The window of opportunity has opened for the creative industries in Central Europe
in the decades following the fall of the communist regime and the transition to a
decentralised market economy. Creative industries with symbolic knowledge base are
crucial for regional resilience, and regional synergies established by these economic
activities highly influence the long-term ability of innovation systems to develop.
The question is whether creative industries have started to grow and can contribute
to the development of post-socialist knowledge-based economies in Central Europe,
if so, at what territorial level. By distinguishing three dimensions (geography, technology,
organisation) that operate in innovation systems and by measuring their interactions
using entropy statistics in two post-socialist countries, Slovakia and Hungary, the
paper reveals that the most significant part of the synergy in creative industries
emerges at the local level of innovation systems. However, benefits are realised not
only locally but also globally due to the deterritorialised nature of the end-products
and their integration into other industrial products on the global market.
