Business School academics lead on special project to understand creative industries
Academics are leading efforts to understand and improve the international competitiveness of the UK's creative sector in a new project
2 May 2019
Boosting creative industries
The project aims to address questions such as how can the UK boost trade and investment in the creative industries, how can it attract international creative talent, and how will Brexit affect the sector in the UK.
Professor Giorgio Fazio, at Newcastle University Business School, said: “Globally, the creative industries are becoming an increasingly important part of the economy and they are gaining pace in many advanced and less advanced economies.
“Their importance is probably going to increase in the face of the current technological revolution. In such a quickly changing environment, understanding the factors driving international competitiveness is critical in order to boost the prospects of these key sectors and national economic growth.”
Dynamics of creative firms
Professor Fazio adds: “We aim to improve current understanding of export and localisation decisions of this type of business and learn more about the factors behind the ability of a country or a place to attract a talented, but mobile, international creative workforce and new generation of entrepreneurs.
“Throughout the project, we plan to continuously engage with key stakeholders to consult them and share what we’re learning with them. To do this we want to bring together a national and international community of creative practitioners, academics, and policymakers for knowledge exchange and collaboration.”
There is a need to know more about the micro and macro dynamics behind the internationalisation of creative firms.
The project is part of the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), funded by the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund through the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and led by innovation organisation, Nesta.
The PEC involves a consortium of ten UK universities, working with industry partners and organisations such as the Work Foundation and Creative Industries Federation to answer some of the most pressing questions about the UK’s creative sector and provide independent research and policy recommendations.
Within the PEC project, Newcastle University Business School is leading the work strand on the international competitiveness of the creative industries.