Social network analysis and creative industries: Searching for the similarities in the creative domain

In this paper we discuss creativity through a SNA perspective [1, 2] and if there is commonality between different Creative Industries (CIs). The CIs have often been grouped together for political and economic analysis because they are said to have certain creative features. The Department of Culture and Media (DCMS) in the U.K., for instance, has currently categorised the following CIs: Advertising, Architecture, Crafts, Design, Film/TV/Video/Radio/Photography, I.T./Software, Publishing, Museums/Galleries/Libraries and Music/Performing Arts [3]. We have used this CIs framework to research the commonalities between the industries, and if similar themes are sought for and revealed in network analysis that has been applied to each of them. To do this, we undertook a small systematic literature review of CI literature using SNA, published between 2005 and 2015. Using Science Direct we used the advanced search facility to search for the CI in question as well as “social network” or “network analysis” to appear in the journal title. The resulting journals were manually considered so that research was specifically about the CIs. Thematic analysis was then applied to the abstracts of those papers found to ascertain themes and common themes emerging in different CIs. It is acknowledged that there may be many other papers about each of the CIs that do not make reference to the core search terms referred to in this paper, nor appear through other scholarly search engines. Our results found there was a large range in the number of journals founds between the CIs, with some CIs having far more journals referencing SNA than others. For instance, there were 17 journals in reference to SNA and the CI of I.T./Software. In comparison, there were no journal articles found in relation to the craft industry. We also found that were some overlaps between CIs. For example, the use of film, software and TV within the advertising CI. Major themes of commonality that emerged between the CI were adoption (information, knowledge or new product), collaboration between team members and firms and finally the role of social media and learning in the context of each CI. Our research highlights CI areas where its use has not been adopted as readily as in other areas (such as the craft industry), and points to future areas of research. Our research also suggests common CI themes that seem prevalent in CI SNA research – diffusion of creativity, creative team collaboration, and the importance and role of learning in the creative process.