The study “The sustainability of creative industries”

The Institute of Baltic Studies together with Ernst & Young AS is conducting the study “The Sustainability of creative industries”. The study is commissioned by the Ministry of Culture.

The culture and creative industry is a growing sector of economy that is based on intellectual property that is created, valued, used and sold, thereby creating new value for other sectors as well. On the other hand, it is a field that is heavily dependent on public funding. Although the field has been somewhat successful in involving private funding and increasing profitability, the Estonian language and cultural space is still a limited market. The study “The sustainability of creative industries” explores activities that need funding and support in order to increase the economic capabilities, innovativeness and competitiveness of the sector both on domestic and international markets – the impact of which is the increased sustainability of the culture sector.

The main research questions of the study fall into four categories:

  1. Resource use
  2. The connection between funding and sustainability
  3. The future of creative industries
  4. The impact of management models and value networks on sustainability

The goal of the study is to explore the different trends impacting the creative industries and based on these trends, create development scenarios or future scenarios are created to better understand upcoming trends. The future scenarios also serve as a basis for policy recommendations for the sustainability of creative industries.

In the study, the research partners use both quantitative (data requests, data analysis) and qualitative (in-depth interviews, focus group interviews, scenario creation in workshops) methods for data collection and analysis. The study concludes with a final report, policy recommendations and a public dissemination event.