New forms of finance and funding in the cultural and creative industries. Introduction to the special issue

This Special Issue seeks to address the perennial question of support options for the cultural and creative industries (exacerbated due to the impact of COVID-19) by bringing together articles that examine and explain various dynamics in CCI financing and funding. The articles in the Issue are diverse in their approaches, methods and data. They range from conceptual, qualitative, and case studies, to analyses based on survey data and granular ‘big data’. The articles mainly address digital fundraising technologies and investment practices. Strikingly absent in this collection of studies are modes of funding in which governments and public providers occupy center stage. Innovation in financing and funding appears to be more the result of new modalities (i.e., technology-driven) than of fundamental shifts in thoughts about how the cultural economy could be approached and how the CCI should be financially sustained. The articles in the Issue suggest the emergence of a new funding paradigm, which steps away from a clear demarcation between public and private in terms of interests and financing modes. This new paradigm embraces collaborative funding mechanisms such as crowdfunding, incubator and accelerator finance, and other pooled investments, as well as digital fundraising technologies that facilitate new modes of asset finance and tokenized funding. Future research themes are being suggested: the merging of project funding with structural budgets, the emergence of new business models and improved labor market conditions due to technology-driven aids, shifts in transaction costs, and issues related to regulation and legislation.