Creative economy and knowledge-based society. Perspectives for Romania

Creative economy is a rather new concept that started developing during the last decade, being currently applied to a variety of activities and professions. It has become an important sector of the global economy, being sustained and promoted by the European Union, especially in the context of an innovative and knowledge-based society. Within this new type of economy, creativity, innovation and knowledge management are essential factors that lead to a smart, sustainable and inclusive development in regard to the creation of new jobs and to the social inclusion requirements. According to John Howkins (2001), the creative industries / sectors include art, research, advertising, movies, theatre, software, with the possibility of the concept of creative economy to be extended to other non-artistic and IT related fields, where improvements are expected to arise through innovation and creativity. The Global Creativity Index (GCI) and the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), are two benchmarking tools that measure the creativity and innovation degree of the countries in the European Union, placing Romania within the last positions, especially with respect to intellectual property rights and entrepreneurship. The research methodology consists of both qualitative and quantitative methods, while the research questions to be answered are What is the degree of innovation in Romania compared to other states? What can be done in order to increase the level of innovation in Romania? In this viewpoint, the paper analyzes the development of the creative industries / sectors in Romania, in the context of creative economy and innovation. The objective of the paper is to analyze the extent to which the concept of creative economy can be promoted and implemented in Romania, given its increasing importance at the international level, with countries such as the United Kingdom that already adopted strategies to sustain this kind of economy in the past years. In order to reach the above mentioned objective, the paper has been structured by starting with a brief literature review on the topic, followed by some best practice examples in order to have an overview of the international trends in the field. It includes as well the main challenges for the implementation of the concept of creative economy in Romania, accompanied by a set of conclusions and recommendations.