Articoli taggati con ‘publishing industries’
R&D in creative industries: some lessons from the book publishing sector
Introduction Creative industries (CIs) deserve an ever increasing interest in recent years. Opportunities of economic wealth, growth and jobs creation at local level are identified as key factors (Henry, de Bruin, 2011; Piergiovanni et al., 2012) and recent research has been developed specifically on the strategic and economic dimensions of CIs and their business models (Throsby 2001; Howkins 2001; Benghozi, Paris 2007; Lyubareva et al. 2013). Several papers highlight the innovative dimension of CIs. Yet the papers dealing with such issue are all thinking about innovation as a means to develop new creative contents. One very important issue is surprisingly neglected: this is the characteristic and the management of R&D in CIs, especially in the cultural sector. Even the few studies that aim at investigating the potential of R&D to support the CIs do not provide any analysis of the processes and/or technologies adopted. The general absence of investigations on R&D activities in the CIs is due to a biased vision of the real relevance of these assets for creative companies. In other words, the main reason for poor investments in R&D is usually linked to the specific size, skills and capitalization of creative companies. Actually, disruptive technological innovations come from outside and creative firms are not really able to control their evolution. Creative firms conceive the new product development as the development of innovative content and never as technological R&D activities. Consequently, the main disruptive innovations in the CIs have always taken place outside these industries: this was the case for sound movie, for instance, invented by General Electric in the early XXth, for the innovative devices in music (K7, Walkman or CD), created in the 70s and 80s by Philips or Sony, and more recently, for the MP3 and Appstore in music. Within this context, our research perspective aims at understanding where R&D actually takes place in CIs, how the articulation is made with content and development projects, which economic actors are taking charge of it, where they are located in the value chain, how they are articulated with content producers.
R&D in creative industries: some lessons from the book publishing sector
Notwithstanding the recent increasing interest in creative industries (CIs), very few studies are dealing with a new and emerging topic like technological innovation. In CIs, innovation is in general considered from a single viewpoint: a means to develop new creative contents. One very important issue is surprisingly neglected: this is the technological innovations and, therefore, the characteristic and the management of R&D in the CIs. The present paper aims at understanding where R&D takes place in the book publishing sector, which economic actors are taking charge of it, where they are located in the value chain, how they are articulated with content producers.
Exploring the world between nostalgia and desire
In such a rapidly changing world certainties are strongly needed, and communities share a painful nostalgia for an idyllic past. While powerful people try to stop time a growing tribe of innovators and non-prejudicial individuals build a sort of network able to generate new views and to face new horizons. When the world fears change it means that its backbone is frail, and it cannot rely upon any consolidated principles or beliefs, therefore it can only protect the traditional ones. In the meantime new people accept the challenge and craft a new mankind. They only travel and explore, exchange intuitions and inspirations, ride donkeys, bring light luggage and read the stars to get oriented. Among the many outcomes of such an intensive and complex period we find the evolution of describing the world with maps where many various sites, routes and atmospheres were analysed and painted; and the evolution of books, in some decades transformed from manually written sheets to printed volumes. When they were developed not everybody felt at ease with these mysterious and unexpected objects.
