Digtial Transformations

Journal of Media Business Studies, 2018

Digital technologies have transformed the way many media organisations have conducted their business over the past two decades. This transformational context raises a number of important questions for media management researchers. Firstly, how have media firms adapted their strategies, resources and capabilities in response to the challenges presented by an increasingly digital environment? Secondly, how have these adaptive practices affected their corporate financial performance? This paper advances our theoretical understanding of media firm transformation by using a multi-disciplinary approach that draws on knowledge from corporate strategy, dynamic capabilities and firm performance. This integrated approach provides a more holistic view of strategic business transformation by understanding the strategic arguments that compel firm’s to reconfigure their resources and capabilities in a dynamic business environment.

The digital transformation is part of profound post-industrial society changes that are having a crucial impact in all social institutions. Media companies are not exceptions to this rule. In the first stage of their digital transition, legacy media used digital channels to distribute the same content they had in their old channels, trying to find new revenue sources. The results we have seen have been disappointing, to say the least. Now we seem to be getting into a new stage.

European Media Management Association Conference, 2019

Digital technologies have disrupted and transformed the way many media organisations have managed their business over the past two decades. The overarching theme of the body of research presented in this paper is the ‘management of media firms’ in a disruptive digital environment, and as such, three crucial questions have underpinned the research strategy. These questions examined: how media firms had managed the digital transition; how media firms are managed; and how can long-term media strategy be developed in an uncertain business environment. These questions were investigated using a practice-led research approach where the media practice context helps to advance knowledge ‘about’ practice and ‘within’ practice to produce actionable knowledge, implementable validity and instrumental impact with stakeholders.

Digital technologies have disrupted and transformed the way many media organisations have managed their business over the past two decades. The overarching theme of the body of research presented in this paper is the 'management of media firms' in a disruptive digital environment, and as such, three crucial questions have underpinned the research strategy. These questions examined: how media firms had managed the digital transition; how media firms are managed; and how can long-term media strategy be developed in an uncertain business environment. These questions were investigated using a practice-led research approach where the media practice context helps to advance knowledge 'about' practice and 'within' practice to produce actionable knowledge, implementable validity and instrumental impact with stakeholders.

The past decade has seen a transformation in the way media organizations have managed their businesses. The emergence of digitalization has paved the way for new media technologies, a proliferation of media outlets and multiple platforms to distribute mediated content. The work of Picard (2002), Kung (2008) and Oliver (2013) demonstrated the nature of high velocity media market conditions, whilst Doyle (2013, p.35) noted that “media firms have naturally adapted” their businesses, in response to the dynamic nature of the media environment, as a means to protect and sustain their company. This paper proposes that media firms manage their business and strategies through a process of adaptation. As such, organizational adaptation is examined through the lens of Dynamic Capabilities Theory (Teece and Pisano, 1994) which is well placed to consider how media firms have adapted (Ambrosini, Bowman & Collier 2009) to a transformational context heavily influenced by technological innovation. This paper will present the findings from a survey of UK media executives and argue that Dynamic Capabilities Theory can be extended to consider the ‘ability’ of a media organization to adapt their strategies, business model, resources and capabilities, faster than their rivals, that can provide them with an Adaptive Advantage in the market place. Keywords: Adaptive Advantage, Dynamic Capabilities, Competitive Advantage, Adaptation, Business Strategy, Business Model, Media Management, Media Strategy.

Journal of Media Business Studies

The past decade has seen a transformation in the way television broadcasters have managed their businesses. This paper examines the theory of 'dynamic capability' in two UK television broadcasters, BskyB and ITV, and their attempts to transform themselves into multi-product, multi-platform media companies. Using Comparative Financial Analysis and Content Analysis in a time series, this paper illustrates how the strategic management of media firms can be significantly different for two companies operating in the same sector. This research demonstrates an original contribution to knowledge by providing evidence of the dynamic capability performance effects of significant players in UK television broadcasting.

Journal of Strategy and Management

PurposeDynamic capabilities (DCs) help media firms adapt to rapidly changing environments. The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive literature review of studies of DCs in strategic management research with a view to understanding its implications for the management of media organizations. Essentially, it fertilizes on the idea that the concept of DC is useful and vital for answering various critical questions regarding the challenges that media organizations are currently facing.Design/methodology/approachThis study builds on a systematic literature reviewing design as the research methodology. It aims to identify, critically evaluate, and integrate factors, dimensions, and findings on studies of DCs in strategic management research and builds knowledge transfers to the field of strategic management research in the media industry.FindingsThe study shows that the DC framework helps media firms effectively respond to changing environments. The conceptual DC framework ha...

International Journal of Media Management, 2014

This paper focuses on the complexities of managing multi-platform strategies in the complex and highly dynamic environments of contemporary media markets. Based on a comparative case study of two Nordic media organizations, the paper identifies and articulates two sets of practices through which strategy is managed in the continuously changing print and online environments. While the practices that guide strategy development of print publishing tends to be content driven, brand constrained, commercially steered, and top-down monitored, strategizing for online platforms tends to be more technology driven, brand inspired, interactive, and entrepreneurial. For multi-platform media organizations this type of situation is challenging because the incremental and radical innovations that they pursue are platform specific, instead of aiming at exploitation and exploration on both platforms. To succeed in the market, the paper thus argues, multi-platform media organizations need to develop strategies and organizational practices that allow them to be truly ambidextrous—to pursue both incremental and radical change—on all platforms.

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