COLLABORATION IN CREATIVE INDUSTRIES – FROM CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS AND INTERMEDIARIES TO NETWORKS

Collaboration is the core of creative work, and it can help small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as individual creative professionals, develop creative products that would not be possible if these parties were working separately. The aim of the paper is to reveal benefits of collaboration in creative industries from theoretical and practical perspectives. The paper analyses the concept of collaboration in creative industries and provides a theoretical overview of collaboration models that can take various forms, such as networks, creative intermediaries, and clusters. Also, the author has developed a creative industry collaboration matrix, in­cluding the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia’s list of creative industries (Architecture, Design, Cinema, Performing arts, Visual arts, Music, Publishing, Television, Radio and interactive media, Advertising, Computer games and Interactive software, Cultural heritage, Cultural education, Recreation, Advertising, Entertainment and other cultural activities) [LR Ministry of Culture 2022], as well as adding two more creative industries, which are identified in other theoretical models of creative industries used in Europe – Fashion and Crafts. By interviewing various experts from creative industries, the intensity and frequency of collaboration in creative industries are compared, and it is evaluated which creative industries are more prone to collaboration.