Financial structure and productive activity in cultural and creative industries: evidence from video game development studios

Despite growing academic interest in Cultural and Creative Industries, empirical evidence on how firms manage their financial resources remains limited. This gap is particularly evident in the video game development sector, where research has largely focused on platforms, consumers, or innovation outcomes, overlooking firms’ balance-sheet structures. This study examines the relationship between financial structure and organizational outcomes—release activity, production timing, and firm continuity—among European video game studios using a longitudinal dataset combining Orbis and IGDB data (2009–2020). The results show that stronger internal capitalization is associated with greater release activity, faster production timing, and lower inactivity. Liquidity plays a differentiated role: structures oriented toward operational deployment are linked to higher activity, whereas liquidity held as short-term buffers is associated with slower and less frequent releases and a higher risk of inactivity. This study contributes by linking internal financial configurations to firm dynamics in the video game industry.