PR1 is composed of a comprehensive analysis report on the current status of second-chance female entrepreneurship in arts and creative industries in Europe.
PR1 builds the backbone for the subsequent PRs. By gaining an overview of the European status quo, we will identify the main skills, drivers and the target group’s needs to feel secure enough to start again a business in arts and creative industries, supported by quality mentoring.
The need for a comprehensive analysis arises from the lack of data and visibility surrounding the inequality of women in the cultural and creative sectors (European Expert Network on Culture and Audiovisual, 2019). While a large number of studies on female entrepreneurs exists, e.g. on their motivations (Marina Solesvik, M., Lakovleva, T. & Trifilova, A., 2019), gender issues in culture (European Institute for Gender Equality, 2016), and entrepreneurship in culture and creative industries (Innerhofer, E., Pechlaner, H. & Borin, E., 2017), a lack of empirical knowledge exists about the skills needed, needs and desires of female entrepreneurs in the arts and creative industries, who are looking for new opportunities after an initial failure, and about what are the main skills and competencies that mentors need to become agents of impact for these female entrepreneurs when undertaking a business for a second-time.
The main target group are female entrepreneurs, who failed or are falling in arts and creative industries, and are looking for a second chance in arts and creative industries. The PR will also target potential mentors like successful entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, professionals, graduate entrepreneurial students from HEIs partners project and others in arts and creative industries, as the second main target group.
The solution to address the need and positively impact the main target groups is comprised of one main deliverable: The RestART Analysis Report. The report will provide evidence gained through desk research, qualitative research (a minimum of 30 in-depth interviews) and quantitative research (125+ responses to a web-based survey). While the interviews focus on second-chance entrepreneurs with the aim to better understand their situation (challenges, drivers …), the survey will target multi-stakeholder group (consisting of representatives from the arts, female entrepreneurship, and local and public actors) and to determine the willingness to become a mentor, as well as what are the main capacities needed to support second-chance female entrepreneurs in the arts and creative sector (e.g., their current state of knowledge / expertise in different areas).
We highlight the target group of study as an INNOVATIVE FACTOR, as the combination of target group (second-chance female entrepreneurs, respectively mentors for second-chance female entrepreneurs) and industry sector (arts and creative industries) has not been placed into focus in research so far.
All interested parties are invited to read the summary report entitled “Restarting Businesses in the Creative and Arts Industry through Mentorship”