Emerging Synergies in Innovation Systems: Creative Industries in Central Europe

Abstract

AbstractThe window of opportunity has opened for the creative industries in Central Europe in the decades following the fall of the communist regime and the transition to a decentralised market economy. Creative industries with symbolic knowledge base are crucial for regional resilience, and regional synergies established by these economic activities highly influence the long-term ability of innovation systems to develop. The question is whether creative industries have started to grow and can contribute to the development of post-socialist knowledge-based economies in Central Europe, if so, at what territorial level. By distinguishing three dimensions (geography, technology, organisation) that operate in innovation systems and by measuring their interactions using entropy statistics in two post-socialist countries, Slovakia and Hungary, the paper reveals that the most significant part of the synergy in creative industries emerges at the local level of innovation systems. However, benefits are realised not only locally but also globally due to the deterritorialised nature of the end-products and their integration into other industrial products on the global market.