DISCE - Between labour markets and entrepreneurship

BETWEEN LABOUR MARKETS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP: ENTREPRENEURIAL BEHAVIOUR IN THE CREATIVE ECONOMIES

A Horizon 2020 project by:

culture & media agency europe, AISBL

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Co-funded by the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union

Between labour markets and entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial behaviour in the creative economies Project Number:

822314

Project Name:

Developing Inclusive and Sustainable Creative Economies

Project Acronym:

DISCE

Deliverable Number:

D4.2

Deliverable Name:

Between labour markets and entrepreneurship – Independent agents in CCIs: a new disruptive force (original)

Work Package:

WP4

Responsible Partner:

University of Turku

Authors:

Heinonen, Jarna – Hytti, Ulla – Hytönen, Kaisa – Nieminen, Lenita – Pukkinen, Tommi – Stenholm, Pekka

Type:

Report

Due date:

31 May 2022

Dissemination Level:

Public

Executive summary The overall aim of this report is to gain in-depth understanding of creative professionals between labour markets and entrepreneurship in the creative economies in Europe. The research question addressed is: “What are the forms of activity (i.e. paid and unpaid work and self-employment) in the creative economies with a particular focus on inclusive and sustainable forms of activity, and how can they be supported?” This is done by relying on a purposive sampling strategy within the larger DISCE regional dataset by identifying six participants in each studied country (Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK). The analysis is focused on those participants that are engage freelance work, self-employment or entrepreneurship activities (as least part-time). Theoretically, this report relies on entrepreneurship literature and theories informing the analysis and interpretations of the research materials. Creative professionals engage in portfolio work combining different forms of employment (self-employment, waged work and unpaid work) in creative and non-creative domains. As most participants engage work simultaneously or sequentially in different labour market positions, the boundaries between them are fluid and not clearly bounded.

This multiplicity is considered as an opportunity as it provides flexibility and variation in their work. Despite of the stress it causes, the portfolio work is therefore the preferred scenario, not a transitionary phase towards full-time employment or self-employment. The challenge however is whether these forms of employment generate sufficient earnings to cover even the basic living costs. Overall, the findings highlight the low-income level of creative freelancers and entrepreneurs. They seem widely acknowledged, which we interpret as the “unsustainable creative deal” as the expected “rule of the game”. For creative freelancers and entrepreneurs, creative freedom and passion are driving forces and they tend to override economic and business issues. Freedom relates in particular to their ability to engage in creative work, for which they have passion for. Passion is an important resource but can have both the positive (harmonious) and negative (obsessive) side. Passion can lead to positive outcomes (ability to engage in their activities) but also negative outcomes (stress and burnout). Seeking autonomy, versatility and meaningfulness in their work as creatives are important resources for creative freelancers and entrepreneurs. Being self-sufficient is an asset but it may also be a liability: time and energy are used in non-productive and non-creative routines.

Creative entrepreneurs and freelancers feel insecure about their own skills but their passion for creative activities pushes them to acquire and learn new skills. Experimenting and learning by doing are integral and natural parts of creative work to acquire and organise the (scarce) resources to which they have access and resulting in new offerings, techniques, processes and materials, new pricing methods, new contacts and networks. However, the portfolio work and short-term contracts push the creative entrepreneurs to bear the costs of these experiments. Possessing business skills makes it easier for creative entrepreneurs and freelancers to run their businesses and strive for economic sustainability. Yet, the economic aspect is downplayed by their motivation to pursue creative activity and focus on quality outputs. The creative freelancers seek support from their peers and role models, and their networks. These provide important resources; additional skills, expertise and capacities as well as energy and motivation. Creative places and spaces are important resources to co-create new offerings for new audiences but also as forms of mental co-working spaces to gain support, confidence and collegiality. The different actors from different sectors together form the regional creative ecology, entrepreneurial ecosystem, in which creative actions take place.

Collaboration is of vital importance. Public support of any kind is an important resource for creative freelancers and entrepreneurs. Yet, it is not always seen to encourage creative endeavours. Covid-19 has hit hard creative economies: the major impacts 2

concern reduced work assignments and income. Similarly to other sectors, Covid-19 has not treated all actors in a similar manner. Those with earlier savings and profits as well as wider networks have survived better. Covid-19 pushed creative entrepreneurs and freelancers to be innovative and reconsider new ways to work and reach their audiences. Some new approaches seem to outlive the pandemic but others were only a quick fix to react to the pandemic. Despite the economic hardship, the Covid-19 provided additional non-economic benefits: time for individual development, break and creativity. By interpreting the findings through an entrepreneurship lens, we suggest that creative freelancers and entrepreneurs engage in highly entrepreneurial behaviour by being experienced in living with the uncertainty, being resourceful and engaging entrepreneurial experimentation and learning. Simultaneously, they are highly exposed to the dark sides of entrepreneurial behaviour: experiencing high-levels of insecurity and stress exacerbated by the portfolio working and low-income levels. Most participants renounce from identifying with the (classic money-driven) entrepreneurial identity but rather use it is as their anti-identity in constructing their creative (entrepreneurial) identity.

This surfaces an important paradox: money is necessary for the self-actualization but it provides a threat: a slippage to the entrepreneurship side. Further, our findings highlight how creative and entrepreneurial identities influence the income of creative professionals. A creative identity is connected to the income inadequacy - earning less than the living costs. Further, business skills may buffer income inadequacy when one has strong entrepreneurial identity. Suggestions for policy and practice based on the findings of this report are discussed in a report dedicated to policy recommendations of the DISCE WP4 (D4.4 Policy Recommendations).

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Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 6 1.1. Scope of the report ........................................................................................................................... 6 1.2. Data and analytical strategy used in the report ................................................................................. 7 2. Creative portfolio work and related consequences ..................................................................................10 2.1. Scope of the chapter ........................................................................................................................10 2.2. Passion and freedom to act ..............................................................................................................10 2.3. Uncertainty and unstable income – an unsustainable creative deal ..................................................15 2.4. Multiple jobs ....................................................................................................................................17 2.5. Snapshots to income inadequacy among creative professionals .......................................................22 3.

Resources of creative individuals ............................................................................................................24 3.1. Scope of the chapter ........................................................................................................................24 3.2. Individual resources and working modes ..........................................................................................25 3.2.1. Self-sufficiency and using resources in hands .............................................................................25 3.2.2. Learning to tackle uncertainty and lack of own (business) skills .................................................26 3.2.3. Experimenting and making mistakes ..........................................................................................31 3.2.4. Snapshot to business skills .........................................................................................................36 3.3. Relying on others’ resources and support .........................................................................................38 3.3.1. Community role models and teaming up ...................................................................................39 3.3.2. Using networks ..........................................................................................................................41 3.3.3.

Snapshot to networking among creative professionals ..............................................................43 3.4. Creative spaces and programmes .....................................................................................................45 3.4.1. Premises / spaces ......................................................................................................................45 3.4.2. Programmes and policies...........................................................................................................47 4. Impact of Covid-19 on creative work .......................................................................................................49 4.1. Scope of the chapter ........................................................................................................................49 4.2. Balancing with income .....................................................................................................................49 4.3. Being inventive.................................................................................................................................50 4.4. Time for creativity and for yourself...................................................................................................52 4.5.

A Snapshot of the effects of Covid-19 on creative work ....................................................................53 5. Creative individuals engage in entrepreneurial behaviour .......................................................................56 5.1. Scope of the chapter ........................................................................................................................56 5.2. Creative workers and everyday entrepreneurship ............................................................................56 5.3. Creative entrepreneurs as the ‘ultimate entrepreneurs’ ...................................................................58

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6. Creative entrepreneurial identity in the creative economy ......................................................................60 6.1. Scope of the chapter ........................................................................................................................60 6.2. Entrepreneurial identity ...................................................................................................................61 6.3. Classic Darwinians, Communitarians, Missionaries and Creative Darwinians.....................................62 6.4. Augmenting creative identity with an entrepreneurial identity? .......................................................67 7. An interplay of identity and skills in explaining income formation among creative professionals .............69 7.1. Scope of the chapter ........................................................................................................................69 7.2. Testing the interplay of identity and skills in income formation ........................................................69 7.3. Role of creative and entrepreneurial identity in income formation ...................................................73 8.

Inclusivity and sustainability of entrepreneurship in creative economies .................................................75 References..................................................................................................................................................79 Appendices .................................................................................................................................................88 Appendix 1 – Case Study Methodology ...................................................................................................88 Appendix 2 – Survey Data and Variables ...............................................................................................111

List of Tables Table 1 What describes the current financial status of the respondents? ....................................................22 Table 2 Summary of income adequacy across the studied creative professionals ........................................23 Table 3 Three profiles of creative professionals ..........................................................................................38 Table 4 The role of Covid-19 on changes during the previous 12 months by the time of survey ...................54 Table 5 Logistic regression models testing the effect of perceived identities and their interaction with business skills on income inadequacy..........................................................................................................72

List of Figures Figure 1 Business skills among studied creative professionals .....................................................................37 Figure 2 The extent to which the respondents have connected with different stakeholders ........................44 Figure 3 The perceived influence of Covid-19 on respondent’s artistic and creative work as a percentage of respondents ...............................................................................................................................................53 Figure 4 The changes taken place in respondent’s work during the previous 12 months .............................54 Figure 5 Effect of the interaction between entrepreneurial identity and business skills on income inadequacy ...................................................................................................................................................................73

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1. Introduction In creative sectors, much of the work takes place in the boundary between labour markets and entrepreneurship because working as a freelancer or entrepreneur is common (Ball et al., 2010). Freelancers and entrepreneurs are important actors in the creative economy. According to Campbell (2018), 60% of all young people making a living in the creative sectors are self-employed. It is also common that individuals combine self-employment with paid employment in multiple jobs simultaneously (Ball et al., 2010; Eikhof, 2013; Hennekam & Bennett, 2016; Wyszomirski & Chan, 2017).

1.1. Scope of the report In this report we will investigate the work of creative freelancers and entrepreneurs and their experiences of their work. Although we do not consider freelancers and entrepreneurs as exact synonyms (see the core terminology of WP4 below) in this report we use them interchangeably if not explicitly stated otherwise. It is difficult to make a clear distinction between freelancers, entrepreneurs and self-employed. This is particularly pertinent as many of the professionals in the creative economies – as well as in our data – work also in salaried employment. Hence, this report is titled “Between labour markets and entrepreneurship”, the boundaries of which are, indeed, blurred and far from clear-cut. Methodologically, the report relies on the regional case study framework of DISCE (Gross et al., 2019). The WP4 report focuses on individuals in creative economies whereas the D4.3 of WP4 focuses on businesses and organisations, innovations and networks. There is some overlap between the two reports as many creative businesses are very small, run by individuals and do not necessarily have any employees. The overall aim of this report D4.2 is to gain in-depth understanding of earning logics between labour markets and entrepreneurship in the creative economies in Europe.

For this we seek to answer a more specific research question which was developed in the case study framework based on the DISCE overall aim. We ask: What are the forms of activity (i.e. paid and unpaid work and self-employment) in the creative economies with a particular focus on inclusive and sustainable forms of activity, and how can they be supported? The latter part of the question related to the ways in which policy can provide support to the development of inclusive and sustainable creative economies will be addressed in the D4.4 Policy recommendations report. In this D4.2 report the focus is on micro level behaviours of individuals in creative economies. We begin with the driving forces of their creative activities, namely passion and freedom and continue by discussing the ways in which creative workers earn their living by conducting creative portfolio work at the blurring boundary between waged work and entrepreneurship. Then we focus on the resources on which creative entrepreneurs and freelancers rely on when creating their creative outputs. We discuss their individual resources, resources of others that they can tap onto, creative spaces, as well as programmes which they consider to be important for their creative activities.

Given that the research data were collected during the pandemic, including also severe lockdowns in Europe directly influencing many entrepreneurs and freelancers in the creative economies, we also investigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic to creative work. The chapters 2, 3, and 4 are more data driven presenting the extensive empirical data from the regional case studies. The chapters 5, 6 and 7 are more theoretically driven in order to create more in-depth understanding of creative freelancers as entrepreneurial agents in creative economies. Based on the selected theoretical lenses we provide different readings to our rich empirical data in order to gain fresh and different insights on the forms of activities in creative economies. By doing so we also highlight a variety of different accounts and voices of creative professionals acknowledging the heterogeneity of the creative individuals 6

studied and the contexts in which they are pursuing their activities. The heterogeneity of the participants and their idiosyncratic situations when it comes to e.g. opportunities or challenges identified with the Covid19, surfaces also many paradoxes and inconsistencies in our findings when the participants discuss their work and opportunities to be active in creative economies. This extends even to the case of individuals: the situation could be depicted as highly challenging yet providing opportunities simultaneously. At the end of each section, we have highlighted the core findings to make it easier for a reader to make sense of our very rich and heterogeneous empirical data. Core terminology of WP4 Self-employed: An individual who practises a profession and is engaged in economic activities on one’ own account and at own risk. An independent contractor, an own-account worker who does not work for a specific employer but as a freelancer or entrepreneur. Freelancer: A self-employed professional, an individual who does not have a permanent employment contract but he/she may work simultaneously for several employers and clients/principals. Freelancer may work based on employment contract under managerial supervision and/or as an entrepreneur. It is common for cultural workers, such as musicians, journalists, photographers, etc. to work as freelancers.

Entrepreneur: An individual who creates and invests in a business, bears the risk and enjoys the rewards thereof. An entrepreneur is the one who creates/recognises an opportunity and exploits it and by doing so he/she creates new ideas, goods, services, innovations and businesses. (Filion, 2021 ) Part-time entrepreneur: An individual who does not work as a full time entrepreneur, but devotes only part of one’s working time to entrepreneurship and the rest to salaried work, leisure, being retired etc. Portfolio worker: A person who works for several companies, organisations and clients at the same time. He/she may do such portfolio work(ing) in different positions: as an entrepreneur, self-employed, freelancer, and employee. Often also referred as ‘independent’ and ‘contractors’. (see Gold & Fraser, 2002; Cohen & Mallon, 1999) In Chapter 5, we investigate at the activities of creative individuals through the lenses of entrepreneurship and everyday entrepreneurship particularly to understand the ways in which they ‘do’ entrepreneurship in their daily work. Further, the chapters 6 and 7 focus on the identities of creative professionals. In Chapter 6 we investigate the meanings associated with being a creative freelancer/entrepreneur and in Chapter 7 we investigate an interplay of identity and skills in explaining income inadequacy among creative professionals.

Finally, in Chapter 8 based on our findings we discuss the inclusivity and sustainability of their activities and present the conclusions and implications thereof.

1.2. Data and analytical strategy used in the report This report draws mainly from qualitative research approach based on the regional case study data (see Appendix 1) which is complemented by quantitative reach approach based on the Finnish survey data (see Appendix 2) to provide some numerical ‘snapshots’ on the important and relevant topics focused (incomes, business skills, networking and impact of Covid-19). As to our qualitative research approach we have applied purposive sampling within the larger DISCE regional dataset by identifying six participants in each studied country (Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK). Based on our research question we are interested in identifying a variety of 7

forms of activity in the creative economies with a particular focus on their inclusiveness and sustainability. Furthermore, we are interested in the activities of freelancers and entrepreneurs, not all creative workers in the dataset. Therefore, in this report the data we rely on are mainly based on the interview data by focusing on those individuals who reported that their work included freelance work or they acted at least as part-time entrepreneurs. In the selection we also paid attention to selecting participants representing different creative fields (e.g. design, visual arts, cultural production (e.g. planning and organising events), content creation (producing content from text to video and voice content), artisan, creative consultancy), both women and men of different ages (see Appendix 1 Case Study Methodology, interviewees in bold). In line with the qualitative research tradition, our selection of research materials chosen for the analysis was strongly influenced by research questions as well as the initial reading and preliminary analyses that helped us to determine that the materials were rich, nuanced, and offered the potential for interesting findings in relation to our research questions (Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2015).

Hence, rather than trying to mechanistically report all of the data gathered in the report, our analysis and writing of the findings was guided by data saturation. New data from our data was included until the new informants did not add anything new to the (6 informants from each country, 48 interviews in total) findings. For this report the analysis of the regional case study interview data was done firstly inductively and was focused especially on the interview contents in which the interviewees talk about entrepreneurship, different modes of work, their professional aims and goals, skills and resources, as well as income related issues and risk. Furthermore, we focused on how the Covid-19 pandemic was visible in their work experiences as the interview data was collected during the pandemic. At the first phase of the analysis, we inductively identified expressions of how the interviewed creative entrepreneurs and freelancers work and do entrepreneurship in the different ways. Here, the expressions related to for example uncertainty, freedom, resourcefulness, experimenting and making mistakes were identified. (Gibb, 2002). At the second phase of the analysis, the identified contents and expressions were further classified to associated themes.

After having completed the preliminary analyses we verified and tested our findings by reading through the transcripts of other freelancers and entrepreneurs in the dataset to ensure that we had not missed any crucial perspectives of creative work due to our purposive sampling. After the inductive reading, we also investigated the data by applying an abductive logic (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2015) by using theory e.g. of everyday entrepreneurship (Welter et al., 2017) and of entrepreneurial identities (Fauchart & Gruber, 2011) to inform our analysis as detailed in chapter 5 and 6. Hence, the main logic in our analysis has been on exploring and problematizing if and to what extent the creative professionals engaging in freelancing, self-employment or entrepreneurship relate to entrepreneurial goals or adopt entrepreneurial behaviours and modes of working. Thus, we are reading and analysing the data through entrepreneurship lenses to provide new and different kinds of insights and stories on the activities in creative economies as suggested in DISCE European Policy Brief 1 (Gross et al., 2020). This means that in WP4 the analytical approaches and readings of the data are informed strongly by entrepreneurship research and the analytical lenses it provides to interpret the data.

Thus, the questions of how entrepreneurs make do with little or no resources (Baker & Nelson, 2005), or improvise (Adomako et al., 2018) to overcome challenges or how through constructing an entrepreneurial identity can be a resource to navigate the uncertainties and to achieve legitimacy (Radu-Lefebvre et al., 2021). We acknowledge that this offers a particular view and interpretation of the data, which is not the only “truth” but in the context of DISCE and together with the WP3 and WP5 reports it creates a more holistic and fuller picture of the individuals (self-employed, freelancers, (part-time) entrepreneurs, portfolio workers) in the creative economies. In line with the WP4 objectives the focus in this report is on financial and economic sustainability of creative entrepreneurs as well as their inclusivity. In addition to the regional case study interview data, we collected a survey data in Finland which was not part of the original regional case study framework. Therefore, the data were not collected in all studied 8

regions. The survey data comprise of 456 Finnish creative professionals who work in creative sectors. Data were collected via Internet-aided survey tool during May-June 2021. (Appendix 2 Survey Data and Variables) The survey covers themes such as individual's business skills, income, and networking among creative professionals as well as the impact of Covid-19 on their work. The data are used in brief ‘snapshots’ across the report as well as in Chapter 7 when investigating an interplay of identity and skills in explaining income inadequacy among creative professionals.

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2. Creative portfolio work and related consequences 2.1. Scope of the chapter Previous research on creative workers demonstrates that their work is characterised by atypical forms of employment, such as irregular or part-time work and hybrid models of professions (Brown et al., 2010; Campbell, 2018; Carey, 2015; Comunian et al., 2011; Dörflinger et al., 2016; Grant & Buckwold, 2013; Ozimek, 2019; Tarassi, 2018; Throsby & Zednik, 2011). Creative workers are often involved in multiple jobs or several professional activities simultaneously, and work in the creative industries is often freelance or performed on short contracts and a short-term project basis (Eikhof, 2013; Eikhof & Warhurst, 2013; Snowball et al., 2017). Their earnings are based on portfolio working or portfolio careers. That is, creative workers are involved in multiple jobs and (entrepreneurial) activities at the same time (Ball et al., 2010; Eikhof, 2013; Hennekam & Bennett, 2016; Wyszomirski & Chang, 2017). For example, in the Netherlands, it is estimated that even three quarters of all creative workers hold multiple jobs (Hennekam & Bennett, 2016). Further evidence from the UK demonstrates that approximately half of the recently graduated creative workers had full-time work and the other half was engaged in multiple working activities (Ball et al., 2010).

Multiple jobs may include working in different jobs as an employee in different organisations at the same time or as a freelancer/entrepreneur and employee simultaneously. Portfolio work may, thus, include a variety of simultaneous work as an employee and a self-employed as well as creative and non-creative work. Paid employment is often combined with self-employment or working as volunteer without pay. Undertaking portfolio work is creative workers’ attempt to ensure financial and creative sustainability (Bartleet et al., 2019). For example, Morgan and Wood’s (2014) study revealed that in the music industry portfolio work and day-jobs in non-creative occupations can be seen as a compromise between creative freedom and the pressure of poverty. In our research data we found several interlinked themes which together portray creative portfolio work (including freelancing, self-employment and entrepreneurship). In this chapter we start by discussing passion and creative freedom which based on our data are the driving forces of their activities. Passion and freedom to pursue creativity tend to override economic and business issues and also lead creative professionals to portfolio working in order to gain some financial sustainability and to maintain their creative freedom.

After having introduced these starting points of creative activities we discuss the ways in which the creative workers experience their creative portfolio work.

2.2. Passion and freedom to act Our data reveal that individual's passion towards their work and freedom of creative work are highly important for the creative freelancers and entrepreneurs. It seems that the strong value given to independency and autonomy of creative work counteracts any aspiration to change the working conditions, such as limiting multiple jobs and portfolio work to favour more stable working conditions, even if it would diminish economic insecurity (Kovesi & Kern, 2018). The passion and love to pursue creative activities may be more important than spending time with the family, as creative work is prioritised. “You don't get a salary, your girlfriend or wife is asking you why aren't you spending time with me and you're still working for no money. So you really have to love what you're

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doing and in my case I love this music and this, and I love going out to good events. That's what drove me.” (EN8M20s) The participants in our data want to do things, which they find fun and enjoyable, “…if we're gonna spend this amount of time on anything, why don't we spend it on something we do like and that's got to be that that's games.” (DU10M50s) Furthermore, they want to go beyond doing things they love as they want surprise themselves and search for their personal “wow-experience” as one puts it: “I want to be like ah wow shit what happens.” (LU23F50S). It may also be important to offer the same extra-ordinary experience for others: “I want people to be impressed. I want to give them something they don't know yet and I want them to like it you know. I don't really like giving them something that they do know and they want. So, eh...”. (EN8M20s) Many of the interviewed creative entrepreneurs highlight that creative freedom is the most important value for them, the starting point of their activities. Freedom to fulfil oneself is the cornerstone for being an artist and a creative entrepreneur. It is clearly acknowledged that this may compromise economic issues, but it is ignored: “I'm only walking on the creative, so I lead myself not to analyse and if it's good business I never think that way.

Maybe it's stupid but I have always come through the inspiration…” (LU23F50S) Creative freedom is also seen as a premise, starting point and energy as well as a core competence for other professional activities (in portfolio work, for example) as a visual artist puts it: “My own paintings when I do whatever I like, is in the middle, it's like energy I need, and I need this for everything. If I didn't paint myself, I'm not sure I would be a good teacher.” (LU24F50S) It seems that the competence as a teacher is related to the possibility to express herself by her own paintings. Furthermore, it is not only about being competent for creative activities but pursuing one’s own interests in order to gain new experiences: “Well, at the moment I can, I have given a very honest answer to myself, in fact it is very extensive selfishness. Mine. To pursue my interests about the world. For me this is a way to explore the world.” (LI9F40s) Freedom to do what one loves to do and to stretch one’s comfort zone go often hand in hand. Working independently as an entrepreneur makes it possible for a graphic designer to take and implement only interesting projects and commit fully to them: “I am never inside of my comfort zone. Always outside, exploring things, so it's very much fun all the time. And I can use the whole of myself now.” (LU20F50S).

For her having freedom to choose the projects and deciding how to implement them implies that the projects are meaningful, enjoyable, and important. If too strict instructions are given, the interest may be lost: “So, I was only using the half of me or something.” (LU20F50S) Against this backdrop it is understandable that expressing oneself is considered rewarding as such. Doing creative things is important and a reward in itself. “It is in my nature to do creative things and, and, and I can't say that I could perhaps earn millions with it, definitely not. But at least I think that in a way that creative activity, the ability to express myself and give, and be, that is also a salary in itself.” (LI7F20s) On the other hand, our data show that thinking about income and money may be a constraint to creativity and even decrease creativity: “focusing on the income – calculating the income – is understood as ‘limiting oneself’” (LI24F20s), putting boundaries around one’s creativity. This is further affirmed by another participant who explains how it is important to not focus on the financial issues and stress related to money in order to remain creative.

His solution is to work as a self-employed designer but to hold also a teacher position which provides him some security: “And you can't be thinking too much about money because if you're worried about money then you can't be creative. And I found a way for myself to be creative and to 11

minimalize the stress with financial things.” (LE8M40s). Making money can also be equalled to selling oneself and compromising arts, which is considered as one of the obstacles within the field: “Many artist are so afraid, or that they will lose their artistry when they do something dirty as getting money. It means that you will get money for your work, yes. It certainly means that yes, it doesn't mean that you sell yourself.” (EN26M50s) Interestingly, this participant acknowledges some colleagues who do the same but as entrepreneurs. He claims that they ‘love’ entrepreneurship and that there is nothing wrong with that. However, it’s not for him, as he loves his music, and does not have such devotion for entrepreneurship. Thus, passion and love for one’s doings is something that counts. “But I also have colleagues who, they like the music, they really do but their main love is just doing business, they love it. And that's also a really good thing, there's nothing wrong with that. And they just love, entrepreneurship is the word I was looking for. Yeah, that's what drove them. I guess it's devotion.” (EN8M20s) While research participants want to do things they like, they do not necessarily want to work all the time, and do not worry if they do not have loads of work. Some may take the work that ‘naturally’ comes for them and avoid selling their services.

Some may wish to use their time to some other things they find interesting and yet useful for their own development as one freelancer in his 50s with multiple jobs states: “I don't want to be a multi-millionaire, I just want to enjoy my life. I don't want to be working all the hours God sends. So we don't pursue massive amounts of business, we're not out there all time selling to people, we've let it grow organically. So it's by word of mouth and because we've got a good reputation, the business comes in. But then if I've got a week where there's no work, I've got a million and one other things that I love doing. I could go, okay, well, I know this month I'm gonna earn, x roughly X, that's comfortable, that pays my bills, it pays for all the other things I love doing so now I can concentrate on my extracurricular activities.” (CH24M50s) Given his experience and reputation it is possible to him to be relaxed and focus on other activities when not engaged with his creative projects. This means also using expressions of ‘earning more’ even if not in the financial and monetary sense. Thus, there is the constant weighing of leading a good life – having time to do interesting things – versus earning more money and also earning in terms of time and experiences: “I always was definitely working in two or three places of work. Well, in such - with regular income...

To some extent, this provides stability, but I have a feeling that, since I am out of the... I disentangled myself from it, I actually earn more. Indeed, more. If I looked at the numbers, it probably wouldn't be so, but I see it differently. I have time to appreciate it, I have time...” (LI9F40s) Co-operating with institutions can sometimes be seen to restrict their creative freedom. The institutions, such as municipalities, may not enable improvising, or they set boundaries for creative activities. “Money hasn’t been a challenge. Well, sometimes it might appear as a challenge, but only when... The greatest challenges have been ... cooperation with institutions... [....] Because I will be improvising, and there is no way I can tell what will happen in the exact moment and what it will have to say. Well, like this, to me such a stupid... to do something just for the record, that is something that really disturbs me.” (LI9F40s)

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Improvising, not planning and knowing in advance how creative activities evolve, and appreciating the not knowing is integral to the freedom and to creativity: “It's more accepting and knowing that after a while it will change, and that gives a lot of peace of mind that you know that things will change. It's not accepting like the way that's how artists work, they are insecure and whatever, I don't think so. It's more understanding that sometimes you don't know what you are doing, and other moments you think you know it all.” (EN26M50s) For some it may be hard to pursue creativity in regular employment with fixed working hours. Thus, getting the work done as agreed upon, and feeding one’s curiosity no matter how long it takes, is the most important issue. “My ambitions’ main motive has always been some kind of a general curiosity…. I think the key to success is open-mindedness, adaptability, and I think I was successful in this…. and it was never easy for me to be an employee… I still don’t believe in regular working hours…. The only thing I care about is the task to be done by the deadline.” (PE1F50s) Our data demonstrate that the creative entrepreneurs value freedom to choose between arts and business or between arts and employment differently. For some the arts comes first, for some it is about balancing and even so that the arts can be put aside for a while.

Creative freedom is perceived as a freedom from business activities and not being too much engaged with business operations of entrepreneurship as these operations are considered remote: “I have not a business mind, it have been working well but the main interest for me is not the money, it's the mission, the creativity.” (LU23F50S) For them the artistic freedom implies a liberty to perform creativity without restrictions posed by others. Therefore, they find it important to have freedom to decide by themselves what projects are worth of implementing as an entrepreneur and virtual reality artist puts it: “We should not be...forced by anyone to do something by practical reason, we want to have the artistic freedom somehow so that I have with me and it's quite difficult to get rid of that feeling that I want to be deciding myself.” (LU23F50S) Creative freedom is also related to the value, and more precisely to the price of the art piece. If an art piece is made-to-order, it may be considered to lose its artistic value even though it pays well and is highly appreciated by others. This suggests that some creative workers rather work for themselves than for the customer.

A visual artist highlights the difference and considers it important to have freedom to work for oneself and not only for customers: “That's the difference between when I just do my own paintings and when somebody gives me work. It could be also making a picture of, say, anything and I just do it, but it's different and I like it, it's very good. […] I have time for my own painting.” (LU24F50S) Freedom to choose projects and work to be conducted means freedom to choose customers according to one’s own values. “These are our customers, the ones who want to change the world with us right here right now.” (LE18M40s) When choosing customers, the intrinsic criteria might even be more important than the amount or the stability of economic return available from different projects and customers. A graphic designer wants to maintain the freedom and to do things she enjoys. Therefore, she feels that she cannot take a ‘regular office work’ although it would guarantee some regular income for her. “And this small part [occasionally doing cartoons and logos for customers] is the funniest job. I want that part to grow. And that is, I have to do it, because very soon this web page 13

customer, they have said to me that they want to hire one person to sit on their office. I don't want to do that, so that will... I'm forced to do somethings else on that time, to find something new to do.” (LU20F50S) The opportunity and freedom to be true to one’s own values may also be the reason for entrepreneurship and starting a business. Not all creative entrepreneurs are willing to accept the ‘harsh values’ of the business world. A graphic designer who had been working in the world of advertising agencies as an employee says that she did not have the ruthlessness that is required in such an environment. This made her to start a business of her own and to become an entrepreneur and feel free to do things in her own way. “That’s when the idea of starting my own business matured. You can choose what kind of assignments you go to and how you handle your marketing.” (PO30F30S) Doing arts is about having freedom to do the things in their own way as an entrepreneur working in creative services states: “Well, I don’t ape them, I follow my own path. (PE1F50s) The passion and ambitions are in good craftsmanship. A freelancer artisan acknowledges that money might bring some desired stability but still prefers to be locally recognized as an appreciated artist and a craftsman.

“I am recognised locally as an artist, a good craftsman, no, no, no, I have no ambition to become rich, because otherwise I would have done another job, but it would be an active economic serenity that could perhaps give a sense of the stability of the success I have achieved.” (LA9M50s) Accordingly, it is important for him as a craftsman to be able to preserve local tradition: “What I imagine is that through my work I am keeping alive a local tradition that would otherwise have been lost long ago, and this alone seems to me to have intrinsic value in itself.” (LA9M50s) As demonstrated earlier, freedom is considered to be one of the main intrinsic reasons for artists to work as a freelancer or entrepreneur. It is not only restricted to one’s work but may also shape the leisure time.

Freedom may also compensate for the stress involved in juggling with multiple jobs and work assignments by offering an opportunity for a good and flexible way of living to realize private or artistic dreams, for example, to take long trips abroad as suggested by a graphic designer: “It’s a good life in the sense that it’s really easy to accommodate, for example, my own travel projects and others to this scattered life, like if I want to spend weeks traveling across Russia and Mongolia by train, then I can do that because I don’t have a fixed job where I would need to explain why I now want to be in Mongolia for a month.” (PO028F30S)

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Schulte-Holthaus and Kuckertz (2020) noted that money and related financial terms are strongly present in creative entrepreneurs’ talk. However, our findings highlight that for creative freelancers and entrepreneurs, creative freedom and passion are driving forces and they tend to override economic and business issues. Freedom to make one’s own choices become visible in multiple situations, such as what jobs and projects to take, when to work and for how long a time, how to work and with whom, and even to whether to work at all and how to spend one’s leisure time. Such freedom is acknowledged to improve individuals' work-life balance, when they have an ability to balance the needs of their work with the needs of their personal life (De Clercq & Brieger, 2021). They experience freedom through recognizing opportunities to their creative work, to acquiring and organizing resources as well creating the creative outputs. The consequences of being able to independently arrange one’s time and work and to do what one loves are acknowledged and accepted but oftentimes not compromised. Freedom and passion extend to leisure time activities, which means that the different activities feed in to each other.

Our findings also extend the current explorations of the sources of passion (Cardon et al., 2017) suggesting that passion can arise from being passionate and devoting one’s time on creative activities one loves. This has obvious implications also for the family sphere. Passion is something that can be turned into something which is unique and rare but it is not necessarily easy to transfer into something which is valued by others. Entrepreneurship research recognises passion as an important resource in entrepreneurship (Cardon et al., 2009), yet it has been suggested to have both the positive (harmonious) and negative (obsessive) side. Obsessive passion can be related to positive outcomes in terms of venture creation but negative outcomes in terms of stress and burnout, for example (Newman et al., 2021).

2.3. Uncertainty and unstable income – an unsustainable creative deal Based on our data, unstable income seems to be a stable feature throughout a creative career and regardless of workers’ age (Hennekam & Bennett, 2016). For creative freelancers and entrepreneurs uncertainty is an integral and natural part of their work and life. The creative freelancers explain how they need to tolerate the uncertainty without letting it disturb their work and life: “You are a freelancer, so you have to be able to tolerate uncertainty […] It doesn’t bother me […] My life is like this but it’s a good life.” (PO028F30S). This relates to facing uncertainty of one’s income particularly but also of one’s skills. The creative individuals get prepared for such uncertainty and freelance-based jobs with insecure and varying incomes already during their studies: “Well, our school kind of prepared us for that, so it wasn’t a secret that there were very few jobs – jobs at institutional theatres and most of us are freelancers, and for freelancers, the income level varies a lot and it’s very uncertain.” (PO028F30S) Consequently, thin labour markets and low income do not come as a surprise for creative workers. It rather seems that they take it for granted and accept it particularly at the early phases of the career.

Low wages or even unpaid period at entry-level is typical of creative work (Bennett, 2018; Eikhof, 2013; Siebert & Wilson, 2013). Unpaid work can even be an entry route to employment in creative industries (Siebert & Wilson, 2013). These expectations may explain why previous research has suggested that creative freelance workers (e.g. editors in publishing) tolerate precarity and unsecure working conditions better than full-time workers (Bridges, 2018). Managing with low income seems, thus, to be expected. This is underscored by the example of one research participant who acknowledges to have lived below the poverty line prior to the pandemic. Receiving some Covid-19 subsidies has therefore offered him an opportunity to more money than previously. This is of course 15

far from sustainable but simultaneously the experience and ability of surviving with little money is an asset that helps with living with the financial insecurity and uncertainty as an artist claims: “So, if I'm content with my financial situation at this moment, yeah, I think I'm, but I think I also have a very low standard, because for the past 10 years, I lived far below what you're calling the poverty line, which is an amount of money that I've never earned in my life so far”. (LE14M30s) Based on our data it seems that for some, money – the financial compensation – is interpreted to be a wrong measure and instead being able to work creatively is considered an important reward as suggested in the previous section when discussing passion and freedom to act. Money is not the ultimate goal but it is means to achieve financial sustainability which then enables pursuing artistic activity. It does not really matter whether the money comes from sales or subsidies, but rather that there is enough money to keep on pursuing creativity: “...So that what I want to do that I get the means for it, the money for it, any through selling or I don't know subsidies sometimes also helps but it's less sure.” (LE2F30s) The creative freelancers seem to tolerate insecure financial conditions.

Professional success is not measured through earnings but through artistic performance instead and money is considered only as a means to achieve the goal to be a good artist: “So for example, I think my main goal is to be the best in what I do. And if I can...that's why I work. For me it has less to do with money. The thing is that I need money to do these things so that's a bit...it's a difficulty, but I'm not a businessperson. I'm more working on the artistic part.” (LE8M40s) Tolerating the low income does not always mean that they could live off from their own income. Some participants explain how the household funding or ‘the love money’ is needed for financing the creative work. For example, the spouse is having a regular paid job and can support the freelancer: “Well, to be honest, when I was alone, I couldn't do this, so I can do this because my husband is [working]” (EN30F). Similarly, a man of his 30s realized that he needed to move back to his parents who supported his artistic work by providing subsistence or housing as his artistic work did not pay off. “I realised that I would never get to an income where I could live on my own. Before I was on my own, now with my mum and dad, I'm not on my own.” (LA5M30s) Our data demonstrate that it is not only a question of having enough work and getting properly paid for it.

It may also be a question of balancing between one’s own time and work as in any other work. For some research participants, time is the preferred resource. It is the time against the money and having time for the creative work and leisure is put before earning money. The related consequences are acknowledged and accepted: “So yeah, I can always make time. Of course, I make less money. That's basically the tradeoff creative activities. The last month I didn't work so much, because I would go out from here at 4pm or 3.30. So that I can then spend two hours working on my project and still have an evening for myself.” (EN1M20s) Equally it may be about balancing time between work and family, not only with money. “We haven’t mentioned yet that I do my job in 4-5 hours a day because of the children mainly. I never work more than 6 hours. So I am satisfied.” (PE17F40s) For some working and earning less seem sensible and accepted in a given time. On the other hand, being single may offer an opportunity to work hard and long hours in comparison to those with family and small children:

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“So I live by myself. I don´t have a partner and I don't have any children. So I think being a single person affords me the time to give more to projects and other people would be able to give. I guess I can see my colleagues who have children and other responsibilities like that's even more difficult for them, you know, trying to juggle all that and they are under a huge amount of pressure.” (DU21F30s) For those participants who are comfortable in talking about money, it is important to be properly paid. The challenge is about focusing on offering high-quality output but not being paid properly or even being expected to work-for-free: “I think we always feel that we're being squeezed money wise, you know, like there's not enough money to cover what we ideally want to do to deliver like a really good kind of quality experience”. (DU21F30s) Sometimes, this quality work is done voluntarily or as a free service but at other times it is identified as an area to improve: “Maybe if some of this stuff is more in a consultancy-kind-of structure then it becomes more, then my business would become more sustainable.” (EN9F30s) It seems more acceptable to deliver below the high standards if the focus is not on the core of the creative activity but related services.

On the other hand, being properly paid can yield a position where it is possible to decrease the working hours but still have enough money to maintain the livelihood. The ‘increase’ in the productivity is assumed to take place by being better known and not needing to search for work. This is something that obviously comes with experience and networks. Getting properly paid for the work, enjoying one’s work and having satisfied customers are considered as good performance. “If I feel good during work, and one [customer] is satisfied, I’m all right. For me it is important too to get the money my work’s worth. When I don’t have to chase work, but work finds me...it is also success. For the next 5 years I would like to achieve that I don’t have to work this much, but still keep the financial status I’m in.” (PE6F50s) Reducing the working hours can be important in order to concentrate on their (creative) hobbies. This necessitates being in a good financial position. Yet, in the entrepreneurial logic they are not afraid of work and, indeed, they are prepared to work ‘full-on’ if it is needed. Working long and extensive hours is also often the reference points when describing entrepreneur’s work (Mueller et al., 2012). “I suppose on average I probably work 8 to 10 days a month.

And I like it that way because it then you can see how much time I spend on local history stuff, it's masses --- Well, yeah I do, and when I work, I work very hard. It might be that I might get up at four o'clock in the morning to go off and working on a new event, and not come back until two o'clock the following morning. So it's, you know, it's a very, can be very full-on.” (CH24M50s) Our findings support the existing knowledge on the low-income level of creative freelancers and entrepreneurs. Modest earnings seem widely acknowledged and an unsustainable creative deal seems to be a kind accepted “rule of the game”. The creative freelancers and entrepreneurs do not necessarily aim at higher income levels as the monetary goals are secondary to their artistic goals. The balancing does not only take place between income and arts but also with family and leisure time.

2.4. Multiple jobs There are different ways for creative workers to cope with widespread income insecurity. Multiple creative jobs and non-creative employment are widely used among creative workers in addition to financial support from relatives or spouses (Dex et al., 2000) as discussed in the previous section. Our findings corroborate 17

previous research on how the participants manage the risk of low or insecure income by having several roles or positions in conducting their creative work. There is also a shared understanding of how the creative field works: “…you're an artist, but you're not going to earn money with it so you always need to think of a second life.” (LE2F30s) This implies that many creatives are engaged simultaneously with waged work and entrepreneurship to create a portfolio of work activities for themselves. This can take place in different ways. For many the salaried work represents the basic income that is needed for living and it mitigates the insecurity of the income as at least the basic living costs can be covered. “So you think of a job what is the actual thing you can do on a monthly basis so that you can pay the rent. So that's why I did the studies to be a teacher.” (LE2F30s) Creative work may thus represent an opportunity to earn some extra income. One is ready to tolerate and accept some risk with the creative work as fixed salary covers the basic needs. “Where for four months I worked in Latvia, and then for four, five or six months I worked in Spain. Respectively, it is when in one country you have a fixed salary and, in another country, you earn as much depending on how good or bad a particular month has been.

Respectively, it consists of both the fixed rate and the possibility that if you will work more, better, effective, you will earn more.” (LI24F20s) The meaning of additional income from creative work can be multiple. It can be necessary to financing the creativity which requires materials or investments: ‘The money I perhaps earn with the design and art products I often spend buying materials to create more items for selling’. (LI7F20s). In this way the (creative) business side represents a playing ground for creativity. It only covers the direct expenses making it possible to conduct such interesting creative activities but offers no compensation for the time invested on it: “The costs related to my business I need to cover with the things I sell. But it's all. I don't have a salary from my business. It's just my playing ground… “(LE8M40s) This does not necessarily imply that creative activities are not taken seriously, but rather the fact that it does not pay off financially when considering also the time invested in. Yet another playground for creative activities is provided by one self-employed who organises artistic events through his company. He wants to forward the money gained through the business to the artists – making it possible for them to do their creative work.