Cultural Entrepreneurship and Money: Start-Up Financing Structures in the Creative Industries

Cultural and creative industries belong to the fastest growing sectors. About two-thirds of all new businesses in the creative and cultural industries need financial resources, but currently there are no findings regarding the financial structure and the very complex structure of this sector. For the first time this paper combines specifically the research on cultural and creative industries and start-up financing to examine the entrepreneurial factors inhibiting or stimulating the influence on capital acquisition. Based on a large empirical study, the funding structure for start-ups involving factors of orientation at the individual, corporate and social level is described by means of a multivariate regression model. Individual and entrepreneurial orientation of the actors plays a significant decisive role in the choice of forms of financing and the degree of diversification of financial structures. Start-up-related characteristics such as size and counseling or support inclination give also information on the structure of start-up financing. The ascertained findings thus identified important decision-making tools for the financing and funding practices in and for cultural and creative industries.