Threshold concepts of entrepreneurship in creative industries

Urzelai, Berrbizne; Hatt, Lucy; Carracedo, Patricia

Abstract

Creative industries have traditionally been characterised by micro and small businesses, employing few staff, often relying on voluntary input and lacking relevant support networks (Metier Report, 2002). Many creatives will see themselves as freelancers rather than as entrepreneurs. Some entrepreneurship literature classifies freelancers not as workers but by virtue of being self-employed as owner managers who do not (yet) have any employees, and they are sometimes seen as underperforming entrepreneurs (Burke and Van Stel, 2011).
This paper aims to discover if threshold concepts in entrepreneurship specific to creative industries may be identified and to explore how being entrepreneurial and enterprising might differ across disciplines, specifically in the creative industries. Threshold concepts are “conceptual gateways” or “portals” that lead to previously inaccessible ways of thinking about something (Meyer and Land, 2005). Mastery of a threshold concept simultaneously changes an individual’s idea of what they know and who they are (Cousin, 2009). and once understood they cannot become “not-understood” (Baillie et al., (2013).
For the purpose of this research, qualitative data has been collected through online surveys, and data and text clustering methods has been used for its analysis. Text analysis, also referred to as text mining, is an interdisciplinary field of activity that combines elements of data mining, linguistics, computational statistics, and computer science (Meyer, Hornik, & Feinerer, 2008).
Data was collected from a sample of 158 individuals that included practitioners (36.7%), students (33.5%), educators (23%) those with combined roles (7%) and individuals linked to creative industries that had various roles (i.e. practitioner and educator) (7%).
Some of preliminary findings* suggest that there are different perceptions among practitioners, educators and students in what it relates to understanding what it means to be an entrepreneur and think as an entrepreneur.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: IEEC 2023, Enterprise Educators UK’s Annual Conference. Track: Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education Research.
• Start Date: Sep 6, 2023
• End Date: Sep 8, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jan 5, 2024
• Keywords: entrepreneurship, creative industries, threshold concepts
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11549273
• Additional Information: Award for the best paper of the Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education Research Track.; ; We presented our findings on a research project that aimed to discover if threshold concepts in entrepreneurship specific to creative industries may be identified and to explore how being entrepreneurial and enterprising might differ across disciplines, specifically in the creative industries.