Policy makers at all levels are discovering the notion of creative industries: the music industry, literature and book market, art market, film and television industries, performing arts, design, architecture, advertising, software / computer games - from economic and innovation strategies to education policy and urban development, the creative industries are being described as a model for success. However, strategies for real, practical implementation remain vague. This publication provides a greatly needed overview of the concepts and specific characteristics of this sector. It analyzes the international discourse, presents up-to-date empirical-statistical Europe-wide analyses, derives models and draws conclusions for the current debate in Switzerland, and places special emphasis on the innovative potential of the creative scene and its dynamics for the entire creative industry.

The authors give a differentiated overview of various approaches towards the Creative Industries and investigate the specific business models and financing needs. The Creative Industries have a heterogeneous structure and a vast fraction of small or micro enterprises.

This book explores the organization of creative industries, including the visual and performing arts, movies, theater, sound recordings, and book publishing. In each, artistic inputs are combined with other, "humdrum" inputs. But the deals that bring these inputs together are inherently problematic: artists have strong views; the muse whispers erratically; and consumer approval remains highly uncertain until all costs have been incurred. To assemble, distribute, and store creative products, business firms are organized, some employing creative personnel on long-term contracts, others dealing with them as outside contractors; agents emerge as intermediaries, negotiating contracts and matching creative talents with employers. Firms in creative industries are either small-scale pickers that concentrate on the selection and development of new creative talents or large-scale promoters that undertake the packaging and widespread distribution of established creative goods. In some activities, such as the performing arts, creative ventures facing high fixed costs turn to nonprofit firms. To explain the logic of these arrangements, the author draws on the analytical resources of industrial economics and the theory of contracts. He addresses the winner-take-all character of many creative activities that brings wealth and renown to some artists while dooming others to frustration; why the "option" form of contract is so prevalent; and why even savvy producers get sucked into making "ten-ton turkeys," such as Heaven's Gate. However different their superficial organization and aesthetic properties, whether high or low in cultural ranking, creative industries share the same underlying organizational logic.

Analyzing the role of creative industries, this book explores regional development within the economic cycle. Using the Greek region of Epirus as an in-depth case study, the authors identify the main opportunities for the region’s development as well as the necessary conditions and constraints to achieve future economic growth. The last decade has seen creative industries receive growing attention from researchers, leading to an increasing body of analysis, studies and statistics. Despite this, they remain to be poorly understood and thus underestimated by many societies and policy makers, including those in the Greek economy. Creative Industries in Greece provides a close study of this sector and disseminates its best practices to examine its strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities.

This book investigates the evolving paradigm of creative industries and creative entrepreneurship, and their related economy over time. It explores different stages of the paradigm diffusion in ‘first generation countries’ such as the US, Canada, Australia and Europe, and ‘second generation countries’ in Asia, South America and North Africa in order to identify new trends and their distinctive aspects. By adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the book develops a comprehensive overview of the composite phenomenon of the creative economy and its relationship with entrepreneurship.

In recent years, the study of creativity has shifted from analysis of culture as an end in itself to one of economic enhancement, and its capability to generate wealth and promote economic development. Increasingly, European cities and regions are using the arts to fuel wellbeing and reinvigorate economies after the comparative demise of more traditional industry and manufacturing. A growing literature is starting to highlight the innovation capacity of cultural and creative industries (CCIs) as they intersect the innovation processes of other manufacturing and services sectors with an innovative and creative output. Culture and creativity may be a strategic weapon to exit the present crisis and redefine an economic model of sustainable development. This book brings together a set of multidisciplinary contributions to investigate the kaleidoscope of European creativity, focussing on CCIs and the innovations connected with them. The two main questions that this volume aims to address are: How can we identify, map and define CCIs in Europe? And how do they contribute to innovation and sustainable growth? The volume is split into two parts. The first part deals with the definition, measurement and mapping of the geography of European CCIs according to a local economic approach, focussing on Italy, Spain, the UK, Austria, Denmark and France. This section surveys the different industrial typologies and spatial patterns, which underline a significant dissimilarity between the North and the South of Europe, mainly due to the difference between heritage-driven and technology-driven countries. The section concludes with a case study on a Japanese creative city. The second part collects some interesting cases of innovation generated in creative spaces such as cities of art or creative clusters and networks. This entails the study of innovations among creative and non-creative sectors (e.g. laser technologies in conservation of works of art and design networks in Italy) and across European and non-European countries (e.g. Spaghetti Western movies in the US or visual artists in New Zealand). Finally, an innovation capacity of culture that can regenerate mature sectors (e.g. the French food supply chain and Swiss watch Valley) or combine the creative and green economics paradigms (e.g. the green creative cities in North Europe) is analyzed. This book will appeal to academics, scholars and practitioners of urban and regional studies, cultural and creative economics and managerial and organization studies.