Artistic orientation in creative industries: conceptualization and scale development

Abstract This study aims to define and develop a measurement instrument for a new construct to be used in creative industry and entrepreneurship research, which will be called Artistic Orientation. This is the first paper that offers a systematic framework for understanding individual inclination toward entrepreneurial artistic production. The paper starts with a general examination of the arts and artistic concept, which is followed by a systematic literature review of the ‘artistic orientation’ term. Then in-depth interviews with creative artists are conducted to generate a definition of the construct, and it is utilized to build measures and model specifications. A survey of 228 respondents is organized to assess the aggregate model and lastly, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is used to estimate the number of factors to be retained in the concept. This study synthesizes Artistic Orientation as an individual inclination to generate and disseminate authentic goods that convey beauty and symbolic meaning with the main goal of attaining emotional contentment. The research concludes that five dimensions represent Artistic Orientation, namely intrinsic drive, need for esthetics, symbolization, authenticity, and coordinated resources. This operationalized conceptualization and measures provides a basis for enriching our understanding of the cognitive aspects of creative individuals. The paper also discusses how the concept can be utilized in future research.