Innovation Ecosystems in the Creative Sector: The Case of Additive Manufacturing and Advanced Materials for Design

This report provides an ecosystem analysis of cultural and creative industry (CCI) sector with regard to the adoption of new technologies and as case studies additive manufacturing and advanced materials as these two technologies are becoming consolidated in prototyping and manufacturing in many industrial sectors, but are still in their infancy in the CCI. The introduction of these two technologies, however, is the base of emerging new business models as showcased by a number of promising startups. We identified 430 CCI-startups in Europe that operate innovative products or services and that were further analysed via an online survey to which 83 companies participated. In addition, we discuss the role innovation ecosystems for the CCI development in Europe taking four ecosystems as example, namely the ‘Finnish Additive Manufacturing Ecosystem’ in Helsinki, the ‘Design Farm’ in Berlin, the ‘Sustainable and Tech Fashion’ hub in Amsterdam and “Portuguese footwear cluster” in the northern region of Portugal. Our study shows that green and digital transformations make additive manufacturing and advanced materials technologies quite worth looking into for CCI firms. The survey demonstrates a high degree of business dynamism of those companies that have fully embraced additive manufacturing and advanced materials as their operational basis. Furthermore we show that an effective ecosystem are key for deploying novel technologies to the sector, mostly composed by small and very small enterprises.