Abstract
The editors of the book Entrepreneurship in Culture and Creative Industries: Perspectives from Companies and Regions deserve credit for having taken on the considerable challenge of addressing this topical and multidimensional phenomenon. However, the editors might question whether in parts their editing work could have been conducted with greater scientific ambition.
The book starts with an introduction which is followed by parts I–III. The introduction is subtitled Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship as Drivers for Change and Development. The first section of the introduction titled Times of Change: The Impact on Creative Industries concentrates – despite the promising subtitle – on a literature review more than it does on providing an analysis by the editors. Moreover, the three goals of the book, briefly mentioned in the second section of introduction, do not align fully with the three main parts of the book, nor are they analysed in depth anywhere in it.
The articles are described in a rather superficial manner in the section titled Structure of the Book. The grounds for placing each of the articles under the main themes remain unclear and without any explanatory analysis to bind them together as a cohesive whole. The authors are introduced only through their names and universities. The figures and tables are not listed and the most important terms are not indexed. Also the valuable marketing opportunity on the covers of the book is unutilised – there are no testimonials or recommendations to attract potential readers.
A concluding section or an epilogue to the book would have offered the reader a synthesis of all articles. Without this, the book comes across as a collection of different articles and an opportunity to connect them and prompt discussion is therefore missed. In the following, I present an overview of some of the articles. The criterion underpinning the selection is that the article contributes to the cultural and creative industry (CCI) entrepreneurship discussion, either by stating a novel viewpoint or by having an exceptionally broad take on the whole area.
Part I, titled Combining Creative Industries and Business Issues, is inspired by Chiara Isadora Artico’s and Michele Tamma’s research on companies incorporating cultural elements in their production and business models. The authors concentrate on luxury products – specifically, six perfumes – and present the findings in three stages: production, delivery and connecting to cultural events. The method is intended to reveal how the cultural and commercial strategies of these culture-based products are integrated. The authors bring in the cultural connection by referring to ‘perfumery traditions of the territory’ and the concept of ‘territories of origin’ in an Italian context.
Elmar D. Konrad studies Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Financing Structures in the German Creative Industries. He concludes that creative entrepreneurs in Germany have very limited financial needs for their start-up projects, with more than 60% requiring less than €10,000 in capital in the start-up phase. The modelling study is a first step in understanding cultural entrepreneurship in terms of the financial structure.
Elena Borin, Fabio Donato and Christine Sinapi research the Financial Sustainability of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Cultural and Creative Sector, and more precisely the role of funding. Based on the theoretical debate, they argue that there is a need to analyse SMEs and large businesses using specific methods. Moreover, investigating the lending to a specific category of SMEs, those in the cultural and creative sector, demand combining quantitative and financial criteria with qualitative criteria. In the concluding remarks, the authors highlighted that sector-specific models have yet to be invented: there are still some stereotyped attitudes towards each other present on both the supplier side (banks) and the demand side (CCI entrepreneurs).
A comprehensive review of the current state of Entrepreneurship in the Creative Industries is presented by Stefan Schulte-Holthaus. The two-stage literature analysis not only captures the particularities of CCI entrepreneurship but also sets out its research potential in a scientific domain as a coherent entrepreneurial phenomenon originating from passion and exploring intrinsic and extrinsic motivational drivers.
In Part II, titled The Value of Creative Industries for Change and Development, Shoshanah B.D. Goldberg-Miller and Rene Kooyman offer an interesting article viewing the creative economy as an entrepreneurial engine, From Edge to Engine. They base their analysis on the data gathered from two pivotal policy actors, UNESCO and UNCTAD. The findings show that the creative sector has matured and become both established and institutionalised. However, UNESCO and UNCTAD will also need to develop a targeted policy for the creative economy in the United Nations’ next paradigm through a post 2015 process concentrating on the 17 recently approved sustainable development goals.
Part III is titled Creative Industries in the Context of Regional and Destination Development. The first article authored by Hristina Mikic’ provides a covering analysis of Cultural Entrepreneurship and Rural Development – A Case Study of Pirot, Serbia. The classification of cultural entrepreneurs was based on the customised UNESCO model and the material utilises 187 survey responses among other data. The main findings include that economic measures of support should be tailored to the specific needs of rural creative entrepreneurship and specific attention should be paid to encouraging female entrepreneurship in rural areas.
Another interesting viewpoint is offered by Uwe Eisenbeis in an article titled Relevant Locational Factors for Creative Industries Startups – Selected Findings from an Empirical Study on Stakeholder Perspectives in the Greater Region of Stuttgart. The study focuses on how to best prepare a region for the future and how Stuttgart might become less dependent on the automotive sector and the machinery industry.
Further discussion of how to create suitable conditions and an ecosystem favourable to start-ups and entrepreneurs would without any doubt offer us interesting and fruitful avenues for future studies. In Eisenbeis’ words: ‘… a start-up ecosystem … in any region, has every chance of success if it is based on the principles of smart selection, smart connection, smart capital, and smart culture’.