The Archipelago of Cultural and Creative Industries: A Case Study of the Basque Country

Abstract

The cultural and creative industries (e.g., digital/audiovisual content, publishing and print media, etc.) constitute an emerging business sector focused on aligning cultural and creative production with profitability and market criteria that encompasses a diverse range of entities, generates employment, boosts GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and drives innovation. This paper analyses the impact of the cultural and creative industries on the economy of the Basque Country and provides information concerning the number of companies present in this sector, their legal structures, annual turnovers, size in terms of the number of people they employ and relative ability to secure public funding for entrepreneurial support and creative projects. Our findings indicate that businesses of this nature in the Basque Country form an ecosystem similar to an archipelago in which companies with a strong entrepreneurial focus, high annual turnovers and a national and international clientele coexist alongside smaller, less profit-oriented organisations devoted to regional cultural development.

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“…The Basque milieu of cultural and creative industries has been described as an "archipelago of heterogenous entities" [76] (p. 12). Such wording is a synthesis of a complex reality, in which agents are far from comprising a cluster and have diverse needs, sizes, and scope.…”

“…A quick overview of the CCI sector in 2016 shows a total of 15,437 companies based in the Basque Country, which accounted for 10% of the total number of companies across all economic sectors [77]. These companies generated nearly 1784 million euros in 2015, approximately 2.61% of Basque GDP [76,78]. In terms of employment, the CCI sector accounted only for 5.3% of total jobs [77].…”

“…Comparatively, on average, creative economy companies are substantially smaller in terms of number of employees than the rest of the business spectrum: roughly 94,3% of these companies had fewer than 10 employees, mainly relying on self-employment, since 83.3% had between 0 and 2 [79]. By contrast, a group of 96 prominent cultural and creative companies, i.e., 0.62% of cultural and creative companies in 2016, generated an estimated 55% of the value created by the industry and employed 15.9% of the overall workforce [76,77].…”

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“…Start-ups are the strongest manifestation of entrepreneurship and innovation [1]. They are distinguished from other business ventures by dynamic market expansion executed most often using modern technologies, such as information and communication [2][3][4][5]. Their rapid development is guaranteed by unique know-how and investor financial support (business angels; venture capital).…”

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“…Innovations are the driving force of the economy. Socio-economic and civilization development, which determines the quality of life of the population and the attractiveness of the region and the country, depends on the scale of their implementation and the level of advancement [1][2][3]. Thus, innovations are a national treasure which are sought not only by enterprises, but also by state and local authorities.…”