Creative sector as a source of small spatial effects: a methodological approach for a resource-based microregion

Creative industries are increasingly becoming involved in regional entrepreneurial and spatial development, gradually moving beyond the cultural sphere. Their influence is reflected not only in the creation of cultural products and new forms of employment, but also in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, tourism, digital services, and local markets. This increases the need for a methodological approach that can assess both the scale of the creative sector and the additional socio-economic effects it generates in remote regions with a predominantly resource- based specialization. The aim of the article is to substantiate and test a methodological approach to assessing the potential of the creative sector and its associated entrepreneurial and tourism effects, taking into account digital, social and labor, and institutional conditions. The empirical base is a balanced panel of 11 regions of the Far Eastern Federal District covering 2019−2025. The research object is the creative sector of the Far Eastern regions, interpreted as an element of the macroregion’s spatial development system. The year 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, is used as the base year for index calculations; this ensures the comparability of time series and makes it possible to account for the changes that occurred in regional economies in 2020−2025. The data are drawn from official statistics and the Unified Register of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Methodologically, the study is based on a «resource — channel — effect» framework involving a step-by-step analysis of the creative sector’s initial resources, the mechanisms of their economic realization and the resulting socio-economic outcomes. The toolkit includes the normalization of indicators grouped into five blocks — resource, digital, market, social and labor, and institutional — as well as a set of econometric procedures. The main stages are the preparation and normalization of the initial dataset, construction of an integral creative-sector potential index, estimation of panel models with fixed effects and robustness testing. The proposed approach differs from conventional methods focused mainly on the direct contribution of creative industries to gross regional product (GRP) by emphasizing the accompanying effects of their development. The calculations indicate a statistically robust positive association between the share of creative-economy gross value added in GRP and indicators of small and medium-sized enterprise development and tourist flows. The integral index provides a more detailed picture of interregional differences in creative-sector development. The proposed methodological framework can support public authorities in designing measures for creative-industry development, setting regional priorities, and monitoring and evaluating regional creative-sector programs.