Benchmarking practices from other EU / INTERREG programmes The INTERREG IVB programmes North-West-Europe and Baltic Sea provide a whole set of interesting benchmarking practices aiming at enhancing CCIs presence on new markets mainly within their respective cooperation areas. The Baltic Fashion51 project is a valuable reference practice combining interregional networking with training activities for fashion SMEs. Several ‘Business Cooperation Projects’ have been implemented providing a good case for showing the added value of transnational programmes to support the access of SMEs to new markets. ECCE Innovation52 – financed from the North-West-Europe programme – implemented a tool called ‘Transnational Creativity Vouchers’ with the objective to find new markets, to establish transnational networks and to encourage collaborative projects for CCI entrepreneurs. In the same transnational cooperation area, the CURE project53 developed the ‘European Business Labs’. The lab supports visits to the partner’s creative quarters with a local mentor. LILA54 (North-West-Europe) addresses start-ups looking to commercialise their products & services in several countries based on a ‘Living Labs Application’ at a transnational level. Users participate to validate and co-design innovative products & services in order to adapt them to their local markets. Lessons learnt from reference practices: To ensure access to new market policies for creative entrepreneurs, targeted and individual support is needed based on a rigorous economic assessment of the local economy. Intermediaries are crucial for organising transnational activities. INTERREG IVB programmes complement the good practice approaches identified by INTERREG IVC projects analysed here: -
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The added value of combining internationalisation objectives with innovation and learning tools for CCI entrepreneurs should be taken into account in order to make transnational events more valuable for the participating SMEs. ICT tools and open innovation applications provide new opportunities for the internationalisation of SMEs in the creative industries, which should be integrated when designing new support policies In addition, digitisation and the related radical change of business models are crucial when developing new access to international markets strategies.55 State-of-the-art practices should furthermore reflect the potential and added value of crosssectoral cooperation on the international markets. Creative industries companies are able to achieve a two-fold benefit:
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Providing services (for example for more visibility) for traditional companies on international markets Joining forces within the CCIs in order to produce economies of scale, synergies and new innovative services and products for the new markets
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http://www.balticfashion.eu/DE/47/activities.html http://ecce-network.eu/ 53 http://www.cure-web.eu/index.php?id=2 54 http://www.lilaproject.eu/en/ 55 European Union: “OMC-Good Practice Report on the Cultural and Creative Sectors’ Export and Internationalisation Support Strategies”, Brussels, January 2014 52
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