Defining the creative industries as thirteen sectors has been useful in showcasing their role in the UK economy. As a result, all levels of government have developed policies to support them.
However, to date, there has been insufficient evidence about the interaction between the creative industries and innovation in the wider economy. Consequently, there is an unhealthy disconnect between innovation policy and the creative industries.
Two new pieces of research from NESTA shed light on this problem. The first analyses business-to-business links between the creative industries and firms in other sectors of the economy.
It suggests that the creative industries may play a greater role in the UK's innovation system than has previously been recognised by policymakers. For instance, firms that spend twice the average amount on creative inputs are 25 per cent more likely to introduce product innovations.
The second shows that creative workers are also more integrated in the wider UK economy than previous mapping studies have implied. The methodology - developed by the Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) - reveals that there are more creative specialists working outside the creative industries than within them.
Together, these pieces of research mean that the UK should start to think in terms of a 'creative economy' rather than a set of 'creative industries'.