Creative Industries Entrepreneurship as a Means for Sustainable Innovative Transition

Dear Colleagues,

What lies in the future for creative industries and how can innovation and entrepreneurship contribute to sustainable transition thereof? With this Special Issue, we want to expand this discussion through research.

Creative industries, defined as industries that “extract economic value and social benefit from art and cultural products” (Chang et al., 2021, p.16), are receiving increasing attention within the innovation and entrepreneurship literature. Concepts such as artistic innovation and cultural entrepreneurship have been used as a means to define unique traits relative to the issues at hand, given the specific context that the creative industries constitute.

Creative industries are no exception in the ever-increasing debate and research that addresses sustainability. The fashion industry is a good example here that has received much attention, pointing at sustainable change as quintessential for future development. Aspects of production and material sourcing, as well as social responsibility for employees within the production chain (cf. Egels-Zandén and Hansson, 2016; Stål and Jansson, 2017), and consumer behaviors are increasingly discussed relative to the sustainability challenges of today (Curtis and Lehner, 2019; Stål and Jansson, 2017; Dobers and Strannegård, 2005). At the same time, as creative industries encompass a plethora of different sectors, research regarding innovation and entrepreneurship as means for sustainable change requires a broad spectrum of empirical settings and points of analysis.

With this Special Issue, we want to contribute to, and expand, this evolving field of research. Sustainability should here be seen in its broad sense, i.e., not as an exclusive term for meeting environmental challenges, but also from the perspectives of social sustainability and sustained business in a changing market landscape. We know that the creative industries in general see a greater proportion of the workforce as being self-employed and/or entrepreneurs (Bridgstock, 2013; Lassen et al., 2018), meaning that there is a need to better understand the role of entrepreneurship for sustainable transition within said industries. Artistic innovation here plays a key role, addressing aesthetic properties and/or material bases (Jones et al., 2016; Castañer and Campos, 2002).

We invite papers that address matters of sustainability in this broad sense relative to innovation and entrepreneurship. Topics include (but are not limited to):

• Sustainable transition through business model innovation in creative industries;
• Open innovation processes in creative industries: strengths and weaknesses for sustainable transition;
• Specifics of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship in creative industries;
• Collaborative practices for creativity and public policy;
• The role of universities/higher education for sustainable transition in creative industries.

Both qualitative and quantitative research is welcome, and we encourage a wide array of foci within the broader spectrum meaning of creative industries. In this context, we specifically invite scholars with a focus on knowledge-intensity and the relative importance of different knowledge bases (cf., e.g., Lassen et al., 2020) for the continued development of entrepreneurship and innovation for sustainable transition within the creative industries.

References

Bridgstock, R., 2013. Not a dirty word: Arts entrepreneurship and higher education. Arts and humanities in higher education, 12(2-3), pp.122–137.

Castañer, X. & Campos, L., 2002. The Determinants of Artistic Innovation: Bringing in the Role of Organizations. Journal of Cultural Economics, 26(1), pp.29–52.

Chang, YY., Potts, j. & Shih, HY., 2021. The market for meaning: A new entrepreneurial approach to creative industries dynamics. Journal of Cultural Economics, (2021).

Curtis, S.K. & Lehner, M., 2019. Defining the Sharing Economy for Sustainability. Sustainability, 11(3), 567.

Dobers, P. & Strannegård, L., 2005. Design, lifestyles and sustainability. Aesthetic consumption in a world of abundance. Business Strategy and the Environment, 14(5), pp.324-336.

Egels-Zandén, N. & Hansson, N., 2016. Supply Chain Transparency as a Consumer or Corporate Tool: The Case of Nudie Jeans Co. Journal of Consumer Policy, 39, pp.377–395.

Jones, C. et al., 2016. Misfits, Mavericks and Mainstreams: Drivers of Innovation in the Creative Industries. Organization studies, 37(6), pp.751–768.

Lassen, A.H., Ljungberg, D. & McKelvey, M., 2020. Promoting Future Sustainable Transition by Overcoming the Openness Paradox in KIE Firms. Sustainability, 12(24), 10567.

Lassen, A.H., McKelvey, M. & Ljungberg, D., 2018. Knowledge‐intensive entrepreneurship in manufacturing and creative industries: Same, same, but different. Creativity and Innovation Management, 27(3), pp.284–294.

Ståhl, H.I. & Jansson, J., 2017. Sustainable Consumption and Value Propositions: Exploring Product-Service System Practices Among Swedish Fashion Firms. Sustainable Development, 25(6), pp.546-558.

Dr. Erik Gustafsson
Prof. Dr. Maureen McKelvey
Dr. Astrid Heidemann Lassen
Guest Editors

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• cultural entrepreneurship
• artistic innovation
• creative industries
• sustainable transition
• knowledge intensity
• knowledge-intensive innovative entrepreneurship