Mapping of Nordic Creative and Cultural Industries by Heikki Masalin

1. Introduction
 Knowledge and creativity are powerful instruments in development of 
products and services to meet the requests of various audiences in to-
day’s globalizing world. Creative economy has emerged as one of the 
major thematic concepts in recent economic developments. Great suc-
cess stories of creative industries, although representing a small propor-
tion of a large number of total efforts, have captured the imagination of 
policy makers, entrepreneurs, media and population at large. A number 
of companies have grown from modest starting point to world wide 
companies in times very short compared to traditional industries and 
the names have become household brands all over.  
These success stories have been facilitated by various factors like 
powerful information technology tools for creative products and pro-
cesses, internet and mobile telecommunication technologies for market-
ing and distribution and platforms for creation and distribution of crea-
tive content. The emergence of network economies has increased signif-
icantly the access opportunities for content creators all the way to the 
new media, where content is created by users. 
Various studies and initiatives of recent years (EU and Nordic Green 
Papers, UNCTAD Creative Economy Report, Creative Europe, Financing 
High Growth Firms – The Role of Angel Investors etc) have been examin-
ing CCIs and creative economy concept and its development dimensions. 
In most reports the access to finance is seen as one of the obstacles in 
emerging creative economy and society.  
What is meant with that? Creative and cultural industries in the core 
of the concept are one of the most dynamic sectors of economy and con-
tributors to GDP as well as important drivers of economic and social 
innovation in many other sectors. To unleash their cultural and econom-
ic as well as catalytic potential fully, the major challenge of financing is 
the very nature of CCIs.  
The purpose of this initial KreaNord project is to map creative and 
cultural industries financial environment in Nordic countries, the poten-
tial sources of finance, their strategies and instruments as well as the 
interest of major providers in Nordic cooperation. The report concludes 
some recommendations, too.

The report is expected to form a continuum with NICe project Evalua-
tion and Assessment of Creative Economy Projects and Processes, which 
was completed September 2011. In doing so the same definitions, view-
points and assumptions are used in both reports.  
1.1 Creative economy 
Creative economy concept forms a framework, offers a viewpoint and 
help us to structure this mapping report, too. In the core of the concept 
are creative and cultural industries. Typically the activities of those are 
organized and implemented as project oriented entities of any size by 
SMEs, entrepreneurs or networks. 
According to the UNCTAD Creative Economy Report “the creative econ-
omy is not precisely the same as the rest of the economy and merits sepa-
rate attention as internally coherent and sufficient different area of econo-
my.” It is not seen as monolithic as capacity oriented industries but has a 
multitude of dimensions. It creates besides economic also social, cultural 
and sustainable development value, which are related to each other. 
Creative economy concept stimulates to combine different resources 
(technology, arts, business and culture) and competences in user and con-
sumer driven value adding concepts and processes. The created value is 
anchored in culture and consists essentially of content and meanings. The 
raw material of creative economy are tangible and intangible assets and 
the engine knowledge and competence. In the core of the concept are the 
creative and cultural industries. Their working approach is project orient-
ed and characterized by conceptualisation and customisation.  
Creative economy resides in quality and communication. The concept 
opens a view to read and understand the challenges of changing opera-
tional environment and turns them in choices, initiatives and commit-
ments to create value for various stakeholders simultaneously. 

Mapping of Nordic Creative and Cultural Industries by Heikki Masalin