DISCE - Between labour markets and entrepreneurship

degree after 25 years or taking up on their PhD studies. This view of understanding the Covid-19 as a personal opportunity for development is naturally related to the multiple jobs and income strategies: if one does not 52

rely 100% on the creative income, but only the additional income is affected it is easier to accept and deal with it. Despite its negative consequences, Covid-19 has provided also much needed break for creative freelancers and entrepreneurs and a possibility to develop oneself. Getting rid of continuous time pressure can also be an emancipatory experience, if one only can afford to it. Given the time used for individual development and creativity may open up new and more sustainable avenues for the future.

4.5. A Snapshot of the effects of Covid-19 on creative work The fourth snapshot based on the survey data of creative professionals in Finland is informative of the influence of Covid-19 on their work (see Appendix 2 Survey Data and Variables). Accumulatively, 67% of the respondents consider that Covid-19 has had at least a somewhat negative influence on her artistic and creative work (Figure 3). For the further analyses, this item was coded into a dummy variable in which “1” means “negative influence” and “0” means “neutral or positive influence”. The perceived influence of Covid19 did not vary much across the respondents, and for instance, when compared by age, average weekly working hours at the time of the survey and 12 months before or per respondents’ work experience, there were no significant differences concerning the influence of Covid-19 on individuals’ creative work.

Figure 3 The perceived influence of Covid-19 on respondent’s artistic and creative work as a percentage of respondents (n=456, 1=Very negative,…, 5=Very positive) The influence of Covid-19 varied significantly based on the source of income or involvement in different creative sectors. If one was working in more than one profession, the impact of Covid-19 was perceived slightly more negatively. Similarly, if one received her income mostly from monthly salary, the influence of Covid-19 was perceived more negatively. In comparison, if one is working mostly as a self-employed, the perceived influence did not vary significantly. In addition, those who experienced Covid-19 negatively considered also that their income is inadequate.

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The influence of Covid-19 was also addressed by asking the respondents first to evaluate how different aspects have changed during the previous 12 months (Figure 4). In addition to a scale ranging from “1=strongly disagree” to “5=strongly agree”, the respondents were given an option of ”does not apply”. Accordingly, 53% of the respondents had lost their job (n=242) and found a new one (n=244). Moreover, 53% of the respondents had begun to study a new profession (n=242). In all, almost 90% of the respondents had worked much less during the previous 12 months.

Figure 4 The changes taken place in respondent’s work during the previous 12 months (n=242-405, 1=Strongly disagree, …, 5=Strongly agree) A more detailed exploration suggests that female creative professionals have been more inclined to start new ways to generate income, study a new profession or introducing new offerings. Those with more than one source of income have more often lost large part of their income or applied for financial support from the state or the municipality. On the contrary, those with one main source of income had lost their jobs more often than others. However, if one has had more than one profession, she has been more inclined to reorganize her work or began to study for a new profession. Second, the role of Covid-19 was detailed with a following question: “Please evaluate the influence of Covid19 on the changes you described above” by using a scale 1=”totally due to Covid-19”,…5=”not at all due to Covid-19”. The results show that many of the changes were mostly or totally due to Covid-19 (Table 4). Most of the changes caused by Covid-19 read as negative when the respondent has lost or reduced something. Reorganizing one’s work and the use of new ways to reach the audience, despite being due to pandemic, can be considered as a potential to improve the sustainability of creative professional’s work.

Table 4 The role of Covid-19 on changes during the previous 12 months by the time of survey Mostly or totally due to Covid-19

Partially, a little or not all due to Covid-19

One has lost a large part of income

One has increased the prices of the offerings

One has lost a large number of customers/audience One has worked much less

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One has lost her job One has reorganized their work One has reduced the number of offerings One has used new ways to reach the audience One has applied for financial support

The findings from Finnish survey data resonate with the findings of the interviews from European regions. Covid-19 has treated creative workers differently. The major impacts concern work assignments and income, which mainly have reduced although there are some exceptions as our interview data also suggest. Based on the interview data at least the type of creative work as well as a phase of a career seem to play a role in this respect. Governmental financial support has been sought for but the research participants have also innovated new ways to do their work and make it accessible for their audiences some of which may become part of a more sustainable future.

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5. Creative individuals engage in entrepreneurial behaviour 5.1. Scope of the chapter Thus, in this chapter we will discuss based on the interview data presented in previous chapters the work of creative freelancers and entrepreneurs through another entrepreneurship lens: to what extent the creative freelancers engage in doing entrepreneurship. Further, we will aim to understand what consequences does this bear on the individuals and their lives. In this study we address this call by focusing on creative freelancers and entrepreneurs, that is those individuals professionally active in creative sectors. We ask: ”How creative freelancers and entrepreneurs engage in “doing entrepreneurship”? Theoretically, we rely on the idea of ‘everyday entrepreneurship’ (Welter et al., 2017) in order to capture the ways in which creative freelancers work entrepreneurially. We question the assumption of creative workers as failed or non-proper entrepreneurs and aim at offering a better understanding of the different ways in which creative workers actually ‘do entrepreneurship’. Thus, this chapter presents a new theoretical interpretation of the empirical findings presented in preceding chapters. In analyzing the data we wanted to identify how the participants do entrepreneurship in the different ways.

Here, the analysis was informed by entrepreneurship research; for example that prioritising freedom and passion in work, living with uncertainty, being resourceful and engaging in experimenting and learning (Gibb, 2002) are practices associated strongly with being an entrepreneur. Next, we discuss the findings through entrepreneurship lenses and their implications for research.

5.2. Creative workers and everyday entrepreneurship Much of theorizing in entrepreneurship derives from researching the ‘exceptional cases’, such as high-growth ‘gazelles’ and high-tech ‘unicorns’ (Aldrich & Ruef, 2018) rather than the mundane forms of entrepreneurship. Yet, the exceptional entrepreneurial forms are extremely rare and represent only a small fraction (1%) of all firms and entrepreneurs, and even less so in creative sectors. In entrepreneurship research a call has been made to develop a better understanding of the majority (99%), of the ‘everyday entrepreneurs’ (Dodd et al., 2021; Welter et al., 2017). Welter et al. (2017) comment that our focus on growth entrepreneurs ‘extraordinaire’ has led to the “construction of deprecatory distinctions between real “entrepreneurship” and a variety of contrasting “other” activities that came to be classified as non-entrepreneurship” (p. 313). The same authors also demonstrate how the dichotomies often presented in entrepreneurship research (such as opportunity versus necessity-based entrepreneurship, or growthoriented versus lifestyle entrepreneurship) are problematic.

These distinctions focus their gaze on the individual entrepreneur and do not provide a contextualized understanding of the structural and cultural conditions that have an impact on these individual entrepreneurs and their development paths, resources and opportunities available to them. Consequently, for advancing our understanding of entrepreneurship in the creative economies it is important to understand ‘the injustices and inequalities’ that impact on culture and those who work on the field (Naudin, 2018, p. 2). Further, these approaches producing dichotomies face the risk of producing “ghettos”: if someone starts as a necessity entrepreneur, their innovative approaches 56

go unnoticed. Or, if financial success or growth performance are the only measures acknowledged, the entrepreneurs’ success in managing a good work-life balance or achieving a high job satisfaction due to the entrepreneurial autonomy at work, are not recognized as ‘performance’. (Dodd et al., 2021) Hence, Dodd et al (2021) suggest that in order to champion everyday entrepreneurship and to challenge dominant ideals about it, it is necessary to reposition entrepreneurship. Repositioning calls for questioning what is the process of entrepreneurship, and Dodd et al. (2021) emphasize the emergence and the liminality as important. Further, repositioning calls for reimagining the places and people who we understand as entrepreneurs. The authors suggest looking at the marginal places and people of the margins for identifying entrepreneurial resourcefulness, creativity, risk-taking, adaptation, and change – entrepreneurship – in the less usual places. Imas et al. (2012) demonstrate how barefoot entrepreneurs (beggers, vendors and people collecting rubbish or dancing or playing music on the streets to make a living) engage in practices filled with meaning, values and relationships that align with our prominent views of entrepreneurship, yet, surely, not with that of the ‘common’ entrepreneur. Refai et al.

(2018) study Syrian refugee engagement in entrepreneurial activities and construct an entrepreneurial identity along their experiences of the harsh social conditions they live in. These examples underline why Dodd et al. (2021) advocate the need to focus on these individuals in the margins who may have a greater need for entrepreneurship but who have perhaps even ‘a more intrinsic conception with the process’ (p. 10). Being entrepreneurial is often associated with purely profit-seeking behaviour. It follows that creative workers are not willing to characterise themselves as entrepreneurs (Coulson, 2012) even though they are engaged in activities that are entrepreneurial in nature, e.g. sourcing of income, creating, selling and innovating services (Haynes & Marshall, 2018). A recent study of Kohn and Wewel (2018) revealed differences between start-up processes in creative industries and non‐creative industries. They found that in comparison to businesses in non-creative economies, creative entrepreneurs often start businesses on a small scale, on a part‐time basis as well as with less financial resources. Entrepreneurs in creative economies are not found to be specifically oriented towards financial rewards (Cnossen et al., 2019).

On the one hand, recent studies have revealed that those creative freelancers who generate acceptable revenue possess strong entrepreneurial orientation (Nemkova et al., 2019). Creative workers often see precarious working conditions as a compromise for flexible and a more meaningful work although obviously it is not a desired choice for all. For instance, having a freelancer contract seem to provide individuals a sense of control over the creative autonomy of their work (Changwook, 2014). The key factors increasing the attractiveness of creative employment and the job contentment of creative workers are that creative work enables personal autonomy, provides the sense of meaningfulness and is intellectually stimulating (Brown et al., 2010). Thus, the existing research depicts a picture whereby entrepreneurial activities in the working portfolio are important for creative workers in multiple ways: to be able to be active in the creative sector, to have the autonomy and sense of control and job satisfaction, and for making a living. Therefore, we need to ‘reimagine entrepreneurial identities and practices’ within the creative economies (Naudin, 2018, p. 1).

As Naudin (2018) highlights literature on this domain is focused on exploring how to make entrepreneurship more economically sustainable in creative economies and to view ‘cultural entrepreneurship as being in need of support’ (p. 39). Thus, when focusing on how creative self-employed and entrepreneurs are (not) motivated by monetary goals as our analyses also put forward in this report, there may be a risk of reinforcing and reconstructing a negative outlook of the actors in the creative sectors. Indeed, creative workers are often depicted to ‘fail’ in entrepreneurship (by not making enough profit or not being able or willing to focus on entrepreneurship as their main activity). They are not seen as ‘proper entrepreneurs’ engaging in entrepreneurial behaviour by themselves or others. This view does not acknowledge the different forms of 57

capital used by creative entrepreneurs (e.g. social capital through the highly networked activity) contributing to new approaches to work, as well as creativity and innovation. This calls for embracing social value creation and not only the single dimension of economic growth. In understanding entrepreneurship as social, the attention is focused also on ‘realized self-actualization, a sense of achievement and sense of being’ as indicators of the ‘growth’ of the individuals involved (Korsgaard & Anderson, 2011, p. 136). Therefore, we suggest a need to question the assumption of creative workers as failed or non-proper entrepreneurs and to offer a better understanding of the different ways of “doing entrepreneurship” by creative workers.

5.3. Creative entrepreneurs as the ‘ultimate entrepreneurs’ In this chapter we continue to focus on creative freelancers and entrepreneurs that is those individuals professionally active in cultural and creative sectors and the ways they engage in doing entrepreneurship. The analysis reveals that creative freelancers and entrepreneurs do entrepreneurship and act entrepreneurially in many different ways (see Dodd et al., 2021). The findings presented in previous chapters put focus on how the creative freelancers and entrepreneurs often combine waged work and self-employment. Such portfolio income or even portfolio entrepreneurship make it possible for them to conduct their creative work. This ability to engage in multiple activities simultaneously to be active and gain income could be understood as a form of entrepreneurial mindset, which has been defined “the ability to be dynamic, flexible, and self-regulating in one's cognitions given dynamic and uncertain task environments” (Haynie et al., 2010, p. 218). Based on the findings, the creative freelancers and entrepreneurs are dynamic and flexible, and are highly apt and experienced in living with the uncertainty: it is something that they learn already at school and throughout their career, in so much that working as a fulltime employee might represent boredom for some.

For creative entrepreneurs creative freedom is the starting point of their activities. As suggested by Brown et al. (2010) personal freedom provides the sense of meaningfulness and energy for the creative workers. Autonomy and freedom is also a strong motivational driver for entrepreneurs and self-employed persons in all sectors (van Gelderen, 2016). However, van Gelderen (2016) demonstrates that not all entrepreneurs are able to experience autonomy, and in particular customers regularly represent challenges to autonomy. In this sense the creative entrepreneurs that in our research are often motivated by intrinsic rewards, rather than their customers, are possibly capable not only to aim for creative freedom and entrepreneurial autonomy but also benefit from it. Interestingly, based on our findings entrepreneurship is considered both as an asset to have freedom and time to pursue creativity which is not possible in waged work, but also as a liability to limit one’s creative freedom due to restrictions provided by the customer’s needs or economic realities. Creative freelancers and entrepreneurs generate conditions, e.g. in terms of their portfolio of working that enable their self-actualization and individual growth (Korsgaard & Anderson, 2011). Working as a fulltime entrepreneur could take place at the expense of artistic/creative freedom.

Thus, the financial stability as an employee or an entrepreneur are not the goal but the creativity, and hence the uncertainty is seen as a part of this puzzle. Creative entrepreneurs do their best to learn new skills, particularly business-related skills from their friends and networks in order to become self-sufficient and reduce costs. Creative entrepreneurs and freelancers are very apt in bricolage (Fisher, 2012; Baker & Nelson, 2005) and they see themselves as a core resource when they use their limited resources to create new value for themselves and for their customers/audience. Interestingly, it seems that creative entrepreneurs and freelancers value their work by themselves rather than letting their customers or audience to value it. Then the focus is on meaningfulness of the creative work, 58

its mission, creativity and the process. This resonates with Welter et al. (2017) suggesting that it is worth considering reasons, values, and purposes of entrepreneurship rather than just economic outcomes when measuring entrepreneurial performance. Given this, it is justified to claim that the creative entrepreneurs and freelancers are highly entrepreneurial individuals engaged in actively doing entrepreneurship in various forms. They fail and make mistakes as any entrepreneurs, but their successes need to be understood in the context of doing arts and entrepreneurship. Our research therefore contributes by widening our understanding of the performance of creative entrepreneurs and freelancers as well as by challenging an elite ideal type of an entrepreneur (Dodd et al., 2021). Our study clearly demonstrates how creative freelancers and entrepreneurs create something new and change by connecting things, ideas, people and process (see Anderson et al., 2012) across the liminal entrepreneurial spaces (Dodd et al., 2021). All this does not come for free, but it implies hard work and learning from creative entrepreneurs and freelancers. Our findings show how they go beyond their comfort zones and create new combinations by experimenting across the liminal entrepreneurial spaces (Dodd et al., 2021).

By looking at how creative freelancers and entrepreneurs “do entrepreneurship” in their daily work we were able reposition the gaze from fundamental tensions related to creative entrepreneurship to the inbetweenness and similarities of creative work/arts and entrepreneurship. It seems also clear that while creative freelancers engage in highly entrepreneurial behaviour, they are not only able to reap the benefits from such behaviour but are also highly exposed to the “dark sides” of entrepreneurship (Örtenblad, 2020). Juggling with the many jobs and dealing with the (economic and other) uncertainties, can cause feelings of insecurity and insufficiency as well as high levels of stress. Our new theoretical reading of creative freelancers and entrepreneurs with the theoretical lens of everyday entrepreneurship (Welter et al., 2017) widens our understanding of the performance of creative entrepreneurs and freelancers as well as challenges the elite ideal type of an entrepreneur (Dodd et al., 2021). This research contributes to the emerging research stream of everyday entrepreneurship (Dodd et al., 2021) in contexts (Welter et al., 2017), here the creative economies. Further, by exploring the boundaries between creative work/arts and entrepreneurship we contribute to the development of creative entrepreneurship field (Callander & Cummings, 2021).

Culture and arts are not only a context for commercialization, nor is entrepreneurship only a process by which art is commercialized. Based on our findings we argue that they can go hand in hand and entrepreneurship can be understood as a vehicle to perform and do culture. In this chapter we offer an understanding how creative freelancers and entrepreneurs are able to engage in entrepreneurial behaviours (Hytti et al., 2021; 2022). By interpreting the findings through the concept of ‘everyday entrepreneurship’ (Welter et al., 2017) we can conclude that creative freelancers and entrepreneurs engage in highly entrepreneurial behaviour marked by being experienced in living with the uncertainty, being resourceful and apt in bricolage (Baker & Nelson, 2005) and engaging entrepreneurial experimentation and learning. At the same time, they are subject to the darker sides of entrepreneurial behaviour: experiencing high levels of insecurity and stress.

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6. Creative entrepreneurial identity in the creative economy 6.1. Scope of the chapter This chapter discusses creative entrepreneurial identity in the creative economy. Although the chapter draws empirically from the same qualitative dataset as the previous chapters, it presents and discusses the empirical data based on the theoretical lens of entrepreneurial identities by Fauchart & Gruber (2011). Entrepreneurial identity has emerged as an important research area in understanding entrepreneurship as a social and economic phenomenon (Radu-Lefebvre et al., 2021; Mmbaga et al., 2020). The answer to the question ‘Who am I?’ plays a critical role in the entrepreneurial process (Fauchart & Gruber, 2011; Mathias & Williams, 2018; Powell & Baker, 2017). It is important for achieving legitimacy (Hytti, 2005; Marlow & McAdam, 2015), belonging (Stead, 2017), and distinguishing from others (Shepherd & Haynie, 2009). Fauchart and Gruber (2011) developed a typology classifying three pure types of entrepreneurial identities: Darwinians, Communitarians and Missionaries. While Darwinians identify with the establishment of strong and profitable firms, Communitarians identify with the products they offer and the users of those products. The third type, Missionaries identify with a social aim or cause and believe that a firm can be an agent of change in society.

Fauchart and Gruber (2011) theorized that entrepreneurs can relate to one of these pure identity types or to combinations of them. Entrepreneurial identity informs entrepreneurs’ decisions and behaviours (Alsos et al., 2016; Cardon et al., 2009), including resource acquisition (Kromidha & Robson, 2016), time commitment (Murnieks et al., 2020), and even their passion (Cardon et al., 2009). As creative freelancers and entrepreneurs frequently engage in portfolio working and combining various sources of income, including entrepreneurship and self-employment, they are (at least part-time) entrepreneurs, even if they do not necessarily self-identify as entrepreneurs (Albinsson, 2018). This identity transition or shift is seen to be externally enforced by the policy development regarding the creative industries furthering “the coupling together of creative practice, industry and business” (Hinves, 2016, p. 165) since 1990s. It is in these policies that the creative entrepreneurs were represented in key positions for combatting the economic decline with culture-led rejuvenation. Thus, this recognized the creative practitioners not just for aesthetic contributions to public life but foregrounded their economic role (Hinves, 2012).

The question therefore is whether the creative entrepreneurs enact one or a combination of the entrepreneurial identities suggested by Fauchart & Gruber (2011). In this chapter, identity is approached indirectly via the meanings the creative freelancers and entrepreneurs associate with their endeavours (basic social motivation, basis of their self-evaluation and frame of reference) (Fauchart & Gruber, 2011). The research question asked is ‘What kind of meanings the individuals associate with being a creative freelancer/entrepreneur?’

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6.2. Entrepreneurial identity Entrepreneurial identity has been theorized both as something individuals have (as a property) or as something individuals construct and develop over time (as a process) (Radu-Lefebvre et al., 2021). Fauchart and Gruber (2011) developed a typology classifying three pure types of entrepreneurial identities: Darwinians, Communitarians and Missionaries. Their work builds on the social identity theory that focuses on social identities gained from group memberships (Tajfel, 1982), and the person defines themselves as a member of a group or social category. Individuals do not usually have a single social identity, but more often hybrid identities (Fauchart & Gruber, 2011) whereby individuals occupy several social identities that can overlap, enrich one another and be in conflict (Chasserio et al., 2014; Hytti, 2005). Social identities are socially defined and come with certain norms that the individual must conform to (Chasserio et al., 2014). The typology is developed based on three dimensions: basic social motivation, basis of self-evaluation and frame of reference/relevant others. First, Darwinian identity represents the identity of the stereotypical entrepreneur that has the goal of establishing a profitable business (Alsos et al., 2016). The competing firms that are their main frame of reference against whom Darwinians evaluate themselves.

According to Fauchart and Gruber (2011), the industry, the markets they serve or the greater social cause bear little or no meaning as their focus is on generating profits and achieving success, which might then entail switching into completely new areas of business. Hence, in our context of creative economies it seems unlikely that many participants would represent these pure Darwinians. Second, Communitarian identity is motivated by the group of like-minded individuals and the wish to serve the community from the inside. For the Communitarians, it is important to fully one with their social group. The Communitarians may stumble on an idea through their own experience and then develop it to benefit their community, possibly by co-creating it with their community. Finally, Missionary identity has the goal of advancing a greater cause and acting in a responsible way is considered critical. Hence, their motivation links closely to social entrepreneurship (Bacq & Janssen 2011) and studies focusing on social entrepreneurial identity. Jones et al. (2008) suggest that the individuals embracing a social entrepreneurial identity need to distinguish themselves from and denying closeness to profit seeking identities, in our case the Darwinians. Hence, for the missionary identity it may be important to develop their identity by differentiating from other ‘Not-Me’ identities.

Hence, the basis of identity can be not only who I am (which social group I belong), but also equally who am I not (from which social groups I wish to renounce from). (Alsos et al., 2016) Fauchart and Gruber (2011) theorized that entrepreneurs can relate to one of these pure identity types or to combinations of them. Importantly, they suggested that entrepreneurial identity is seen to influence their actions, such as the type of entrepreneurial ventures they launch (Fauchart & Gruber, 2011). Further, the strength of entrepreneurs’ identity aspiration has been found to influence the number of discovery and exploitation activities undertaken by nascent entrepreneurs (Farmer et al., 2011) or the centrality of entrepreneurial identity was found to increase the amount of time entrepreneurs devoted to founding and operating a new venture (Murnieks et al., 2012). Alsos et al. (2016) further suggested that depending on their entrepreneurial identity the entrepreneurs resort to different forms of decision-making logics (effectuation, causation). Hence, the type of entrepreneurial identity, whether and how strongly entrepreneurs identify as entrepreneurs has been found important. While for some embracing and constructing the entrepreneurial identity may be taken-for-granted, there is also strong research evidence that this may not be the case for all.

Extant research has surfaced the difficulties, challenges and tensions of individuals whose careers transgress boundaries of different domains, e.g. such as those between science and entrepreneurship (Jain 61

et al., 2009, Karhunen et al., 2017; Hayter et al., 2021), sports and entrepreneurship (Boyd et al., 2021), design and entrepreneurship (Nielsen et al., 2018) or between creative arts and academia (Lam, 2020). There may be multiple ways how the imminent tensions are resolved, for example, Karhunen et al. (2017) pointed out how scientist-entrepreneurs may separate what they do from what they are (doing entrepreneurship but being scientists at their core). Lam (2020) demonstrated the different ways of doing identity and boundary work within the artist-academics. Academic practitioners engage in constant and flexible identity switching and continuously aim at integrating the two identities by blurring the boundaries between the two domains. Pracademics engage in temporal practices to make visible how their past (as artist) counts as legitimate knowledge in the academia. The ongoing negotiation involves both integrating and differentiating. Practitioners-in-academia engage in protecting their practitioner selves and transforming identity challenges into opportunities for positive identity construction. Albinsson (2017) investigated whether musicians could identify themselves as entrepreneurs. He found out that for the majority this was a possible identity – in particular if entrepreneurship was understood important in contributing to the societal welfare.

Yet, they renounced from the ‘traditional businesspersons’ targeting money making and wealth creation (Albinsson, 2018), expressing goals that are nearer to social entrepreneurship. Werthes et al. (2018) conducted a longitudinal study of how creative practitioners develop entrepreneurial identity over time. They too suggest that this is done by differentiating from the stereotypical entrepreneurs and by enacting a distinct creative entrepreneurial identity that embraces their creative values. This calls for active involvement in identity development, use of their entrepreneurial experiences, exchanges with other entrepreneurs and self-reflection.

6.3. Classic Darwinians, Communitarians, Missionaries and Creative Darwinians Our findings indicate that the creative entrepreneurs are a heterogeneous group and accordingly the findings indicate how they relate to the different identity types or combinations of them as suggested by Fauchart and Gruber (2011). (Classic) Darwinian entrepreneurial identity Aiming for profit was not typical for the creative entrepreneurs in our materials. Still some participants identified as classic Darwinians within this heterogeneous group. The ambition is set to reach customers and serve them well. “And our vision is that we want to give, we want to give new ideas the best chance to succeed from the market. So that means that if we start developing a new product that we want to give this product the biggest channel of success in the market so that means that it will be sold on the market, it will be used by people, that's our goal. And what that means is that a company or a start-up comes to us with a new idea and you can solve this idea in many different ways.” (LE13M30s) The classic Darwinians also set the benchmark in the competition, like an organizer of a rock concert who sets the goals following another rock concert in Germany.

The participants who identify with business skills as something important and meaningful for themselves, they also recognize that they are deviant from the other creative professionals.

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“I suppose that because of my skills as an economist I tend to calculate everything, evaluate what benefit it has, whether it is necessary at all, how it will operate, how much will it cost, whether it will be cost beneficial. In my opinion, it is often the case when people, who operate within the creative field... As my aunt once said - crazy people [laughing], that allow to express themselves. Of course, in some way it is also a plus for them, because in some way I limit myself, I always try to think about the practical application of the thing I plan to develop.” (LI24F20) The reasons for aiming for profit could also be related to family reasons “I want to buy my mother house” (EN2M20s) or related to the ambition to engage more social impact activities later as the same participant acknowledges: “we want to employ and keep it running, but step back as co-founders, and then work for more meaningful, impactful projects.” (EN2M20s). The products and services are compared to the other competitors, and it is important to be different from them. “My most important goal is to make exiting new products or solutions that are something that not other companies are already making. So, that's also why I do these kind of more research projects which is really focusing on innovations.

So, I'm not interested in making just garments that are already there.” (EN9F30s) More importantly, however, the classic Darwinian entrepreneurial identity was very much present in our participants’ talks in our sample as it was extensively applied in the participants’ identity construction as the ‘Not-Me’ identity. For example, a participant from Pori explains how the financial goals and success understood as financial success and money is out of reach in the creative economy: “The success is often linked to money and financial success, and in the cultural sector, the pay is often low enough, where I don’t know if you can actually achieve that success in this sector”. (PO4F40s). Equally, a participant from L’Alquila explains how the personal ambition of becoming rich would have directed them for another job, and hence the choice to become a creative person automatically rules out the options of becoming rich or wealthy. “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) By engaging in entrepreneurial activities and getting experience may have also contribute to learning and abandoning the early ideas.

Hence, the Darwinian entrepreneurial identity was the first aspiration but due to the excessive demands it poses, it is abandoned for achieving a healthier life. “Because creative full time it's really like I said before, I dreamt of being like in a famous band. Selling records etc. trashing, I was called backstage…[ ] Now I don't dream about that much. Because yeah, like I said having a normal rhythm is really it's actually pretty healthy I found for myself. Yeah, it feels good.” (EN1M20s) Communitarian entrepreneurial identity Compared to the classic Darwinian, many of the participants identified with the Communitarian entrepreneurial identity. The activities are taken to serve the community, the potential business idea emerges from this activity, like the participant from Liepaja explains. 63

“[W]e are quite a large group of enthusiasts [laughing] who from the very first day when we started doing this and fixing the roof not asking for anything for that. The most part, as I said, we, in principle created as our base, a place, where to live, and only at some moment in time, accidentally we had this idea that, you know, we have this nice room, maybe we can have some public event. All of that started as a real accident.” (LI13M30s) Being part of a network, a community, is integral to the development of the professional and entrepreneurial identity, as suggested by a designer from the UK. “Starting to get to know people, obviously getting to know the people that are in the coworking space. And I think that network and being in that environment was sort of invaluable in the development of me as a designer and all and leading to where I am just now.” (DU25M30s) Based on their intimate knowledge of and care for the community, it is important for them to bring something truly useful for the community. “[The festival] started as just meetings from the collective that organizes it to find people to make to build the installations for them.

So it's really about the mood of just the fun of sitting down brainstorming and we can do this and and what I love about this art and technology kind of theme is that it's always back and forth between something very conceptual of what we want to build why.” (EN1M20s) For the Communitarians, success is seen as the ability to serve the community – for having been able to contribute to the birth, emergence and growth of the cultural community and network in the region, for example, as the following quote suggests: For me, that’s also related to the success, being able to be a part of good things. Cultural sectors and maybe the colleagues there, like that producers’ network. So that this kind of collegial community. And then another would probably be this cooperation between different sectors, the city projects...(PO4F40s) In our research material with the creative entrepreneurs, the serving of the community is often related to a physical space or place for the community, such as “a bookshop that is also a place for research, dialogue and presentation, let's say a small cultural club in the city centre” (TR24F40s).

The place – and the space to be co-created together – is an integral part of the Communitarian identity: “There were some creative networking events which happened in Rochester and they were more like a coffee morning where you just, they were much more kind of like a hacker space rather than a business networking. So it was a lot more about 'what are we doing, what do we want to do'. So much more creative, so it's much more up my street. And they later put together a co-working space which again was very co-productive and had lots of different people within that space that were organising events, running social media, um, lots of different parts to it.” (CH20F30s) However, there are also non-place based communities identified and served, such as serving and contributing to the local tradition, as the next quote shows: “[T]hrough 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. It is not so much 64

the work with [material] that is important, but the recovery of the tradition of [activity] that means sociality, that means living together, that means rediscovering those moments of light-heartedness that in past years and decades led to the construction of a sense of community.” (LA9M50s) Missionary entrepreneurial identity The participants also identified with the missionary entrepreneurial identity of advancing a cause, like the following participant from Chatham. The goal is to advance and support well-being of marginalized individuals and success is measured by the ability to improve their lives. “I use creativity to support health and wellbeing. So that will be people who are socially isolated, people that have mental health issues, people with substance abuse issues, people at risk of homelessness, young people and ex-offenders or people in the criminal justice system. It's very varied. It's all based around health and wellbeing. – [Success is] about transforming lives. So, improving people's day to day life through creativity, um, yeah, so improving wellbeing, improving mental health.” (CH20F30s) The idea of transforming lives as an important ambition: “we use the power of storytelling to transform the world into a better place. [..] These are our customers, the ones who want to change the world with us right here right now.” (LE18M40s).

In some cases, the cause was more diffused and connected to ability of art and creativity to focus on what is common and shared with people. “The way of demonstrating people how similar they are to each other, and we have much more in common instead of differences. And I think that this is the reason why... all the projects which I have developed from A to Z, if you look at it, that is the thing they all have in common.” (LI9F40s) Advancing a cause is strongly tied with the culture and creative practice. For example, in a town that is facing business and factory closures and people are challenges to provide for their families, the value of culture can suggest hope and relief from the daily struggles. Yet, the Missionaries can also view their art or creativity at the back (as an alibi) but the emphasis is on advancing a cause, such as our ability to find words and discuss climate change, for example. “And I think it's very interesting to think about the contemporary culture or, for example, something like climate change. We're lacking words to describe what is happening now. We need, I think, finding new narratives, finding new words to, in a way, try to communicate to each other that we're all involved, and that there is something that we cannot name yet, that is about to manifest itself.

--- And then, there is a lot of paintings or sculptures that I make, but they function like a kind of alibi to present a narrative. I think that 60% of what I do in my day-to-day life is reading and writing. These objects are just a way of grasping attention to talk about these narratives. It's not that they're only the alibi, they also have their function as an object, and they also have a certain effect visually. But yeah, they're like a trigger to start talking.” (LE14M30s) Creative Darwinian entrepreneurial identity Hence, above we have shown how the creative freelancers and entrepreneurs relate to the pure entrepreneurial identities to different degrees as suggested by Fauchart and Gruber (2011). Interestingly, our

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analysis surfaced a new, contextually relevant entrepreneurial identity: Creative Darwinian entrepreneurial identity. Similarly to the classic Darwinian, also the Creative Darwinians are motivated by their self-interest and by focusing on their own things. In this vein a participant explains their goals to be about them pursuing their interests in the world: “I have given a very honest answer to myself, in fact it is very extensive selfishness. Mine. To pursue my interests about the world.” (LI9F40s). Hence, the goal is not wealth or financial success but becoming known, making a name for oneself as a measure of success in the art world. A female graphic designer explains: “if you specifically make it by working on really great artistic productions and make a name for yourself through them, then I think you are successful in the art world regardless of your income and other things.” (PO28F30s). Importantly, the success is perceived highly subjectively and is related to the personal satisfaction, and the way projects can be seen to be successful irrespective of the perceptions of others: “The success comes from satisfaction, my personal satisfaction, well, so I can say. Because sometimes when I have worked with others and after analysing some failed projects I have described it as a great success.” (LI9F40s) The ambition is to be able to focus on one’s work or doing things.

Money is depicted important but not as a goal, but as a way and as a necessity to be able to focus on the things. “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 business person. I'm more working on the artistic part. That's what's important to me.” (LE8M40s) Money is important to earn one’s living but fulfilling the basic needs is considered enough and framed as a success. Then reaching the creative fulfilment is important for identifying success. “I think there's a, there's a real baseline in fulfilling your basic needs. So that is the sort of the ability to have a roof over your head to be able to eat and have security and then have some sort of disposable income to enjoy yourself. And I think if that's met, then you can determine, well, for me, I've determined that has been successful. It doesn't come under the traditionally more widely thought of interpretation of that. But I would also say there's a there's another element comes into that which is creative fulfillment. Which also ties into this idea of having a balance of time in your life.

So being able to have a successful balance between your work and your home life.” (DU25M30s) Sometimes the participants distinguish between the business side where the money and funding is important, but it is on this side where the possibility of making art is then declined as impossible. As a cultural producer explains: “If I put my artists’ hat on, then the success is that I get my own opportunity to speak, so it depends on the case. [..] [T]he financial side is important in on-demand work. We don’t really make art there.” (PO16M40s) Similarly to the classic Darwinians, the creative Darwinians emphasise the importance of skills and competences but not in the business sense but within their own area of creativity. They emphasize to focus on skills that are rare and valuable. Professionalism can also be related to the attitudes and importance of accepting work which is more dictated by the customers: “It’s also professionalism that you don’t just do the 66

fun jobs, but instead you find the fun in all work.” (PO28F30s). The Creative Darwinians set high ambitions, for example, regarding internationalisation and becoming internationally known, which is seen integral to the arts. “What does it mean to be a successful artist, what does it mean to be a successful designer? And the answer is not only found in this country, the answer is found in going abroad, exposing your ideas, testing your ideas and most of all adapting you ideas, changing them and letting them grow, growing your ideas is not coming from the university or from the art school like okay this is what it means to be an artist.” (EN26M50s)

6.4. Augmenting creative identity with an entrepreneurial identity? In this chapter we have investigated ‘What kind of meanings the individuals associate with being a creative freelancer/entrepreneur?’ to further analyse to what extent the creative freelancers and entrepreneurs relate to the different identity types or combinations of them as suggested by Fauchart and Gruber (2011). Our analysis surfaced how all the three pure types of entrepreneurial identity types (Darwinians, Communitarians and Missionaries) were enacted by the participants but to different degrees. As expected, Communitarian and Missionary identities were more common than Darwinian. Yet, the recognition of the classic Darwinian entrepreneurial identity among the participants was high and it was used as the ‘Not-Me’ identity in their identity construction. The focus on profit and financial success in particular was considered challenging, and something strongly renounced as a goal or as a basis of self-evaluation. Not surprisingly, the ones that abided more with the classic Darwinian identity were often closer to business than to the arts or creative practice in their work. For example, they were designers, operating small studios or offering services to the creative sector. Hence, they served the creative sector or used creativity in their business.

Communitarian identity was highly prevalent for many in our sample. This was particularly so for individuals who work with the events or who work in or serve to create communal spaces, or who identify such places as important for creating this community, that they then considered important and wanted to serve. Finally, Missionary entrepreneurial identity was also identified among the participants, the participants highlighted advancing a social cause, transforming people’s lives or regions as important. This could also co-exist with the other identities or it was framed as the primary identity aspired after financial success was achieved enabling the higher goals. Hence, the different identities were compartmentalized to avoid the tensions between the Darwinian and Creative Darwinian in particular, while allowing them both to co-exist in these different spheres of activity. The main empirical contribution of our study is the surfacing a new type – that of the Creative Darwinian. Similar to the classic Darwinian identity they are also motivated by self-interest but instead of explaining an interest to making money or accumulating wealth, they are focused in expressing their own ambitions, creating a name (a brand) for themselves or becoming famous.

Further, they perceive professionalism as critical but not in the form of business competences, but being professional in the creative field, having unique skills or offering. Finally, their frame of reference are the ‘competitors’ and being distinct from other creatives. They apply the Classic Darwinian identity in their identity constructions as the anti-identity, they construct their Creative Darwinian identity by explaining how they are not interested in making money as their primary goal, for example. Through their self-interest, the Creative Darwinians are focused on creating intrinsic value for themselves (cf. Stenholm et al., 2021). Focusing value creation for others, in particular for ‘customers and clients’, threatens the authenticity of their Creative entrepreneurial identity and may suggest 67

slippage to the ‘dark side’ of the classic Darwinian Identity. This surfaces an important paradox. On one hand, they find that money is a necessary condition for their self-expression, creating a unique offer that is distinct from the offerings of others; yet, pursuing money is a false goal and cannot be directly targeted (cf. Albinsson, 2018). “Profit is problematic.” (Callander & Cummings, 2021, p. 746). We argue that Creative Darwinian entrepreneurial identity is characteristic and potentially unique to the (part-time) freelancers and entrepreneurs in the creative economy. It is enacted when the focus is on the art and creative production, and offers a framing to discuss their goals, source of self-evaluation and frame of reference that relates to the classic Darwinian identity of self-interest, professionalism and competitors but with a different, non-monetary angle distinguishing them from the (classic) Darwinians suggested by Fauchart and Gruber (2011). For the Creative Darwinians, the classic Darwinian entrepreneurial identity is an important resource as an anti-identity (Not-Me), something they do not find meaningful for themselves and distance themselves from it.

Whilst literature has identified similarities between artists and entrepreneurs, the participants do not make these associations – they are not constructing sameness but engage in process of othering (Peura & Hytti, 2022). Previous research has aimed at identifying the antecedents of (business) entrepreneurial activities of artists. The main conclusion from the study was that “[w]hat makes a person artistic may be also make them perceive and resist the idea of “selling out” (Hoffmann et al., 2021, p. 573). Hence, identifying as an artist/creative professional constitutes a major impediment to entrepreneurship at least if entrepreneurship is understood in a business sense (Hoffmann et al., 2021). Research from other streams, for example from academic teachers suggest that identity work can be facilitated by seeking sameness (as opposed to creating otherness) between the different identities (Peura & Hytti, 2022). This could be useful for the creative entrepreneurs in order to enact authentic creative entrepreneurial identities, in ways that are also economically sustainable.

Hence, this calls for ‘identity expansion’ whereby creative entrepreneurs create room for the entrepreneurial identity without losing their creative identity “through constantly scaling up and down identity roles, and through combining and revising identity roles depending on the situation” (Nielsen et al., 2018, p. 365). It is argued elsewhere that the stronger the artistic identity, the more difficult it is for the artists or creative entrepreneurs to engage in business venturing (Hoffman et al., 2021). This seems to be case also in our research. We also find that the strong enactment of the classic entrepreneurial identity as a Darwinian motivated by money and seeking financial gains becomes a restrictive identity resource for the creative entrepreneurs. It is known that in any industry or field of activity all entrepreneurs do not find this identity as meaningful but they align more with either the Communitarian or Missionary entrepreneurial identity either aiming at benefiting their communities or advancing a social cause. Creative freelancers and entrepreneurs relate to all the entrepreneurial identity types (Darwinians, Communitarians and Missionaries; Fauchart & Gruber, 2011) but to different degrees. Communitarian and Missionary identities were more common than Darwinian.

The analysis surfaced a new Creative Darwinian entrepreneurial identity type motivated by self-interest and having unique skills or offering that makes them distinct from their peers and others in the field. For them, the classic Darwinian identity is the anti-identity, and construct their Creative Darwinian identity by explaining how they are different from the Darwinian and their motivation for money and profits. This surfaces an important paradox: money is necessary for the selfactualization but it provides a threat: a potential slippage to the Darwinian identity.

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7. An interplay of identity and skills in explaining income formation among creative professionals 7.1. Scope of the chapter In this chapter we expand the discussion of the preceding chapters on creative and entrepreneurial identities, business skills and low-income level of creative professionals by combining the topics in our quantitative analysis. We focus on the interplay of identity and skills in explaining a low-income level of creative professionals. Empirically we draw on the survey data of creative professionals in Finland, which has been used also in several snapshot across the report. The data, sample and variables used in the chapter are presented in the Appendix 2 Survey Data and Variables. In this report we have provided evidence that strongly corroborates previous research highlighting how creative professionals need to deal with low income (Cunningham et al., 2010) and the precarity of their work (Bridgstock et al., 2015). Previous research shows that the income distribution is unequal among entrepreneurs and self-employed (Halvarsson et al., 2018; Kautonen et al., 2017; Åstebro et al., 2011), but it also concerns creative professionals who work as self-employed, oftentimes with insecure income (Campbell, 2018; Fritsch & Sorgner, 2014). Despite these realities, creative professionals are driven by artistic freedom and autonomy (Conor et al.

2015; Kovesi & Kern, 2018; Wright, 2015) that boost their professional identity. Following this, Carter and Carter (2020) suggested that creative individuals’ identity, being creative or entrepreneurial, and the development of their offerings are connected (see also Chapter 6 Creative entrepreneurial identity in the creative economies). Hence, becoming known, emphasizing aesthetic aspects and catering for their audiences may weigh over economic value when one prioritizes creative outputs and identity (de Monthoux, 2000; Marshall & Forrest, 2011). However, if one neglects the income aspect of her creative work and downplays the necessary business skills, it jeopardizes one’s financial survival (Carter & Carter, 2020; Comunian et al., 2011). The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the role of individual creative identity, business skills, and their interplay in income formation. Specifically, we cover two types of identities, creative and entrepreneurial identity, in order to explore if identity is associated with creative professionals’ income formation. This far the relationship between identity and income has been explored (Chang, 2013), but our approach highlights the role of two types of identities in income generation.

In addition, previous research has shown that business skills may be vital for being self-employed in creative economies even if professionals would not characterize themselves as entrepreneurs (Coulson, 2012; Haynes and Marshall, 2018). Hence, exploring the role of identity and business skills in extends the current understanding of income formation among creative professionals.

7.2. Testing the interplay of identity and skills in income formation Work provides individuals with an income, and it generates, for those working, different roles and identities through which individuals perceive themselves as nurses, teachers, scientists, or artists (Berkman, 2014), for instance. Work provides identities, meaning in life as well as self-definition (Stryker & Serpe, 1994), but the 69

extent to which this takes place varies considerably. Even in less rewarding jobs individuals may gain dignity over being able to take care of their families and themselves independently (Berkman, 2014), but in some professions individuals may find the job itself as a source of meaningfulness. Yet, individuals use their work to form and transform how they define themselves in the context of workbased situations and activities (Dutton et al., 2010; Ibarra, 1999). Work identity refers to work-based selfconcept that shapes the roles individuals adopt and the ways they perform their work (Walsh & Gordon, 2008). Creative work is often characterized by creativity, autonomy, and self-investment (Neff et al., 2005) all of which contribute to what is considered as “good” creative work (Hesmondhalgh & Baker, 2010). For instance, high flexibility among creative professionals is noted to be the normal mode of work (Bridges, 2018). Among creative professionals, a lacking employment contract may generate a sense of control over the creative autonomy of one’s work (Changwook, 2014). Hence, for a creative professional creative work enables personal autonomy and provides the sense of meaning (Brown et al., 2010). Still, through their work-related identity, individuals seek to construct positive identities (Gecas, 1982; Turner, 1982).

For creative professionals this may mean that while becoming an artist or alike they are willing to accept and adapt to precarious work (Bridgstock et al., 2015) in order to achieve a creative identity. If this is a norm, the work identity of a creative professional requires accepting uncertain occupational settings and low pay. Hence, this kind of acceptance can become a part of the collective and socially shared source of individual’s identity (Cardador & Pratt, 2006). The downside is, however, that the economic realities in a precarious environment are harsh and creative professionals are prone to income inadequacy while crafting their work identity and performing their work. Individuals working in the arts occupations have smaller income than the total workforce has on average (Cunningham et al., 2010). Further, the strong value given to freedom and autonomy of creative work seem to hinder the aspiration to change the working conditions even if it would diminish economic insecurity (Kovesi & Kern, 2018). The challenges concerning the work and working conditions in creative economies have been widely discussed in this report (irregular or part-time work, short contracts or short-term projects, unstable income, unpaid work). Hence, this chapter focuses on income inadequacy, which is defined as not generating enough income to cover the normal expenses of living.