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This chapter focuses on the profile of the new generation of Chinese creative entrepreneurs in the fashion and luxury industry and investigates, in an exploratory way, the mix of endogenous factors that support their growth in the specific context of the city of Beijing. Based on a review of the elements characterising the present stage of development of this industry and on the results of interviews of two emerging brands within a concept store hosting them, the authors argue that in the struggle to affirm the positive value of Chinese creativity, this new breed of entrepreneurs is developing a syncretic mix of Chinese, Asian and Western elements rather than proposing a nationalistic rediscovery of Chineseness. A Beijing effect is also visible, giving evidence of the relationship between art and fashion. Finally, their growth and success appears in tune with the government’s domestic and international policy.

China’s cultural and creative industries were, and to some extent remain, predicated on material culture, illustrated by the rollout of hundreds of cultural parks and creative clusters. The emphasis within the 13th Five-year Plan is for a digitally connected China. Associated with this is the concept of collaborative innovation. In this chapter the authors question if collaborative innovation will deliver the scale of benefits that the industrial economy has achieved. Certainly, the emphasis on collaboration, efficiency and knowledge is a different blueprint than the industrial clusters of the previous decade, most of which ended up as real estate projects. The chapter looks at so-called incubators, makerspaces and innovation hubs in Hangzhou and Shenzhen. Noting the presence there of commercial digital companies such as Alibaba and Tencent, the authors look at the potential of these spaces to generate digital disruption, and ultimately innovation.

This chapter explores if creative entrepreneurship in emerging market economies plays a relevant role in the attraction of foreign direct investments (FDI), thus generating the opportunity for economic and social growth. The chapter aims to deepen this important, but still understudied aspect of the economic growth potential of creative industries, using Egypt and the ICT sector as the empirical setting. The analysis of data using the fDi Database and Zephyr on greenfield investments and mergers and acquisitions confirm the relevance of the phenomenon. Moreover, three empirical illustrations allowed the identification of three ideal-types, represented by the three cases selected for the analysis: (1) a start-up that attracted foreign venture capital investments from Silicon Valley (the case of Wuzzuf); (2) a start-up that attracted foreign companies’ investments from Silicon Valley (the case of SysDSoft); (3) a start-up that attracted foreign and local investments from risk capital players (the case of Fawry).