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Editorial
Colette Henry & Anne de Bruin
Welcome to the Autumn edition of Enterprising Matters which, we are delighted to say, has adopted Creative Industries as its special theme. As you are aware, we introduced the Creative Industries Track for the very first time at this year’s ISBE Conference in Liverpool. The track encompassed a range of papers dealing with defining and mapping the creative sector globally; characteristics and challenges of creative entrepreneurs; the role of educators & trainers, and international policy and support. Sponsored by ACCA, this was certainly a highly international track, with presenters from the USA, England, Ireland, Wales, New Zealand and the Netherlands.
A mixture of theoretically and empirically-based refereed, working and case study papers discussed research in industries as diverse as music, craft and digitally-based serious games, and included themes relating to education & training (including pedagogical approaches), design concept, the digital economy and creative methodologies, fashion design, exporting and marketing, and creative tensions.
It was clear from reading the papers and listening to the presentations that the creative industries are continuing to grow in importance, both economically and politically. Indeed the current and future potential contribution of the creative sector to the global economy was also recognized and platformed by all of the presenters in the track. Perhaps not surprisingly, education was a key theme in many of the papers, as highlighted, for example, in David Rae’s paper which suggested that the growth of a graduate population with creative skills and ambitions is giving rise to new opportunities for creative enterprise.
Building on some of the creative industries discussions at the conference, this issue of Enterprising Matters includes some fascinating new perspectives on creative enterprise. These include an engaging debate piece from Katheryn Penaluna focusing on creative approaches to business teaching; an insight from Babson Professor Patti Greene on the serious games industry and their potential for use within the teaching curriculum; a discussion piece from ACCA’s Katherine Ng that addresses some of the key questions relating to supporting and integrating the creative industries – a key point raised in the conference final wrap-up session; a look at the popular music industry by Erik Noyes; a case study provided by Lincoln University and NESTA has provided us with some interesting facts and figures from their latest report to complete this issue. We are grateful to our contributors for sharing their valuable perspectives with us; we have no doubt that they will generate further and lively debate!
We hope you enjoy this edition of Enterprising Matters and invite you to share your comments with us and add to the creative industry discussion in due course.
With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year
Colette & Anne
Professor Colette Henry - ISBE President, Norbrook Professor of Business & Enterprise, The Royal Veterinary College
Professor Anne de Bruin, Professor of Economics, Massey University, New Zealand