“Not just hipsters in skinny jeans drinking flat whites”

Dr Josh Siepel aims to reshape our understanding of the creative industries clusters.

Serious work

“It’s easy to get carried away with the stereotype,” says Dr Josh Siepel, senior lecturer in SPRU, “that creative industries are all about starving artists not doing ‘serious’ work. But this is no longer true.” Indeed, the work of Josh and his colleagues is aiming to change that message, and to help policymakers understand it. “Creative industries are very heterogeneous – from fine arts to software, and from advertising to music. And while these sectors are different, the common thread is the importance of creativity and inspiration as a direct input to the final product.” These industries have grown to make up a substantial share of the UK economy, with a contribution of over £100 billion in 2017, an increase of 50% in seven years. This has led to the growing realisation that there needs to be a better understanding of creative industries and their role in the economy.

As part of this, the University of Sussex Business School is one of the lead institutions in the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, a £7m investment as part of the UK’s industrial strategy. The centre will gather evidence to inform policies which are effective in supporting creative industries. Josh is leading the Centre’s national efforts on clusters and innovation, and access to finance. “We know that location matters in the creative industries, and that where a company is located shapes its interactions, skills and innovation. So if we want to understand creative industries, we need to understand the role of clusters.”

Brighton’s booming creative sectors

Yet as Sussex researchers begin to map out the UK’s creative clusters, the story of creative industries and their impact starts closer to home. Brighton has long been known for its artistic environment, and research at Sussex and the University of Brighton was seminal in capturing its economic impact. The Brighton Fuse and Fuse2 studies, led by Prof Paul Nightingale, Drs Roberto Camerani and Monica Masucci, documented the size and scope of the Brighton creative industries cluster. “The Fuse studies were really valuable in getting creative industries onto policymakers’ radars,” says Josh. “The next step is doing more to map the significant economic contribution of creative industries, locally and nationally.”

As part of this work, he has written a new report that documents the size of the creative cluster in the Greater Brighton region (which spans from Worthing to Lewes, and up to Crawley). “The statistics show that in 2018 the creative industries accounted for over £1.5 billion in turnover in the Greater Brighton area,” Josh says. “Of this, about half consists of software turnover, which we would expect as this is consistent with the national picture. But the real strength, which is unusual, is the value of the performing arts sector to the region.” The arts generated turnover of £329m to the UK economy in 2018. While these statistics may seem dry, Josh finds them exciting: “These figures are important because they justify what we already knew – that creative industries in the region are a real strength – but having these official figures makes it easier to justify public sector investment to support these sectors.”

What is behind the success of Brighton’s creative cluster? Josh has one response: “Fusion.”

Fusion?

“Fusion refers to the combination of very different types of skills, particularly creative and technical skills. One of the key findings of the Brighton Fuse reports was that creative businesses in Brighton were characterised by high levels of fusion of arts and creative skills combined with core Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills.” The findings about the Brighton cluster were replicated nationally in Josh’s 2016 Fusion Effect report, written with Roberto and Monica. “In that report we showed that the combination of creative and STEM skills has important economic repercussions throughout the entire economy, both for firm growth and for innovation.”

Importantly, Josh adds, “our new research in this area highlights that while STEM and creative skills are important, they only generate economic benefits in combination with other skills. So prioritising some skills at the expense of others could be a mistake from the perspective of building a strong skills base.” There is more work to come in this area as well. Martha Bloom, a SPRU PhD student supervised by Josh and Roberto, is looking at fusion on a number of levels – within individuals through education (how students become fused by studying arts and STEM skills), within firms, and between businesses. “Martha’s work is really important as it will help us to understand the impact of fusion in contexts that have not been fully explored before,” says Josh.

Investing in creative industries

As part of his team’s work on creative industries, Josh is also doing research on how creative industries are financed. Unlike many industries, businesses in most creative sectors protect their work using copyright, which can mean using a range of business models. But this isn’t the only problem. “One really interesting issue for these businesses is how they interact with providers of finance. There is a perception among banks and other financial institutions that these businesses are all flat-white sipping hipsters” – that phrase again – “rather than serious businesspeople who want to grow their businesses.”

Addressing the problem won’t be easy. “It’s going to take a mix of providing robust evidence demonstrating that creative businesses are really good investments, as well as trying to make sure that businesses that do want to grow have access to the resources they need.” But Josh is optimistic. “The growth of creative industries is part of a structural change in our economy. We need to make sure that we better understand these industries and how they work to ensure that they are successful whilst also becoming fairer and more equitable. It’s really exciting to be at the forefront of that work.”