Within the framework of creative economy the creative and innovative management represents a strategic issue to consider when stimulating the enhancement of competitiveness among companies and countries. Creativity, innovation and new product developmentcreative economy, innovation, creative and innovative management, creative place

IVANOVICI MINA

PLATIS IORDACHE MAGDALENA

SUCIU MARTA-CHRISTINA

English

Research Papers in Economics

208 
 
CREATIVE ECONOMY. DETERMINANTS AND STAKES OF CREATIVITY AND 
INNOVATION MANAGEMENT. REGIONAL INGRESSIONS 
 
Suciu Marta-Christina  
Bucharest  Academy  of  Economic  Studies  Faculty  of  Economics  6  Pia a  Romană,  Sector  1 
Bucharest +40 3191901 
Iordache Platiş Magdalena 
University  of  Bucharest  Faculty  of  Business  and  Administration  4-12  Bulevardul  Regina 
Elisabeta, Sector 1 Bucharest +40 3 10 49 20 
Ivanovici Mina 
Bucharest  Academy  of  Economic  Studies  Faculty  of  Economics  6  Pia a  Romană,  Sector  1 
Bucharest +40 745 471 452 
 
Within the framework of creative economy the creative and innovative management represents a strategic 
issue to consider when stimulating the enhancement of competitiveness among companies and countries. 
Creativity, innovation and new product development are the main aspects that should be referred to in 
order  for  a  company  to  achieve  a  leading  position,  both  on  local  and  global  markets.  Besides  the 
reinforcement  of  active  policies  within  companies,  there  should  be  economy-wide  approaches  for 
stimulating nation-wide creativity and innovation through various policies (quality of the environment, 
talent retention etc.). The aim of this paper is to outline the main determinants and stakes of creativity and 
innovation management in the context of the knowledge-based society.   
 
Keywords: creative economy, innovation, creative and innovative management, creative place 
 
JEL classification: O0, O1, O3, R1. 
 
1. Creativity and Innovation at the Centre of Competitiveness Concerns 
There are six main internal determinants for competitiveness based on creativity, innovation and 
new product development: organization strategy & availability of resources; new technologies; 
intensity  of  research  and  development  activities;  organisation  culture  &  communication; 
organisation structure and motivation of employees & their involvement
88. However, there are 
authors who argue that competitive advantage can be achieved by dint of technologies alone. 
According to such authors, new technologies are to turn into efforts into new products. In this 
respect,  it  is  within  the  scope  of  research  and  development  to  create  and  improve  the 
technological  potential
89.  In  our  opinion,  technologies  alone  cannot  play  this  complex  role 
without a backup coming from the aforementioned factors. 
In  addition,  we  would  like  to  mention  the  impact  of  interdisciplinary  and  multidisciplinary 
approaches within the innovation process.  It is comprised of the formal and informal framework 
that brings together organisations from different industries and technological institutions around 
common purposes and objectives. This framework enables the combination of competences and 
the integration  of  extremely  necessary  knowledge  and  abilities for  creating  technologies  and 
complex products for the market. This type of cooperation should be: diverse (for actors and 
competences), coherent (integrating complementary activities) and interactive (tight cooperation 
relations). In this context, forming interdisciplinary heterogeneous teams would also play a key 
role for the cohesion of idea generation and subsequent efforts. 
This diversity mainly refers to the education attainment level of the members who are part of 
such heterogeneous teams. There is a direct relation between the education heterogeneity of the 
                                                       
88  Alves,  Jorge,  Marques,  Maria  José,  Saur,  Irina,  Marques,  Pedro,  Creativity  and  Innovation  through 
Multidisciplinary and Multisectoral Cooperation, in “Creativity and Innovation Management” 16 (1), 27–34, 2007. 
89 Reger, G., von Wichert-Nick, D., A Learning Organization for R&D Management, in “International Journal of 
Technology Management”, 13 (7/8): 796-817, 1997. 209 
 
team,  the  innovation  degree  embedded  in  products,  the  degree  of  detection  of  environment 
opportunities and the openness of the strategic planning created by the entrepreneurial team. 
Creativity and innovation are present at all business levels – from the management of company to 
aspects pertaining to development, branding and product state. Companies face rapid changes due 
to growing market competition on the one hand and their efforts to keep the pace or improve their 
position on the other hand. Creativity outputs render the company more attractive both for clients 
and  for  partners.  In  other  words,  business  future,  profitability  and  sustainable  competitive 
advantage  largely  depend  on  their  degree  of  creativity.  Therefore,  innovation  requires  also 
flexibility, because innovation that cannot be commercialised is worthless
90. 
A company is innovative active if it is involved in: 
- the introduction of a new product (good or service) or a significantly-improved one; 
- unfinished or abandoned innovative projects; 
- expenses for internal research and development activities, training, accumulation of external 
knowledge or machines and equipments to be used for innovation activities. 
Creativity,  as  a  source  of  sustainable  development  and  seen  as  the  first  step  in  achieving 
innovation has three interacted facets: 
- Technological side. In this case creativity results in innovation, new products and ideas and 
technologies. 
-  Economic  side.  This  type  of  creativity  includes  entrepreneurship,  turning  innovation,  new 
products and ideas and technologies into new business or new industries.  
- Cultural and artistic side. This type of creativity refers to the ability to invent new ways of 
seeing things, new art forms, new designs, new photos, new concepts etc.
91 
 
2. Regional Requirements for Creativity and Innovation 
In his study, Competing in the Age of Talent: Quality of Place and the New Economy, Richard 
Florida highlights the role played by the creative place
92 in the development of the new economy. 
Within this category fall amenities and the quality of the environment as well.  
The authors points to the following issues: 
- Quality of place from natural, recreational and amenities standpoints, all of which influence 
our lives. Creative knowledge workers prefer to choose culturally rich environments with various 
amenities to live and work in. These are places where global networks turn into growing and 
competitive regional and urban economies. 
- Availability of career opportunities and jobs is a necessary but not sufficient condition to attract 
creative and innovative people in a region.  
-  Quality  of  the  environment  and  level  of  amenities,  including  the  possibility  of  developing 
competitive technologies. 
-  Strategies  meant  to  propel  the  improvement  of  the  quality  of  environment  and  natural 
amenities, and to attract and retain talent in those places. 
- Recreational activities and amenities that influence the life style of creative and innovative 
people.  
The same author suggests that a set a measures should be implemented for the human factor to be 
motivated to pursue its purposes. These policies would basically concern: 
- the transformation of the quality of the place into a real objective within regional economic 
development strategies; 
                                                       
90 Sutton, Robert I, Weird Ideas That Work. 11 and a half Ways to Promote, Manage and Sustain Innovation, Allen 
Lane, The Penguin Press, London 2002. 
91 Florida, Richard, The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Leisure, Community, and Everyday 
Life, New York: Basic Books, 2002. 
92 Place is different from location, as the former includes complex elements as well, such as social, environmental and 
cultural factors besides the factors offered by location: distance to the market or availability of adequate labour force.  210 
 
- the integration of natural amenities within the general policy of regional economic development 
and talent retention; 
- investment in recreational amenities; 
- the development of a strategy targeting the amenities of the academic environment and their 
integration into regional economic development strategies; 
- encouraging regional sustainable growth and development through sustainable use, preservation 
and revitalisation of natural resources; 
- creation of certain mechanisms meant to stimulate knowledge and ideas on behalf of citizens for 
improving the quality of place. 
There  are  studies  trying  to  explain  the  connection  between  tolerance  (including  individuals’ 
talent  and  high-tech  jobs)  and  economic  health  and  growth.  Gary  Sands  and  Laura  Reese
93 
conducted a study on forty medium-sized urban places in Canada that revealed that there is a 
connection between diversity and the creative population and economic health. However, there 
has been found no correlation between high-tech jobs or economic growth and the other factors. 
The authors conclude that amenities and economic development strategies based on the creative 
class may be effective, but they are not sufficient. Besides, they also consider that it would be 
necessary to take the following measures: implementing a tourist marketing strategy; improving 
the general infrastructure; rendering the business environment more attractive in the traditional 
way; implementing various strategies for retaining resources and talents. 
 
3. Creative Milieux – Resultant of Place and People Vectors 
‘Creative milieux’ bring together shared spaces and traditions where people can learn, compare, 
compete  and  cooperate  and  where  creative  and  innovative  people  can  suggest,  develop  and 
disseminate or reject ideas.  These are places where genuine and deep knowledge are borne by 
people with various competences and communication skills. In these places, people experiment 
and are willing to face highly uncertain and complex market situations, whose main landmarks 
are continuous changes in the culture, science and technology. 
For creativity and innovation to be fostered, informal and spontaneous communication is a must 
both at internal and external level.  
In  addition,  ‘creative  milieux’  are  synergetic  and  multidisciplinary  environments,  connecting 
science, arts and business and benefitting by a stout financing structure, capable of financially 
supporting experiments, risk-taking and trial-and-error activities. 
There  are  examples  galore  of  ‘creative  milieux’.  However,  these  good  examples  should  be 
replicated everywhere in the global economy. Examples of such good practice ‘creative milieux’ 
are: New York Silicon Alley  (USA), Silicon Valley – San Francisco Bay Area (USA), Boston’s 
Route 128 (USA), Creative Industries Precinct (Australia, Qeensland), Cyberjaya – Malaysia’s 
Multimedia  Supercorridor  (Malaysia),  Intelligent  Island  (Singapore),  Shenzhen  (China), 
Barcelona  (Spania),  Goteburg  (Denmark),  Milano  (Italy),  Jamtland  (Sweden),  Tilburg  (The 
Netherlands), Berlin (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Dublin (Ireland). All these places generate 
competitive advantages such as: increased productivity by larger access to inputs (technology, 
knowledge, labour force); promoting innovation by rapidly reacting to opportunities; promoting 
training  in  other  fields  as  well  as  life-long  learning  by  facilitating  access  to  competences, 
technology and capital.  
Apart from the incontestable role played by internal and organisation-related factors in generating 
creativity and innovation, geographers have highlighted the regional clustering phenomenon in 
the creation of new ideas that give rise to patents and advance technologies in a specific field
94.       
                                                       
93  Sands,  Gary,  Reese,  Laura  A.,  Cultivating  the  Creative  Class:  And  What  About  Nanaimo?,  in  „Economic 
Development Quarterly”, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 8-23, 2008. 
94 Sherwat E. Ibrahim, M. Hosein Fallah, Richard R. Reilly , Do Localized Clusters Influence Creativity of Inventors?, 
in „Creativity and Innovation Management” 15 (4), 410–418, 2006. 211 
 
The  main  external  geographical  determinants  are  the  interactions  having  a  direct  effect  on 
innovation  (from  the  perspective  of  the  human  factor)  and  the  specific  events  and the local 
environment circumstances grouped into the following categories
95: 
- directly localised factors influencing creativity (local inhabitants, material aspects outside the 
organisation); 
-  localised  situations  belonging  to  the  local  environment  (such  as  brainstorming  sessions, 
meetings, social reunions, conferences, seminars, fairs etc.); 
-  localised  stimuli  grouping  general  influences  pertaining  to  the  regional  environment 
(agglomeration). 
Besides the regional clustering phenomenon, we mention the concept of communities of practice 
within the selfsame regional context. These communities of practice refer to people belonging to 
and acting in a specific field, irrespective of their spatial localisation. Communities of practice 
represent groups of people who are informally connected through expertise and passion for joint 
projects. Such people have a common baggage of knowledge and practice, common values and 
attitudes and the sense of a common identity. Unlike clusters and agglomerations, communities 
of  practice  are  not  strictly  dependent  on  space  because  connections  can  subsist  either  by 
traditional meetings or at distance by information and communication technologies. It is not the 
means of interaction (close-far; here-there) that characterises communities of practice, but rather 
the shared experience and knowledge.    
The necessity of communities of practice is explained by the usefulness of rapid resolution of 
problems  that  might  arise  in  that  field.  Within  these  communities,  expertise,  good  practice 
transfers, professional skills development and many other assets build their strength.  
The  counterbalance  of  these  efforts  comprises  a  wide  range  of  benefits  such  as  social  and 
organisation innovation (by creating, developing and applying knowledge), knowledge sharing 
as  well  as  individual  and  group  learning.  Although  few,  disadvantages  may  occur  as  well: 
conflicts  related  to  power  and  the  tendency  to  exclude  outsiders,  given  the  very  strong 
connections and deeply-rooted common identity. 
 
Conclusions 
Creativity and innovation are at the crossroads of people, places and policies at local and regional 
level. Creativity and innovation management is extremely important in today’s changing social, 
economic, technological and cultural environment and may prove to be the right key to increased 
competitiveness and market responsiveness. 
The importance of such an issue is debated at European level. To this purpose, year 2009 was 
declared the European Year of Creativity and Innovation by the European Commission
96. This is 
due to the fact that all decision-makers understood that the innovation, culture and creativity 
taking  place  in  European  towns  and  regions  propel  economic  growth,  giving  rise  to  new 
investment and jobs. 
Measures taken at microeconomic level alone (organization strategy & availability of resources; 
new  technologies;  intensity  of  research  and  development  activities;  organisation  culture  & 
communication; organisation structure and motivation of employees & their involvement) are a 
necessary  but  not  sufficient  condition  for  creativity  and  innovation  to  lead  to  increased 
competitiveness. National and regional steps should be taken and  
 
   
                                                       
95 Ibidem. 
96 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:257:0046:01:RO:HTML. 212 
 
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A Learning Organization for R&D Management,

Competing in the age of talent: quality of place and the new economy,

Cultivating the Creative Class: And What About Nanaimo?,

Do Localized Clusters Influence Creativity of Inventors?

Interdisciplinary Heterogeneity as a Catalyst for Product Innovativeness of Entrepreneurial Teams,

Knowledge Management in Organisations. A Critical Introduction,

The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life,

The rise of the network society,

Weird Ideas That Work. 11 and a half Ways to Promote, Manage and Sustain Innovation,

CREATIVE ECONOMY. DETERMINANTS AND STAKES OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT. REGIONAL INGRESSIONS

http://steconomice.uoradea.ro/anale/volume/2009/v2-economy-and-business-administration/35.pdf

CREATIVE ECONOMY. DETERMINANTS AND STAKES OF CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT. REGIONAL INGRESSIONS

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