A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF REGIONAL CREATIVE VISION: INSIGHTS FROM CREATIVE ENTERPRISES’ FOUNDERS IN INDONESIA

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Introduction
While the notion of creativity can be applied in multiple contexts, it is especially central to creative enterprises (i.e.enterprises in the creative industries).Creativity is understood to be embedded within the inputs (i.e.individual creative inputs) and outputs (Moultrie & Young, 2009).Essentially, creativity is understandably the soul of the entire pursuit, covering the technical to the business aspects (Lampel & Germain, 2016).It is the default of being and doing (Spreitzer & Sonenshein, 2004), regarding what people do or are.In short, while a certain line of questioning needs to be acknowledged (Galloway & Dunlop, 2007), creativity can arguably be said to define the entire pursuit of creative enterprises.
To a degree, the creatives and the non-creatives can be fairly distinguished (Perretti & Negro, 2007).Individuals are called "creative people" by virtue of their direct involvement in the creative industries (e.g.Florida, 2002;Nixon & Crewe, 2004).They may also need and have what is called "creative skill" (Flew & Cunningham, 2010) or talent (Eikhof & Haunschild, 2006) but are still placed within the context of the creative industries.Creative work in the industries is not considered a special characteristic of cognitive processes; thus, creative people cannot be formed but it has to pass the process of self-cultivation (Yachina & Fahrutdinova, 2015).People's creative disposition and their creative work can not necessarily be distinguished.That is, it becomes irrelevant to comment on the creativity of these individuals.People and their creativity, along with the creative industries as the context, are interchangeable as far as the notion of creativity is concerned.Whether or not they are embraced or criticized (Townley et al., 2009), promoted or not (Jones, 2010), they cannot be said to be lacking creativity in the context of what they do or are.
As creativity is usually linked to the heterogeneity of team members (Harrison & Klein, 2007;Stahl et al., 2010) and with the initial objective to understand how creative enterprises' founders established their enterprises, interviews with several founders in three regions in Indonesia and three creative sectors were conducted.Interestingly, the interviews collectively revealed a rather homogeneous aspect central to how the creative enterprises were established.This paper is focused on that inductively emergent aspect, namely the notion of creative vision.Especially among those in the same region, there is a degree of convergence in the founders' explanations about the vision of their creative enterprises.Through a collaborative effort of sense-making in the research team, the current study contributes to discourses surrounding what creativity entails; it is derived not from the conscious understanding of what creativity is or means by experts and the likes, but from the actual vision of practitioners of creativity from the field where creativity is the soul.The findings emphasize what it means to be creative.The current study is situated as preliminary, highlighting "regional creative vision" as something to study further.

The creative industries in Indonesia
Before the term creative industries became known, the terminology familiar when talking about arts and commercialization was cultural industries, with the linkage between the two terms having been comprehensively discussed and debated (e.g.Galloway & Dunlop, 2007;Landry & Bianchini, 1998;Landry, 2008;Moore, 2014;O'Connor, 2010;Throsby, 2008).The term was first established in the United Kingdom (UK) by the Government of the UK (Flew & Cunningham, 2010;Galloway & Dunlop, 2007).With several critiques to note when it comes to policy implementation (Oakley, 2004), the creative industries have been evidently recognized worldwide as a significant contributor to economic development and a phenomenon closely related to urban development given their critical role in a city's creativity and innovation (e.g.Florida, 2002;Landry, 2008;Lee, 2015).Collectively, cultural and creative industries are recognized as economic enterprises capable of delivering employment in its own right (Cochrane, 2007) and economic and sustainable development (Landry & Bianchini, 1998), including in developing countries (e.g. de Beukelaer, 2014;Fahmi et al., 2016;Flew, 2014).
Referencing the Creative Industries Mapping Documents 2001 published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the UK (Gov.uk, 2001) on the whole idea of the creative economy, the Government of Indonesia -specifically the Ministry of Trade (Indonesia)launched the Indonesia's Creative Economy Development Plan 2009-2015, defining the creative industries as "<…> those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent, and which have the potential for wealth creation and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property and content" (Departemen Perdagangan Republik Indonesia, 2009), and formed a specific ministry (Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Indonesia) in 2011 as a core strategic element for sustainable development ( de Beukelaer, 2014).Certain centers of production, where arts and crafts play a significant role, have burgeoned (Roos Maryunani, 2018).Overall, from the Indonesian perspective, the creative economy is related to the creative industries through economic activities and includes human creativity as its main asset to produce economic added value.
Several, relatively recent, studies on the Indonesian creative industries have emerged, with some studying at the industry and regional level (e.g.Fahmi et al., 2016;Ismalina, 2012;Rustiadi et al., 2018) and some at the organization or firm level typically on innovation (e.g.Azis et al., 2017;Ismail, 2016;Gede Suasana & Ekawati, 2018).The overarching motive in both contexts is typically utilitarian (not all), focused on applied research and promoting the development of either the industries or the enterprises.Overall, these studies have emerged arguably as a result of the impetus of Government of Indonesia, especially with regard to the link between individual creativity and wealth creation.Clearly, creativity is taken as a given, embedded, aspect of enterprises in the creative industries in Indonesia.

Methodology
With a case study research strategy in mind (Yin, 2003), this study is focused on exploring and answering the questions what?, why?, how?, specifically unravelling the motivational aspect of creativity from creative enterprises' founders.Through convenience sampling, creative enterprises' founders in three regions in Indonesia (Bandung, Yogyakarta, Bali) were sampled, with the regions covered regarded as being the most comparable regions for doing research in the creative industries in the Indonesian context (Minty, 2017).Of these regions, three creative sectors (cuisine, craft, fashion) were chosen, given that they were the top 3 contributors to the Indonesia's gross domestic product in 2017 (Kusumastuti et al., 2017) -with cuisine at 41.69%, fashion at 18.15%, and craft at 15.70% (i.e.high activity levels).With a total of nine enterprises, the founders were asked about how they founded their enterprises.Electronic mail and social media communication methods were attempted to request for interviews.A semi-structured interview protocol was prepared, with questions derived from the types of diversity framework by Harrison and Klein (2007).The interview(s) started with general questions about the founding process of the enterprises, followed by questions related to each type of diversity.Informed consent was provided to each interviewee.

Founders in Bandung, Indonesia
Founded by three relatives in 2015 and having expanded to the Jakarta, Indonesia, market, the cuisine enterprise (Bandung-Cuisine (BAN-Cuisine)) sold salad bars.Founded by 4 people (i.e.college friends) in 1996, the craft enterprise (Bandung-Craft (BAN-Craft)) started as a clothing company and focused on selling "design" (i.e.craft), embodied in various products.
Starting from the research of three founders with diverse backgrounds and established in 2007, the fashion enterprise (Bandung-Fashion (BAN-Fashion)) combined fashion and software technology to design patterns of Indonesian batik through algorithms.
Generally, founders (and employees) get together based on a certain form of kinship and a similar passion.For BAN-Craft and BAN-Fashion, they were created as a result of the founders' long-time relationship as close friends.As for BAN-Cuisine, two of the founders are blood-tied.Prior to the establishment of their respective enterprises, BAN-Craft and BAN-Fashion founders were involved in their own distinct communities related to the products developed while BAN-Cuisine founders were involved in a community similar to the type of enterprise they created after it was launched.For BAN-Craft, the hiring process of new employees was done not by involving a formal recruitment system but by the principle of "fit" to ensure that those coming in had a similar passion.Overall, each enterprise appears to exist within a broader community, networked by the founders, with a similar passion.
In addition, the shared passion that connects the founders and their employees revolve around what they like creating.For BAN-Craft, the founders-owners took turns to become the chief executive officer for the sake of having well-designed products based on what they collectively like (not what customers would like).Orders were not pushed by the market, applying a "product-driven" approach, creating designs they liked.For BAN-Fashion, the shared passion lied in their curiosity in science and technology and passion in art, combined with the eagerness to have a social contribution.They also attempted to create a Batik template that could differentiate them from other similar enterprises.For BAN-Cuisine, the shared passion was health consciousness, transpiring through their involvement in a health-based community.In essence, the founders-owners were themselves health-conscious individuals, eager to introduce the lifestyle to potential customers.Moreover, their personal experience concerning the loss of a family member due to illness had made them strongly committed to promoting what they created.

Founders in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Founded by two people in 2015, who became married after one year running the business, the cuisine enterprise (Yogyakarta-Cuisine (YOG-Cuisine)) sold Indonesian organic spices (e.g.ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, herbal tea) and partnered with local farmers in Yogyakarta.Having been around for almost 14 years (interview time) and partnering with a number of tailors working from their homes in Yogyakarta, the founders of the craft enterprise (Yogyakarta-Craft (YOG-Craft)) were two women with an non-governmental organization background.Lastly, the fashion enterprise (Yogyakarta-Fashion (YOG-Fashion)) was founded by two people who were passionate about fashion and wanted to create non-mainstream products, desiring only a few people to wear the same design and product.
Overall, the founders interviewed mentioned their motivation to empower other people and making an impact to their social surroundings.The YOG-Cuisine founders wanted to contribute to a rural village.Pursuing this passion, they quitted their job in Jakarta and moved to a rural village in Yogyakarta to start their business of herb and spice products made by local farmers.One of YOG-Fashion co-founders wanted to create jobs and income for women in her neighborhood.Together, they envisioned to empower women in their area to be their tailors and train them to make their craft products from lurik, a traditional textile material from Yogyakarta.A similar concern was expressed by the YOG-Craft founders.Passionate about gender issues, they wanted to link their enterprise with women empowerment, creating jobs and opportunities for women, especially those in the lower economic class in Yogyakarta.
These founders mentioned that they never had to do employee recruitments.They all believed that the referral system currently implemented, where a prospective employee was referred to by somebody else, worked better.They said that an employee candidate who had a similar vision or purpose like the founders was more preferable than candidates who had a variety of skills but without the same passion and purpose.They all had the purpose to make an impact to society through their enterprises.Their main objective of developing their enterprise was to empower the beneficiaries of their product or services.

Founders in Bali, Indonesia
The craft enterprise (Bali-Craft (BAL-Craft)) was founded by two people (a couple), one from Malaysia and the other from Indonesia, with employees mostly craftsmen and craftswomen in Bali.Previously working in Singapore, the founders were passionate about interior design and architecture.Founded by two people and having a small team with diverse backgrounds, the fashion enterprise (Bali-Fashion (BAL-Fashion)) curated local products from Bali and around Indonesia and sold them in their store.Founded by two people, the cuisine enterprise (Bali-Cuisine (BAL-Cuisine)) was a coffee company with an expansion in progress to a roastery business.Most of the founders, especially from BAL-Craft and BAL-Fashion, came from an art-design school -a background aligned with their enterprise.
Collectively, these founders had a shared passion to promote Indonesian culture and local wisdom through their business in order to compete with foreign products.All founders built their enterprise in Bali because of its "art" culture, its openness to newcomers, and its available international channels for doing business.In so doing, they all emphasized the importance of collaboration with all relevant stakeholders.In addition, the founders had a mission to give back to nature, presumably a unique belief in the Balinese culture.Running a creative enterprise "forced" them to rethink the nature of profit.After gaining profit, they all mentioned the need to give back to nature and people as an act of gratitude.
The BAL-Craft founders had a passion in interior design.Although many orders came from foreigners, their designs were mostly inspired by Indonesian culture.As an act of gratitude to nature and people, they developed a project to recycle the waste of woods into utensils and provided free workshops for children.Meanwhile, BAL-Fashion gave free advice to local fashion company partners to increase their quality and created international channels to promote their business in order to compete with foreign fashion products.BAL-Cuisine did not act only as a coffee shop; the founders provided education to coffee farmers to increase their coffee bean quality and customers about local coffee bean along with its local wisdom.It attempted to create a coffee culture and empower local coffee farmers from all over Indonesia to produce organic and high quality coffee.Despite most of them not being Balinese, all of the founders across the enterprises were in alignment about the influence of Balinese culture toward their vision in running their enterprise, especially how to preserve and give back to nature.

General discussion
Generally, enterprises studied in each region seem to signify distinct, though sometimes overlapping, creative visions or ideals of what to achieve through creative enterprises.Quotes that reflect each creative vision are presented in Tables 1-3.

Vision 1: collective self-actualization (Bandung, Indonesia)
Bandung, the city and the greater parts, is situated in the Western part of the Java, Greater Sunda Islands, Indonesia, and sits in its inner part.Since the Dutch colonial era, due to its location, it has been economically interlinked with the country's capital, Jakarta.With its elevated landscape, it became a holiday destination for Europeans to enjoy a variety of activities, prompting the emergence of shops, restaurants, and other signs of early creative activities (Aritenang, 2012).Indeed, out of over 1 million people working in main industries, most people work in the service sector for as much as 76.59% (Badan Pusat Statistik Kabupaten Bandung, 2021).Bandung is also home to the Asian-African Conferences (in 1955, 2005, 2015), signifying cross-national friendships and international influences, and to the oldest technical university in Indonesia, which also hosts one of the two best art and design programs in the country (Top Universities, 2022).While requiring a more in-depth analysis, these backgrounds collectively seem to support the vision of collective self-actualization, where European influences are mixed with a sense of togetherness.
Table 1.Quotes from founders-owners in Bandung, Indonesia (source: created by authors) Self-actualization was central to the founders in Bandung, utilizing their full potential and talent to create something they liked.Even if such efforts were expected to have a social impact, they acted as a means of the founder(s)' self-actualization.They did not attempt to change people's mindset.They simply catered to a potential market.Overall, the imagined reality embedded in the creative vision of self-actualization is to perceive the use of one's inner full potential or talent along with minimal presence of psychological illness (Maslow, 1962).It is found to drive one's entrepreneurial endeavors in various contexts such as in a United States context (Carland Jr. et al., 1995) and an Israeli context (Malach-Pines & Schwartz, 2008) and regarded as a driver of corporate social entrepreneurship (Hemingway, 2005) and as a greater motivational element for entrepreneurs than making money (Hitt et al., 2011).Given the shared nature of the inner passion to self-actualize, as reflected in the creative communities sharing a similar passion, the creative vision takes the form of collective self-actualization.The collective nature of self-actualization can be said to embrace the idea of "relatedness" in psychological growth and creative expression (Hanley & Abell, 2002).
Being the first region sampled for the development of the Indonesian creative industries (Azis et al., 2017), Bandung has always been strong in communities.They serve as a space for young people, who have been influenced by Western ideals since the 1970s (Kim, 2017), to be able to have conversations among their peers and form a sense of belonging, allowing people to feel they fit in and feel accepted (McMillan, 1976;McMillan & Chavis, 1986).People whose passion converges get together and form a vision.It lies in the product they collectively wish to make.All enterprises tend to be product-driven in that they do not rely on whether the market needs their product; they create a market.

Vision 2: collective altruism (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
With the city and entire special region included, Yogyakarta has maintained its Sultanate form of government, where leaders are chosen through lineage.Related phenomena that may explain collective altruism are the sacred role of the leaders (i.e.Sultans) and their highly regarded contributions to the region, the diversity of its people as a result of massive movements to Yogyakarta during the colonial and post-colonial eras, and the central value of harmony enforced through the leaders and the region's diverse composition of people (see de Jong & Twikromo, 2017).Therefore, it can be theorized that the sense of contribution to one's society symbolized through the leaders' role in the maintenance of harmony is what seems to have been socialized in the region, giving rise to collective altruism.The attention towards empowering local people can also be reflected in the evidence that the greater Yogyakarta has for years consistently ranked second for the Human Development Index in Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2023).
Altruism, as expressed by creative enterprises' founders in Yogyakarta, highly emphasizes helping and empowering others to be their business partners.It is not necessarily the consumers but the people whom they can help and work together.Altruism points to a concern for the increase in other people's well-being or welfare (Simon, 1990).In the entrepreneurship literature, either explicitly or implicitly, the notion of altruism is usually embedded within the framework or discussion about social entrepreneurship (Dacin et al., 2010;Dees, 2018;Tan et al., 2005).One study has found that creative accomplishments and products are also related to the value of universalism (Dollinger et al., 2007), signifying "understanding, appreciation, tolerance, and protection for the welfare of all people and for nature" (Schwartz, 1994).
Overall, the creative vision of altruism centers around the imagined reality of caring about others and each other (Taylor et al., 2015), from passion to compassion (Alacovska, 2020), highlighting a uniting principle aiming for a larger community.Creative vision becomes collectively altruistic as founders feel collectively obliged to empower the locals.Interesting to note is the integration of the larger community (i.e.local people) who becomes part of the enterprise in the product creation.It is not much about providing for the consumers, but about empowering local people by providing employment out of the things that they have a talent for.In this way, the idea of social responsibility becomes blurred in that the public and the employees become one whole entity, highlighting collective altruism.To support this assertion, a local study on Yogyakarta's creative industries highlights the centrality of helping and trusting each other, personally and professionally (Ismalina, 2012).

Vision 3: co-creation (Bali, Indonesia)
Compared to Bandung and Yogyakarta, Bali is the only region where Hinduism is the predominant religion.Home to the second busiest airports in Indonesia (Wikipedia, 2022), Bali is arguably the most famous tourist destination in Indonesia.With the Balinese having "been readily praised for their ability to borrow whatever foreign influence suits them while nevertheless maintaining their identity over the centuries" (Picard, 1990, p. 37), Bali can be considered a center of connectivity.Its position as its own island seems to support this need to be open and well-connected.Bali also has the highest number of accommodation businesses, units, beds, and employees per business, far beyond all other places in Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, 2019).In the city of Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, the accommodation and food-beverage sector is the highest contributor to the gross regional domestic product (Badan Pusat Statistik Kota Denpasar, 2023).In short, these illustrate how connected Bali wants to be, highlighting the vision of co-creation as a result of Bali's spiritual uniqueness and openness to foreign influences while maintaining its identity.
Co-creation signifies a mediating mechanism that connects various stakeholders, highlighting interconnection among them and the creative processes in it.There is a sense of giving back to nature and the locals and a sense of co-creating with (potential) consumers to create a product.The concept of co-creation is usually defined as the act of value creation between a business entity and its consumers (e.g.Grönroos, 2011;Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004).In essence, it is the philosophy of business process that allows the consumers to co-create the value being delivered by a business.Nevertheless, the scope can also be broader to include any parties of the value creation process (Deuze, 2007;Fleischmann et al., 2017;Sanders & Stappers, 2008).Overall, the creative vision of co-creation is based on the imagined reality of making use of a networked set of people to co-create value or provide collective benefits.
All enterprises were created based on the founders' interest in creating something (i.e.fashion, coffee, craft) but in a way that also pays attention to the locals, customers, and their other partners in the enterprise' maintenance.They do not necessarily create a market, but work with these stakeholders in their creative process.The market can then be understood as the process of co-creation where the creative enterprises become a connector of various stakeholders.This element of interconnection is supported by a study of the creation of environmentally friendly products in Bali's creative industries (Gede Suasana & Ekawati, 2018), highlighting interconnection with nature.An interesting finding came from the confession of one founder of BAL-Fashion.Spending her early years in Bandung, she moved to Bali to run the business partly because she felt that the creative industries in Bandung were more about "showing themselves", indicating self-actualization.

Creative vision and regional characteristics
The relative regional convergence in the forms of creative vision highlights possible regional characteristics of creativity.Given the complex and various processes of institutionalization (Scott, 2008) and spatial interdependence within a community of organizations (Freeman & Audia, 2006), it can be suggested that a geographical region may be characterized by converging forms of creative vision as exemplified by the current findings.Specifically in the creative industries, such convergence is possible potentially and partly due to the existence of, for example, communities of practice (Lange et al., 2008), network-bridging behavior (Daskalaki, 2010), supportive networks (Lee, 2015), and interrelating activities with external observers (Koch et al., 2018).
The literature on the creative industries has indeed heavily acknowledged regional explanation for the existence, concentration, and prevalence of creative enterprises (e.g.Comunian et al., 2010;Drake, 2003;Clare, 2013;Lazzeretti et al., 2008;Milestone, 2016;White, 2010), including the Indonesian context (e.g.Fahmi et al., 2016;Rustiadi et al., 2018).However, in the language of institutional theory (Scott, 2008), most of these above mentioned studies focus on the regulative (i.e.related to policy making, rule-setting) and normative (i.e.related to social obligations, norms) aspects of organizing, not so much on the cultural-cognitive aspect (i.e.related to shared understanding of what are real and how they are framed and made meaningful).In line with Milestone's (2016) study on the masculine identity of Manchester's, Greater Manchester, England, UK, creative industries, the current study taps on the latter and highlights three forms of creative vision that appear to be linked to the regions where the creative enterprises are based.
Given that creativity is to be practiced from a dynamic point of view (e.g.Amabile & Pratt, 2016;Corazza, 2016;Walia, 2019), researchers and practitioners alike can benefit from traveling through potentially various forms of creative vision they can find.The current study suggests that creative actors travel across different regions to learn about others' creative visions.While advocating for a standard definition of creativity (e.g.Harnow Klausen, 2010; Piffer, 2012;Runco & Jaeger, 2012) may be rightly applicable in certain contexts or for certain uses, creativity is not fully creativity if it is to be bounded.Mental traveling across cultural-regional settings enables us to understand each form of creative vision's limits, including creativity's potential dark sides (e.g.Cropley et al., 2010;Gino & Ariely, 2012;Josefsson & Blomberg, 2020), thus promoting a rather holistic view of being creative (Kampylis & Valtanen, 2010).Another practical implication is for actors to collaborate with or hire someone who has a different creative vision.Given the diversity of potential insights, the end result is expected to be something productively richer.Overall, it is helpful to be more conscious about what it means to be creative when actors engage in creative efforts.
The founders interviewed highlight a socially motivated element in their creative enterprises, but in different ways.Given the centrality of imagination of a particular ideal reality, the notion of creative vision may be linked to the idea of fantasy in the creation and oper-ation of socially oriented enterprises (Kenny et al., 2020), which is something that alleviates the concerns, tensions, or anxieties experienced.Unlike in other creative sectors geared by consumerism (Deuze, 2007), the three emerging forms of creative vision appear to highlight what is termed as creative-intuitive industries, emphasizing not-profit seeking per se but something more intrinsic and fundamental (Purnomo & Kristiansen, 2018).This characteristic may perhaps be related to the regional context in which these enterprises are located, the Eastern (Indonesian) context.Regional contexts have been thought to provide some structure to people's thought processes (Nisbett, 2004) and are linked to different incentives people find motivating (Weatherburn, 2020).Overall, does regional characteristics shape the outlook of creative enterprises or vice versa?While this preliminary study does not address this question in-depth, given the emergent nature of the creative vision discussed, both may arguably apply through the structuration process (e.g.Barley & Tolbert, 1997).In this case, creative actors shape and are shaped by the institutions they are in.In the beginning, it is understood that a creative enterprise is an enterprise that relies principally on the individuals engaged in it.Therefore, it can be further theorized that creative actors shape the kind of creative vision they want to have.At the same time, such vision is imbued or mixed with regional characteristics, rendering it possible for distinctive yet overlapping regional creative visions as illustrated in Figure 1.A more careful analysis is needed to explore the relationship between creative actors and the region they are in.

Conclusions
With the understanding that creative enterprises rely principally on their actors, this paper presents a preliminary study of regional forms of creative vision.The notion of creative vision is advanced based on insights from creative enterprises' founders.With founders coming from a total of nine creative enterprises interviewed, three forms of creative vision have been discussed.While these findings are in no way exhaustive, they relate to the question of what it means to be creative.To be creative can mean to utilize the full potential as human beings in creating something together with people who share a similar passion (vision 1), to give impact to the community by involving people around out of the things created (vision 2), or to allow for multiple stakeholders to contribute to the creation of value (i.e.benefits) through well-connected exchanges (vision 3).

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Mapping of creative enterprises with respect to forms of creative vision (source: created by authors)

Table 2 .
Quotes from founders-owners in Yogyakarta, Indonesia (source: created by authors)

Table 3 .
Quotes from founders-owners in Bali, Indonesia (source: created by authors)