In search of Finnish creative economy ecosystems and their development needs: study based on international benchmarking

This report reviews the status of domestic creative economy ecosystem development, benchmarks creative economy focused policies and models in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the Republic of Korea (South Korea), and gives recommendations on how to support cross-sectoral use of creative competencies in ecosystem development in Finland. In the review of creative economy in Finland, creative activities are grouped into four categories (creative and cultural products, creative content, creative services, creative environments and platforms) that differ from each other in terms of value creation logic, easiness of scalability and recycling of intangible value, and the role of interaction and communities in the value creation process. This categorisation has been applied in updating the creative sector fact sheets. International benchmarking shows that official recognition, champions and organisations are needed to establish a common voice for creative sector actors. These have had an important enabling role for proactive policies supporting the creative sectors’ development. Strengthening of creative activities and connecting them firmly to wider regional and national networks across the economy are on policy agenda in all the three benchmarking countries. Supporting cross-sectoral collaboration and wider use of creative competencies calls for a clear national policy recognising pivotal role of regional hubs, attention to fostering practise oriented business skills in initial education, and flexible arrangements for accessing complementary expertise and facilities. To improve the availability and relevance of data on creative activity, we propose to study and pilot the use of textual data and text mining techniques to complement official statistics on economic activities, and systemise data collection on publicly funded projects. For ecosystem development, the public-private partnership model based growth engine initiatives of Business Finland could offer a platform for cross-sectoral collaboration and for connecting regional hubs with national and global ecosystems.