Impact of New Technologies

Question 1

How is viewed within the media industry?

Answer 1

As an enabling, contributory and disruptive factor.

Question 2

What have the advances in technology allowed products and services to have?

Answer 2

A competitive edge.

Question 3

What is there a lack of within the media industry concerning technology and technological change?

Answer 3

An academic discourse.

Question 4

What has been the main concern within the media industry in terms of technological change?

Answer 4

Technology will erode sales.

Question 5

What has been the advantages of technological change?

Answer 5

New technologies have led to new markets and increased product range as well as increased revenue.

Technological innovations, therefore, have led to supplement rather than replace previous technologies

Question 6

What has been the main challenge for traditional media?

Answer 6

Traditional media has survived, but must continue to adapt. The previous medium is not destroyed immediately but is progressively determined. The need for flexible strategy must be established.

Question 7

The environment is never static i.e. the media industries need to respond to technological change is a long-standing part of strategic environment.

Give 3 examples of this.

Answer 7

Relating to content
Distribution systems
Devices that display content

Question 8

What does the outcome of these challenges suggest?

Answer 8

Strategy is non-linear and predictable.

Question 9

In what way can it be analysed from a rational strategy perspective?

Answer 9

Lower entry barriers
Create substitutes
Alter value chains
Affect competitive positioning

Question 10

What other school of thought can strategy be analysed?

Answer 10

Adaptive

Question 11

How can an adaptive strategy be taken on in terms of technology?

Answer 11

It can apply an emergent, complex and an iterative process, while an organisation aligns itself with its environment.

Question 12

What are the kind of technological changes that can occur?

Answer 12

Architectural innovations
Incremental innovations
Discontinuous innovations
Disruptive innovations

Question 13

Explain INCREMENTAL INNOVATIONS.

Answer 13

This can occur during a non-transitional phase when industry equilibrium has ongoing adapt and improve with existing technologies. (E.g. improving ebook reading technology by extending the technology that is already used.) They build upon existing knowledge base and capabilities.

Question 14

Explain ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATIONS.

Answer 14

Architectural innovations are relatively simple technological or process innovations that allows products to be modified and directed at new markets. Organisations can fail to see their potential significance and that they might need to change fundamentally. E.g. the introduction of personal video recorders that started the decline of the commercial TV model and the reduction in advertising income and seeding shift into interactive television,

Question 15

Explain DISCONTINUOUS INNOVATIONS.

Answer 15

Discontinuous innovations represent a break with existing systems and processes. These developments involve methods and materials that are entirely new, although these could be dangerous because they are potentially ‘competence’ destroying. Historically there are lots of examples of this such as, introduction of desktop publishing and satellite TV.

Question 16

Explain DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS.

Answer 16

Disruptive innovations often represent simple technological change but can upset market structure and undermine the attractiveness of existing products. It can seem initially not a positive development even for the market but can grow and become hugely significant. An example of this would be news being provided online for free.

Question 17

What are the consequences of these innovations?

Answer 17

There is no universal strategy or organisation response that currently exists. This depends on the nature of innovation and implications on the firm. An adequate or late response can mean the death of an organisation, which is dilemma facing many in today’s media industry. Ironically, often SME’s are more able to respond quickly to change and be more flexible.

Question 18

Give an example of a success in responding to technological change quickly and sufficiently.

Answer 18

The launch of BBC News Online in 1997. There was an immediate resonance with users and by June 2002 had one of the most popular content available online, Leadership and profiting all played a significant role in success as well as the project also having has a complete autonomy.

Question 19

What is the key to success when responding to technological changes?

Answer 19

Finding the appropriate organisation structure to accommodate new technologies, units and activities.

Question 20

What is AUTONOMY?

Answer 20

It is seen as correlating closely with innovation. It needs to identify ‘entrepreneurial enclaves’. It can be a spin-off of an independent company; create division in-house with individuals charged with the success of a project, and acquire an organisation whose processes and values match a new task.

Question 21

What is a COMBINED STRUCTURE approach?

Answer 21

It believes that organisations should be ‘ambidextrous’. Thus, units addressing technological development should be integral to the organisation and should be small, decentralised and highly independent. It can link more closely to strategic objectives. the approach can also be seen as ‘semi-structural’; this is where a business has units that are small enough to be agile but still allow for critical mass of resources.

Question 22

Give an example of a ‘semi-structure’.

Answer 22

The BBC News Online.