| Description | The project "Netzwerk für Community- und Technologiebasierte Finanzierung der Europäischen Kreativwirt- schaft" (CoTEK) aims at consolidating and expanding a research and practice consortium for the purpose of preparing a proposal on the topic HORIZON-CL2-2024-HERITAGE-01-03 "Leverage the digital transition for com- petitive European cultural and creative industries "1 in the framework of Horizon Europe (HEU).
Background Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) make an important contribution to national and regional value creation in many European economies2. However, the financial basis of many CCI sectors is increasingly becom- ing shaky: ongoing digitalization is contributing to the transformation of established production processes3, the shift of consumer behavior to digital spaces4 and platform oligopolies5 are putting pressure on traditional outlets, sales locations and production sites, as is the aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic6. In response, CCI actors are increasingly exploring community-based financing strategies7. A community in the sense of a more or less loosely defined group of people who feel connected to the respective actors8, thus provides financial support for partly clearly, partly less well defined returns9. Such communities can support CCI actors either primarily in an analog and fixed-location setting, e.g., in practices of commoning in regard to live venues10, or in a digital and decentralized manner, e.g., in the trade of so-called non-fungible tokens (NFTs) via web3 platforms11. Despite positive experiences gained by many CCI actors during the pandemic with the use of digital technologies in community-based financing of their work (e.g., digital-analog ("hybrid") live events12 or platform-based crowd- funding13), such approaches have been rarely perpetuated. One of the reasons for this is that few CCI actors are aware of the full potential of combining analog and digital business models14 and the majority lacks the expertise needed to implement them cost-effectively15. In addition, the potential of new digital technologies for the financ- ing of CCI is limited by the fact that there is often little overlap between the location-bound communities that support CCI-actors and the communities that are connected decentrally online. With regard to the financing of CCI, empirical evidence has shown that the size of the respective disjunctive communities is particularly suitable for the financing of smaller enterprises/projects16. Larger enterprises, on the other hand, can more easily attract the attention of (international) investors17. Consequently, medium-sized enterprises, which play a key role for the functionality of CCI networks and innovation processes18, are increasingly lacking an adequate financial basis. Against this background, the questions that arise include the following:
Q1) How can CCI companies sustainably secure their financing with the help of so-called "hybrid "19 com- munities and the use of digital technologies (e.g., by linking hardware and software)?
Q2) Which digital technologies/business models based on them can be used to bring together location- bound and decentrally organized communities to form such hybrid communities?
Q3) How can specific location-based solutions be transferred from one location/CCI sector to other loca- tions/CCI sectors or even other fields of industry? |
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