Abstract
The South African Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI), as contemplated in
the 2017 South African White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage, plays a vital
role in contributing to the creation and diffusion of knowledge, to human and
social development, to economic growth and to addressing colonial and
apartheid legacies. A national policy research agenda for South Africa’s arts,
culture and heritage (ACH) sector, including economic and other types of study,
emerged in the 1990s, accompanied by various strategies and action plans. In
the past decade, this work has been consolidated and strengthened in the
formation and activities of the South African Cultural Observatory (SACO). Yet
to be fully explored by SACO is the measurement of innovation across the CCI.
The CCI is constituted by multiple and overlapping sub-sectoral domains, public
and private actors, and digital, spatial and territorial dimensions, which poses a
measurement challenge. How should innovation in the CCI be measured in
South Africa, and how can this inform public management and governance of
the ACH sector?
The objective of this research was the development of a framework for
the measurement of innovation across the CCI. The study adopted the
exploratory approach, employing a mixed methods convergent research design
for research data creation. This included fusing an unobtrusive research design,
a collegiate-consultative purposive survey research design, and, for reflexivity
and triangulation purposes, an autoethnographic case study research design.
The analytical framework was conceptualised in terms of macro, meso and
micro-levels of innovation systems. The unit of analysis at the macro-level was
the research-policy nexus of South Africa’s ACH sector. At the meso-level, the
unit of analysis was survey respondent data (N=26) and data from survey nonrespondents (N=106) that was acquired from non-profit organisations (NPOs),
government departments, formal businesses, informal businesses and
households that form part of the CCI. The unit of analysis at the micro-level was
one household innovation system that introduced one household innovation in
one sub-sector of the CCI during the study period...