Cultural and Creative industries in North - East Italy - from firm analysis to policies

Abstract

This thesis focuses on some characteristic features of the creative industries located in north-east Italy in order to address them targeted policies. The first step, in trying to outline a description of creative industries, has been to analyze the literature of different European Countries. The outcome is a confused set of classifications very different from one another which do not permit to create a uniform category. Despite all the studies, a shared convention on the “cultural and creative industry” definition is still missing. This reflects in individualizing those sectors which constitute the “cultural and creative industry” area; consequently the data identified in different Countries are not comparable. The second part of the thesis, having noticed the absence of a definition has been dedicated to outline a complete description of the Italian north-eastern creative industries. The aim has been achieved by a survey submitted to a panel of 343 selected creative firms located in Veneto, Trentino Alto Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions. In this way a set of data has been collected, regarding the economic and financial structure, sales, business strategy, innovation, competitive advantages and major obstacles. This analysis has collected high level of agreement on the same answers, allowing to outline a complete identikit starting from the size of the creative firms in terms of turnover and employment until the common competitive advantages and the policies they consider useful for their development. The third part concerns the analysis of policies addressed to creative industries in different European Countries. In many countries, policies for creative industries are at the top of the political agendas, whereas in Italy it is still absent an explicit strategy for this sector. It could be useful to learn from the successful targeted policies put in place by other countries that precede us.