The Art of Creativity. The Determinants of Innovation in a Small Italian Animation Studio

The aim of this study is to explore innovation in creative services industry, with a focus on the multidimensional nature of creative innovation and on its key determinants. Policy makers, managers as well as academics, have devoted an increasing attention to the creative industries. However, the focus has been on cultural organizations, while, with few exceptions, the creative services and the complex innovation processes therein have been neglected. In order to contribute to this area of research, we conducted an empirical qualitative and inductive analysis, and through the in-depth examination of a single case study, we defined a two-stage conceptual framework and some theoretical propositions to stimulate further research in the field of innovation in creative services. For testing our model, we selected the case of Mad Entertainment, a small and young Italian animation studio, based in Naples and awarded as best European producer in 2014. In the same year, thanks to its first animated feature film, The Art of Happiness, Mad won the European Film Award. In our two-stage model, we explain creative innovation as the interplay of four different and related dimensions: expressive, strategic, experiential and organizational innovation. Each dimension of the model involves different actors: the users, the audience, the competitors, and the creative team. Then, in the second stage, we highlight the effects of four critical determinants - organizational creativity, resource heterogeneity, combination of internal and external resources, and localization choices - on the strategies and performances of the innovation processes in creative services. Finally, along with theoretical implications and recognizing the limits of our research, we draw some suggestions for managers and policy makers.