bookmarks (hide)15
- Faced with increasing real-time dislocation of institutionalized practices in empirical studies, it has become clear that neo-institutional theory is still ill-equipped to elucidate strategies of change in institutional fields. In this article, I endorse the claim that neo-institutional theory can both become more strategic and give a richer meaning to the strategy-formation process by integrating issues of ideology, power and agency in a political-cultural rhetoric of legitimation. Using the social movement metaphor to describe institutional change, I study incumbents and challengers as potentially antagonistic social movement organizations (SMOs) that strive to hegemonize entrepreneurship in fields. After having outlined a model linking institutional change to the strategy-formation process, I identify four archetypes of SMOs and strategic propensities, and illustrate the presented propositions about the incumbent SMO-challenger SMO dynamic using the case of emerging Internet challengers in the music industry.
- The Internet is often depicted as the ultimate arena for unfettered capitalism, erasing geographic boundaries and barriers to entry while providing a plethora of goods and services to consumers. This article traces how public and private reactions by the five major record companies to new Internet distribution technologies have undermined this popular myth. We use a political economic approach to examine the case of A&M Records et al. v. Napster, and discuss how this case underscores the importance of controlling the Internet as an entertainment distribution pipeline. Expressed concerns about piracy mask the actual intentions of the `Big Five' - control of all modes of distribution. The strength of the Big Five's cartel has a momentum of its own based in its market oligopoly, which has been secured through its ownership and management of intellectual property; through format changes and setting standards for other technologies; and through lobbying and legal activities.
- The current frenzy of megamergers and acquisitions creating giant media/entertainment conglomerates has been described in the sociology of sport literature as one of the key aspects of sport globalization processes now unfolding. In this literature three usual suspects are mostly pointed out: Disney, News Corp and AOL–Time Warner. This article argues that one must look beyond these in order to get a clearer picture of the emerging media/sport complex. By examining the corporate structure of six major media/entertainment conglomerates, this article reveals some of the intricacies of these holdings which unpack the ‘circuits of promotion’ being formed through media platforms and content convergence. Moreover, the analysis of these corporate holdings show how these competitors are also involved in several joint ventures that connect them together, thus forming a dense web despite their rivalries. The article concludes that unless democratic interventions are enabled at the national and global levels sport media consumers will remain easy targets of the global media/ entertainment oligopoly.
- Interview mit Thomas Middelhoff, 1999 CEO Bertelsmann AG
- Die Erschließung der digitalen Medien ist Gebot der Stunde. Der Umbau erfordert harte Einschnitte.
- The dynamics of field transformation is an under-investigated topic within organization theory. Drawing on the new institutional theory of organization, field transformation dynamics is examined, focusing on four change factors—external shocks, changes at the field periphery, ineffective isomorphic pressures and rearrangement of field boundaries. The impact of and interplay between these change factors is investigated within the business press field in Denmark and Italy over the last four decades. Four propositions are suggested and explored to analyse the relevance of change factors in the transformation of the business press field. The evidence from the Danish and Italian cases reveals how changes from the field periphery have minor impact on the field transformation, whereas external shocks, ineffective isomorphic pressures and boundary rearrangements play a major role. Based on these findings, a research agenda is suggested encompassing theory-driven attempts to define change factors and identify patterns of field change in cross-country comparisons in the same field.
- International broadcasters, like all media institutions, adjust to reflect the existence of new distribution technologies. Technological change is part of a new media landscape that has rendered older definitions and contexts of international broadcasting insufficient. The pace and extent of adjustment differs among the players. Adaptations range from the superficial to the highly integrative and, on the other hand, from the merely adaptive to the pervasively transformative. Can one compare, among institutions, how this process takes place and what factors influence the patterns of accommodation? Theories of organizational structure shed light on which factors lead international broadcasters to which path. This article considers U.S. international broadcasting as a model to tease out some of these factors, among them organizational complexity, political influence, and control and contradictions embedded in institutional purpose. In this scenario, technological adaptation can mask a critical need to address institutional transformation.
publications (hide)5
- (2001)
- (2005)
- (2002)
- (1999)
- (2007)
