate the applicability of the DSR model and fuzzy QFD approach in evaluating museum sustainability in China. The framework effectively integrates external (SDGs, visitor needs) and internal (museum practices) factors, providing a holistic assessment. The quantitative approach offers a significant contribution, moving beyond qualitative assessments and providing data-driven insights for museum improvement. The identification of priorities (diversified services for visitors, optimizing the collection system for internal improvements, and social awareness followed by internal reforms as key strategies) offers practical guidance for Chinese museums to enhance their sustainability efforts. The study’s emphasis on prioritizing social awareness aligns with current trends in sustainable development that recognizes the importance of engaging stakeholders and promoting community involvement.

This study offers a novel, quantitative framework for assessing museum sustainability in China using a DSR model and fuzzy QFD approach. It provides practical recommendations for museums to improve their sustainable practices by prioritizing visitor needs, optimizing internal processes, and focusing on social awareness and internal reforms before expanding into international cooperation. Future research should expand the study's scope to include diverse museum types and geographical locations to further enhance the generalizability of the findings. Further research can also focus on the dynamic aspects of sustainable development in museums and adapting the DSR framework for different types of museums based on the different context.

The study's scope is limited to one case study (ZNHM), although this museum is representative of certain aspects of museum practices in China. While the sample size for the visitor questionnaire is substantial (769), the sample may not fully represent the diversity of museum visitors in China. The expert evaluations, while incorporating a fuzzy set approach to address uncertainty, still rely on subjective judgment, potentially influencing the results. Future research should focus on expanding the geographical and typological scope of the analysis to improve the generalizability of the findings. The dynamic nature of sustainable development indicates that the D, S, and R indicators need dynamic adjustment over time.