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Are you interested in the connection between creative industries and cities?

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Our summary today works with the article titled Creativity, cities and innovation from 2014 by Neil Lee and Andrés Rogríguez-Pose, published in the Environment and Planning A journal. This is a great preparation to our next interview with Julian O’Shea in episode 224 talking about the importance of creative people in cities. Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see the link between creative industries, occupations and the innovation within cities. This article investigates the effects of creative industries and creative occupations on cities.

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Welcome to today’s What is The Future For Cities podcast and its Research episode; my name is Fanni, and today I will introduce a research paper by summarising it. The episode really is just a short summary of the original paper, and, in case it is interesting enough, I would encourage everyone to check out the whole paper. Stay tuned until because I will give you the 3 most important things and some questions which would be interesting to discuss.

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Creativity is a key driver of economic innovation, notably in creative industries such as design and software, which benefit from the dense, specialized networks found in urban areas. However, the anticipated innovation advantage of urban settings, especially in larger cities, is not strongly supported by empirical evidence. The influence of creativity surpasses industry limitations, with creative roles across various sectors playing a crucial role in fostering innovation, thereby challenging the notion that innovation is predominantly an attribute of urban creative industries. Research on UK SMEs shows that while creative industries are inclined towards product innovation, there isn’t a distinct urban advantage. Instead, creative occupations emerge as vital for innovation across both urban and rural firms, pointing to the need for policies that broadly support creative roles, irrespective of a firm’s location, underlining the universal importance of creative occupations in enhancing innovation.

The creative industries across various sectors, from advertising to software, have been spotlighted for their innovation potential, particularly in generating new products and adapting to market changes. This sector’s dynamism is partly due to its necessity to continually produce new goods and reconfigure project teams to meet market demands, leading to a hypothesis that creative industries are more likely to introduce both product and process innovations than other sectors. However, empirical evidence, especially from London, challenges the perceived high innovation levels within these industries, suggesting innovations may be subtler or less frequent compared to other economic sectors.

Parallelly, the link between creative occupations and innovation has been less explored, even though such roles are rapidly expanding, especially in cities. While some studies have identified a positive impact of creative occupations on product innovation, the relationship with process innovation is less clear, pointing to a need for broader research across regions and sectors. Additionally, the concept of the ‘creative city’ as an innovation hub due to dense labour markets and knowledge spillovers faces scepticism. The innovative advantage attributed to urban settings, particularly larger cities, is debated, with some arguing that rural areas might offer equally innovative environments due to different operational dynamics. This discourse suggests that the relationship between creative industries, occupations, and their geographical settings with innovation is complex and multifaceted, warranting a nuanced understanding.

The study analyses data from the UK’s Annual Small Business Survey (ASBS) 2007/08, focusing on 9,158 SMEs and narrowing down creative industries to 727 firms based on specific definitions. It explores the impact of creative occupations on innovation through the Annual Population Survey (APS), highlighting a preference for ‘soft innovations’ in creative sectors. Despite limitations, results emphasize the significant role of creative industries and occupations in product innovation. A probit model investigates how creative industry classification, creative occupation proportion, and urban location affect firm innovation, factoring in firm characteristics, activities, and regional influences.

There seems to be no significant difference in product or process innovation between creative industries and other sectors, challenging the hypothesis that creative sectors are more innovative. However, firms in creative occupations drive original product innovation, regardless of geographical location, underscoring the importance of creative roles over industry classification for innovation. Urban setting does not enhance the innovativeness of creative industries or occupations, with no evidence supporting a distinct urban advantage in innovation. Specifically, in London, creative occupations contribute to innovation but not more than in other cities, suggesting the impact of creative roles on innovation is widespread and not confined to urban scale or specific cities. This challenges the notion that larger urban areas, like London, have a unique effect on innovation in creative sectors.

Contrary to common perceptions, firms in the UK’s creative industries may not be as innovative as traditionally believed, particularly when comparing their overall innovation output with firms in other sectors. While creative industries show some inclination towards introducing entirely new products, this does not extend to a broader innovation advantage. Significantly, creative occupations emerge as a more crucial driver of innovation, influencing both entirely new and learned innovations across urban and rural settings. This underscores the impact of individuals in creative roles over the industry sector itself on innovation.

Furthermore, the study challenges the notion that urban environments inherently enhance the innovativeness of creative industries, suggesting that the attributes of specific cities, rather than their size, may play a more critical role. Digital business models have potential and creative occupations in cities create important knowledge exchanges, even as they debunk the idea that large cities, like London, offer a unique innovation advantage for creative industries or occupations.

Policies and support mechanisms aimed at fostering innovation within the creative industries need to be re-evaluated, suggesting a need for more targeted approaches that consider the unique contribution of creative occupations to innovation. Second, the geographical focus of innovation policies should broaden beyond urban centres, recognizing that innovation in creative firms is influenced more by firm characteristics than location. The study also identifies areas for further research, including the development of more nuanced measures of innovation and the exploration of the urban dimension’s role in creative industries’ innovation, to provide a deeper understanding of how innovation manifests in this sector.

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What was the most interesting part for you? What questions did arise for you? Do you have any follow up question? Let me know on Twitter at WTF4Cities or on the wtf4cities.com website where the transcripts and show notes are available! Additionally, I will highly appreciate if you consider subscribing to the podcast or on the website. I hope this was an interesting paper for you as well, and thanks for tuning in!

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Finally, as the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects:

1. Creativity is crucial for economic innovation, with creative occupations across various sectors playing a key role in fostering innovation, challenging the traditional focus on urban creative industries alone.
2. There is no strong empirical evidence supporting the notion that urban settings, particularly larger cities, have a distinct advantage in driving innovation within creative industries and occupations.
3. Policies that support creative roles across both urban and rural settings are needed, emphasizing the universal importance of creative occupations in enhancing innovation, rather than focusing solely on location-based advantages.

Additionally, it would be great to talk about the following questions:

1. How can we redefine the role of creative occupations to drive innovation in sectors traditionally viewed as non-creative?
2. In what ways can small towns and rural areas develop ecosystems that nurture creativity and innovation, similar to urban settings?
3. What factors do you think could be more crucial in fostering innovation within the creative industries sector?

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