The paper aims to deepen our understanding of the relationship and the impact of creative actors on regional development and investigates the nexus between them. The novelty of the paper lies in constructing an original criteria matrix of creative actors’ indicators which might serve as a basis for further research and policy implications. The original criteria matrix consists of two groups of indicators measuring the creative people and creative capital in the region, their mutual relationships and impact on regional development. We found that creative actors are not distributed equally across the regions in Slovakia. The strong dominance of the region with the capital city (Bratislava) was detected. We also discovered a strong direct positive relationship between representatives of the creative people and a strong direct relationship between the creative people and the emergence of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The term «Society 4.0» is used to define a group of people in advanced economies who form a modern cultural society, which is heavily influenced by technological developments and digitalization and having a significant impact on most aspects of human life. The notion of Society 4.0 is closely related to and factually corresponds with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is also referred to as «Industry 4.0» and widely debated. Despite its topicality, this concept has not received as much publishing attention as anticipated. Surprisingly, the term «Society 5.0», which describes what the current society will gradually transform into in the near future, receives much more focus in this context. The aim of this article is to present the concept of Society 4.0 in its factual form and to identify its general exogenous and endogenous implications, in particular in the sphere of economics.