Creative PEC launches new research exploring how the creative industries participate in innovation activities including: R&D, investment, product and service development, environmental benefits and business strategy.
The report, produced by Dr Rita Nana-Cheraa and Prof Stephen Roper from the Enterprise Research Centre at University of Warwick, investigates the landscape of innovation in creative industries sub-sectors, and also compares Creative Industries innovation activity to Manufacturing and Other Services sectors.
Key findings include:
- A general decline in the percentage of innovation-active creative industries firms over the last decade.
- Compared to Manufacturing, the percentage of businesses engaging in innovation activities was lower for creative industries but higher than in ‘Other Services’.
- National and regional public innovation support have been important drivers of innovation in creative industries.
- The creative industries report the lowest rates of all types of innovation with environmental benefits (3% to 15% of firms), below the UK averages (5% to 17%) but this varies greatly across sub-sectors.
- Creative industries firms make disproportionate use of IP mechanisms, including copyright and trademarks, but also patents and informal mechanisms like product complexity and trade secrecy.
- The creative industries are much more likely to use specialised innovation skills than other sectors, consistent with its workforce being more generally high-skilled.
- A systematically higher percentage of firms in the creative industries invest in innovation – including in R&D, innovation training and design – than in ‘Other services’, but lower than in Manufacturing.
- Creative industries firms were significantly more likely than ‘Other services’ firms to mention a lack of qualified personnel as a barrier to innovation.
Creative PEC is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
