Three new research studies from Cardiff University highlight the impactful role that universities play in driving innovation across the creative industries.
The research, from academics at the Centre for the Creative Economy, underscores the value of collaboration between academia and industry in fostering growth, stimulating and enabling creative innovation and enhancing competitive advantage.
The pieces, all published in the City, Culture and Society journal, consider the places, people and policy dynamics of creative clusters and their role in supporting innovation in their clusters and local economies.
The first, "Universities as innovation agents for the creative industries", is an exploratory study of 385 creative firms and econometric analysis written by Dr Marlen Komorowski and Máté Fodor, which showed that businesses engaging with academic institutions experience a significant boost in their innovativeness. This engagement not only amplifies the impact of funding, but also strengthens access to networks, skills, knowledge and training opportunities.
Dr Komorowski said: "Our research shows that for firms engaged with a university, funding's marginal impact on innovativeness is approximately 30x stronger. In other words, every pound of funding connected to a university was 30 times more effective at boosting innovativeness. We also found that universities do more than generate knowledge - they shape firm-level innovation processes."
This data shows how place-based, university-embedded innovation is working: connecting firms to universities makes every pound invested in networking, training, and funding work harder across creative clusters.
