The Economics Of Creativity

Creative work is governed by uncertainty. So how can customers and critics judge merit, when the disparity between superstardom and obscurity hinges on minor gaps in ability? The Economics of Creativity brings clarity to a market widely seen as either irrational or so free of standards that only power and manipulation count.

Understanding the economic implication of creative individuals and firms is at the heart of the new economy and of related fields such as the economics of knowledge, the economics of science and innovation management. This book brings together a panel of theoretical and empirical contributions which address the generation of creative ideas and their transformation into products and services by firms or universities, as well as the interplay of those organizations in networks and markets. The word ‘creativity’ has been used a great deal recently in relation to efforts to recover from the global financial crisis and re-launch economic activity. Little has been added to explain how and why an economic approach of creativity is useful and necessary. It is useful to understand how the most creative people work and think, and how to foster their creative productivity. It is useful to understand how organizations integrate and exploit creative ideas. It is useful to understand how market mechanisms can handle creativity and how policies must be adapted. It is necessary in the light of the recent economic crises that made innovation, invention and creativity the basis of a new industrialization and fuel for a new economic development. This new book assesses the economic impact of creativity, defining the term and then going on to explore theoretically and practically the economic consequences of creativity through a range of themes including: creativity and evolutionary theories of technological change; creativity and organizational learning; creativity and technological policy; and creativity and economics of networks. This volume offers a rich source of inspiration and ideas for the pursuit of research which merges economic tradition and management perspectives.

Creative work is governed by uncertainty. So how can customers and critics judge merit, when the disparity between superstardom and obscurity hinges on minor gaps in ability? The Economics of Creativity brings clarity to a market widely seen as either irrational or so free of standards that only power and manipulation count.

The book explores the relationship between cultural heritage and local economic development by introducing the original idea that one possible mediator between the two can be identified as creativity. The book econometrically verifies this idea and demonstrates that cultural heritage, through its inspirational role on different creative talents, generates an indirect positive effect on local economic development. These results justify important new policy recommendations in the field of cultural heritage.

Analyses the economic development of cities from the 'cultural economy' and 'creative industry' perspectives.

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.

This is a major work by three international scholars at the cutting edge of new research that investigates the emerging set of complex relationships between creativity, design, research, higher education and knowledge capitalism. It highlights the role of the creative and expressive arts, of performance, of aesthetics in general, and the significant role of design as an underlying infrastructure for the creative economy. This book tracks the most recent mutation of these serial shifts - from postindustrial economy to the information economy to the digital economy to the knowledge economy to the 'creative economy' - to summarize the underlying and essential trends in knowledge capitalism and to investigate post-market notions of open source public space. The book hypothesizes that creative economy might constitute an enlargement of its predecessors that not only democratizes creativity and relativizes intellectual property law, but also emphasizes the social conditions of creative work. It documents how these profound shifts have brought to the forefront forms of knowledge production based on the commons and driven by ideas, not profitability per se; and have given rise to the notion of not just 'knowledge management' but the design of 'creative institutions' embodying new patterns of work.

'Gunnar Törnqvist, one of the world's most distinguished economic geographers, can fairly claim to have discovered the notion of the geography of creativity over thirty years ago. This remarkable book summarises his immensely original and important research on the subject, which now dominates the geographical literature. It is the book that the world has been waiting for him to publish.' Sir Peter Hall, University College London, UK 'This book offers a comprehensive perspective on the salience of context in fostering or hindering creativity. After several decades of research and teaching, Gunnar Törnqvist has become a foremost authority on the subject. Here, his elegant conceptual overview is complemented by a methodologically-innovative scrutiny of career journeys, including those of Nobel Prize laureates. The Geography of Creativity will be warmly welcomed by not only cultural geographers, but also by scholars in various fields of social science and humanities.' Anne Buttimer, University College Dublin, Ireland What is creativity and who exactly is creative? In this insightful and highly readable book, Gunnar Tornqvist attempts to answer these questions by arguing that geographical millieux are hotbeds for creativity and renewal places where pioneers in art, technology and science have gathered and developed their special abilities. In light of ongoing social and economic transformations, special attention is paid to the institutional settings in firms and universities. The goal is to identify those features which facilitate and those which impede the creative process. Individual lives are illustrated through the autobiographies of hundreds of Nobel Laureates. Their life paths reveal the importance of geographic mobility and contact patterns for the development of creativity and international prestige. From these biographies we can also see how local millieux and schools have influenced many scientists. The Geography of Creativity will be of great benefit to academics and students in regional science, economic geography and economics.