Strategic Performance Management and Creative Industry

The creative industry has in recent years drawn much attention from the side of both scientists and policy-makers in the area of urban planning and industrial policy. The question is however, whether the assumed innovative and successful potential offered by firms in the creative industry is justified on economic and managerial grounds. The present paper aims to provide a critical review of the current creativeness fashion by addressing in particular the critical success factors and the high performance conditions of firms in this sector. On the basis of general principles from strategic performance measurement of business firms a systematic analysis for assessing the performance of creative firms is proposed. Specific attention is paid to the lessons from the strategic performance management literature for measuring the successes (and failures) of creative firms in modern innovative industries. This paper aims to offer the basis for a systematic framework for evaluating the competitive performance of firms in the creative industry.