Structural Analysis of the Creative and Cultural Industries of Romanian Creative Cities

Much attention was paid to the development of the creative economy in urban areas, due to its sustainable resources, such as human intellectual capital, talent and culture. Considering the distribution disparities of the creative economy’s resources, a distinctive analysis of the Romanian creative-cultural industries appears to be critical as long as the local and regional development level of each industry forecasts and prescribes the present and future creative-cultural demand and potential investments. Our study analyses seven Romanian cities, namely, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi, Brasov, Sibiu and Oradea, and presents the dominant creative and cultural industries for each city. So we analysed distinctively the 11 creative and cultural industries during 2008–2019 through 3 economic dimensions: number of operating companies, number of employees and recorded turnover. The present paper’s aim is to point out the most suitable cities for the creative class depending on the industry they are engaged in and also to target potential investment directions towards specialised or, otherwise, towards the underdeveloped creative cities. The IT industry represents the leading creative industry in most cases, whereas the creative poles of Romania are represented by Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Iasi—essential economic, academic and cultural centres.