There’s no point bargaining: Exploring the commerce- creative divide in perceptions of creative industry entrepreneurs

24pp
This research contributes to the explanation of the behaviour of creative art, design and communication practitioners. By extending the Ajzen’s (1991) attitude to behaviour model, it shows that practitioner perceptions matter and have a role in shaping successful behaviours of individuals operating in the creative sector. Magyari-Beck’s model with its emphasis on creativity as “an ability of individual personality” was also drawn upon in order to identify the number of stakeholders involved and their different roles in the commerce-creative divide. These stakeholders in the entrepreneurial process in the creative sector are: creditors/bankers/managers in other forms employees/family members/suppliers/professional advisors/enterprise educators/informal investors/mass media and customers.

The research’s particular contribution lies in the exploration of art and design practice through an entrepreneurial vantage point. It draws from cross-disciplinary perspectives used in art, design and communication research to more fully investigate entrepreneurship. The paper explains that tensions between commerce and creativity, found in the perceptions of creative arts practitioners, were based on stakeholder relationships and the negative beliefs of their emerging identities. The work does not aim to generalise over a wider population, but rather it provides detailed qualitatively researched case and personal contexts of the issues under scrutiny.

This conference paper was presented to the creative industry track at BAM 2007 and appears in the conference proceedings. There it was acknowledged by Dr Esther Wilkinson, Research Development Leader at ESRC.