The future of Creative Industries: implications for research policy

“Society and economy” is changing, driven by the rise of human creativity, which becomes a key source of competitive advantage.The rise of the “Creative Economy” is drawing the spheres of innovation (technological creativity), business (economic creativity) and culture (artistic and cultural creativity) into one another, in more intimate and more powerful combinations than ever” (Florida, The rise of creative class, 2000, p. 201).

Lying at the crossroads between the arts, business and technology, the creative industries can be defined as “those industries that have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property (UK Creative Industries Task Force, 1997)”.

The sector comprises a large variety of creative fields, from those heavily industrialized such as advertising and marketing, broadcasting, film industries, Internet and mobile content industry, music industries, print and electronic publishing, and video and computer games to those less industrialized, traditional fields of visual arts (painting, sculpture), performing arts (theatre, opera, concerts, and dance), and museums and library services. Other creative activities include the crafts, fashion, design industry and household objects. They might include architecture, cultural tourism, and even sport.

The explosion of the sector might be explained through a series of factors. One possible reason is that the increasing of work productivity under the influence of the new ICT technologies led to the development of new spheres of consumption, both in the knowledge-related and leisure activities. Secondly, the growth of complexity and uncertainty in social and economic life, the aim of innovation and competitiveness, the issue of wealth creation call for answers to complex issues, enlarging the working perimeter of professionals that develop knowledge (or simply ideas) from the researchers’ category to other types of creative professionals. Within this approach the research activity is being placed more and more in the same perimeter with the arts and culture, contributing to the so-called "new Creative Economy". According to Richard Florida, the creative professionals represent a significant part of the economy in the developed countries, the core part being represented by the fields having the economic function to create new ideas, new technology and new creative content: science and engineering, architecture and design, education, arts, music and entertainment.

This Working Paper identifies possible research needs for the sector, based on main policy challenges. Among them the technological challenges occupy a central place, approaching issues such as: changing of industries value chain under digital coding and therefore highlighting the need for new business models, the challenge of developing content for the new digital technologies, the Internet as future locus of art consumption, or the new distribution channels – like mobile online content and ad hoc device networks. Beside the technological challenges, issues such as cultural diversity and the circulation and exchange of cultural products are among the current concerns of the cultural policy. The influence of innovation on the consumption patterns represents another research issue of clear policy relevance. Moreover, the new patterns of consumption determined by the raise of the "new creative class" is considered to have an increasing influence on the local and regional development.

This working paper will be soon available in the “Foresight Working Document series”: “Future of creative Industries: implications for research policy, by Carmen Marcus, April 2005 (EUR 21471).