Year

2024

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

School of the Arts, English and Media

Abstract

The cultural and creative industries (CCIs) are a significant economic and social force around the world, including Australia, where they generate 5% of gross domestic product and employ 6% of the total workforce (Trembath and Fielding 2020). Researchers and policymakers have focused on the role that entrepreneurship plays within the CCIs, so as to understand the way entrepreneurs create ventures that generate economic and cultural value. Despite this, empirical research into the lived experience of Australian CCI entrepreneurs is rare. To assist in addressing this gap, this thesis collects narrative accounts from 18 Australian CCI entrepreneurs across the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. These narratives demonstrate how people tell their stories to make sense of what happened when they formed an enterprise based on creativity. Visual representation and restorying techniques engage entrepreneurs with their stories of founding and growing CCI enterprises in design, music, fashion, games, film and TV, performing arts, publishing, visual arts, marketing and communications, and architecture. These accounts indicate that the experience of those who establish and operate ventures in the Australian CCIs differs in key ways from traditional models of entrepreneurship, particularly in entrepreneurial intention, opportunity-spotting, and profit-making motives. They provide rich material for a standardised model of CCI entrepreneurship in Australia, yet the differences within each individual entrepreneurial journey point to the multifaceted and composite nature of CCIs. The thesis makes recommendations for future policy and program settings that suggest a framework for support that caters to these individual differences, based on an understanding of what makes CCI entrepreneurship distinct from standard models of entrepreneurial process. In this way, I suggest CCI entrepreneurship in Australia can be encouraged and supported in a manner which responds to the particular opportunities and challenges CCI practitioners deal with.

FoR codes (2008)

1503 BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT, 1599 OTHER COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES, 1999 OTHER STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING, 2002 CULTURAL STUDIES

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Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong.