This article studies the theoretical and applied development of the creative economy. There exists many definitions of creative industries, creative economy and experience economy, all dealing with the same core problematic. It is why it is chosen in this article to talk about the creative economy complex. The ideas to the different elements in the complex have been developed over the last 20 years. A conclusion on experience economy and creative industries is presented on page 7. It is followed by a presentation of how the creative economy complex has been applied in the Baltic Sea Countries and by a section on the development of the creative economy complex after the financial crisis in 2008.
It is found that the complex and its development has been closely related to the business cycle development, implying that the complex from being a general theory in times with positive business cycle development has changed to become more specific and integrated into marketing, regional economy and innovation theory when the business cycle changes to recession and when state debt becomes a main economic problem
