Global Value Chains, Innovation Systems, and the Creative Economy::A Theoretical Approach to Structural Economic Transformation in the Context of the EU

The creative economy has become a central arena in debates on development, innovation, and global restructuring. Its capacity to generate symbolic value, diversify production, and create new upgrading opportunities is evident, but it remains shaped by long-standing asymmetries in the global economy. The central challenge is to understand how cultural and creative industries (CCIs) embody both possibilities for repositioning and risks of reproducing dependency. This chapter mobilises three complementary traditions rarely placed in direct dialogue: world-systems theory, which situates the creative economy within structural hierarchies of core, semi-periphery, and periphery; global value chain (GVC) analysis, which highlights how governance structures allocate value across industries; and national innovation systems (NIS). Their integration provides an analytical framework that combines global constraints with spaces of agency, showing that CCIs can be both subordinated to global hierarchies and leveraged as drivers of transformation. Within this debate, the European Union provides a particularly revealing example. Its triple transition – digital, green, and social – is not only an ambitious development agenda but also a test of how advanced economies manage systemic contradictions. The EU regards CCIs as central to this effort because they link symbolic value with sustainability, cohesion, and technological change. However, this integration also exposes the EU’s vulnerabilities: dependence on external digital platforms, uneven ecological capacities, and persistent internal disparities. These features offer a strategic perspective on how CCIs reflect both the potential for structural transformation and the ongoing dependence within the core of the world-system. In this perspective, cultural, creative, and tourism services should also be seen as service innovation systems. They link symbolic production with digital infrastructures, ecological practices, and social participation, generating spillovers that go beyond narrow sectoral boundaries. Tourism demonstrates how cultural experiences, territorial identity, and creative value are organised within GVCs mediated by NIS. Recognising this connection emphasises not only the transformative potential of CCIs and tourism but also their role in fostering resilience within the European development model. This chapter is organised into three parts: the first investigates how world-systems theory aids in explaining the structural hierarchies shaping creative industries within the global economy; the second discusses how NIS can strengthen innovation capacity and support creative industries as agents of transformation; and the third applies these insights to the European Union’s triple transition, demonstrating how creative sectors contribute to digitalisation, sustainability, and social cohesion while addressing systemic challenges. The conclusion synthesises these discussions, emphasising both the opportunities and limitations of the creative economy as a tool for structural change in an unequal global system.