"We are always after that balance":managing innovation in the new digital media industry

The pressure to innovate is growing as technology cycles change more rapidly. Organisations need to balance exploration and exploitation effectively if they are to heed the innovation imperative. Organisational ambidexterity is proposed as a means to achieve such balance with structural or contextual ambidexterity as possible choices. Yet how organisations become ambidextrous is an as yet underresearched area, and different industry sectors may pose different innovation challenges. Using the case study method, this paper examines how a computer games company responds to an industry-specific innovation challenge and how it endeavours to balance exploration and exploitation. The findings suggest that ambidexterity is difficult to achieve, and is fraught with organisational tensions which might eventually jeopardise the innovation potential of a company. The paper suggests that more qualitative research is needed to further our understanding of innovation challenges, innovation management and organisational ambidexterity

Small businesses in the new creative industries:innovation as a people management challenge

Purpose - This paper presents findings from an SME case study situated in the computer games industry, the youngest and fastest growing of the new digital industries. The study examines changing people management practices as the case company undergoes industry-typical strategic change to embark on explorative innovation and argues that maintaining an organisational context conducive to innovatin over time risks turning into a contest between management and employees as both parties interpret organisational pressures from their different perspectives. Design/methodology/approach - A single case study design is used as the appropriate methdology to generate indepth qualitative data from multiple organisational member perspectives. Findings - Findings indicate that management and worker perspectives on innovation as strategic change and the central people management practices required to support this differ significantly, resulting in tensions and organisational strain. As the company moves to the production of IP work, the need for more effective duality management arises. Research limitations/implications - The single case study has limitations in terms of generalisability. Multiple data collection and triangulation were used to migitate against the limitations. Practical implications - The study highlights the importance of building up change management capability in the small businesses typical for this sector, an as yet neglected focus in the academic iterature concerned with the industry and in support initatives. Originality/value - Few qualitative studies have examined people management practices in the industry in the context of organisational/strategic change, and few have adopted a process perspective

Experimentation and Imitation: The Journey to Elle 360

It is widely acknowledged that the media industries are facing an unprecedented period of disruption within the Internet age. Whilst avoiding technological determinism, it is important to recognize the scale of the changes being faced and the altering landscape which media businesses, particularly those with a strong legacy, are forced to operate in (Chan-Olmsted and Chang, 2003; Küng, 2008; Küng, Picard and Towse, 2008; Küng, 2013). This paper focuses on the initial findings from a case study of Elle UK and the title’s explicit engagement with multi-platform, which has involved multiple and wide ranging product, process and content innovations. The paper focuses on an analysis of semi-structured interviews carried out with senior employees at Hearst Magazines UK and Elle UK. With regard to adjusting to a multi-platform approach to publishing, Hearst UK is considered to have innovated more quickly than rivals (Halliday and Sweney, 2013) and Elle UK has engaged with a multi-platform strategy, ‘Elle 360’. Despite a public discourse of platform neutrality, evidence from the initial research suggests that the economic strategies, and as a corollary work practices and content decisions, continue to preference the print magazine above emerging and alternative platforms. The paper concludes by arguing for holistic innovation studies which take account of soft innovations as well as those focused on new product development

Measuring Content Diversity in a Multi-Platform Context

Media diversity, or the heterogeneity of media content, is considered a central pillar of a democratic society, but it has seldom been studied in a systematic way. Concerns about the relationship between media concentration and the abuse of power through the over-representation of particular views have been a longstanding focus for debate within communication studies. Logically, highly concentrated media ownership patterns correlate with a more limited range of media sources, implying a less pluralistic system. Recent technological developments and digital innovations have added to the complexity of researching plurality. Meanwhile, media organizations have embarked on new forms of corporate expansion, leading to disagreement amongst commentators over the impact of these changes on the ownership patterns of media content providers. For some political economists, this has heralded a discontinuity and a departure from capitalism, but, for many, new media has deepened and extended the commodification of audiences. The existence of multiple owners, in any case, may not be sufficient to ensure plurality; studies of media diversity should also review the content of the outputs themselves. Despite the fact that many television companies and print publishers have transformed themselves into multi-platform suppliers of content, little is known about the impact of these strategies on the diversity of media content. This article is based on initial findings from a study of media content being undertaken as part of a three year Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded project ‘Multi-platform media and the digital challenge’. This project has sampled, coded and analyzed the composition of content bundles from a selection of key media organizations drawn from broadcasting, newspaper, and magazine publishing industries, including theBBC, STV, MTV, The Financial Times,The Telegraph, Elle UK, T3andNME. To this end, the first two of three phases of content analysis have been employed. This work confirms volumes of content have increased across the sample, but also finds evidence for the recycling and re-purposing of content and for the concentration on particular programmes or stories. Finally, the article argues for the systematic examination of media content outputs and for the development of new ways to measure media content diversity across platform and sector

The difference that place makes: a case study of selected creative industry sectors in Greater Manchester

Broader transformations in the economy are linked to a changing spatial organisation for economic activity, particularly in industries imbued with a high creative content, although there are competing explanations regarding the nature of this logic. This thesis explores the ways in which space and place matter to the creative industries sector. In particular, it examines the logic guiding concentration in the centre as opposed to decentralisation to more peripheral sites within a transforming regional city negotiating its place in the knowledge economy. There has been a significant policy thrust from formerly industrial cities to build a share in this sector, often touted as a panacea for urban decline, but critical evidence regarding the possibilities for this is hard to find. The research employs a mixed methods approach, which is applied to the case study of Greater Manchester. The study firstly probes the spatial pattern of creative industry activity there and selected two sectors with a somewhat different distribution: advertising, and film and television. Contextual information is gathered from a range of documentary evidence. Semi-structured interviews with 28 firms and 18 policymakers and other stakeholders are used to probe the determinants affecting the decisions regarding firm location. Three dominant determinants of location were identified by the research: the availability and cost of space, place reputation and transport connectivity. The empirical findings further suggested that there were a set of firm characteristics guiding location choices relating to the size, profile, age and activities of the firms. It was found that the city centre still provided a considerable pull related to traditional agglomeration advantages, including access to skilled labour and strong transport connectivity, as well as a sense of place brand. Location outside the city centre was chiefly prompted by the cost and size of business premises or was made possible by the place reputation advantages not holding for more routine, less growth-orientated or locally-focused firms. The study also identified evidence of displacement and industrial gentrification and the recent regeneration of the city centre had exacerbated these processes. There was some divergence from the existing literature regarding the importance of proximity for knowledge sharing and spillovers, for which little evidence was found by the interviews

Harmonics: Towards Enlightened Evaluation

This paper aims to explore ways to enable designers, researchers and practitioners to share, discover and critique alternative and creative evaluation techniques. It draws on case examples of piloted enlightened evaluation approaches derived from a partnership between the Glasgow School of Art and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, a regional development agency with a remit of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Due to the complex initiatives, collaborations and partnerships involved in such a process, measurement frameworks that more appropriately support understanding and learning than traditional approaches have been being piloted. Despite a demand for more flexible techniques, there is a significant gap in understanding and knowledge regarding the most effective approaches, techniques and tools for enlightened evaluation

Shaping screen talent: conceptualising and developing the film and TV workforce in Scotland

Together with “creativity”, the concept of “talent” has emerged within UK and global policy discussions as being central to unlocking economic success within the creative industries. At a crucial time of political and technological change, Scotland finds itself competing within a highly competitive global market to identify, attract and retain creative talent and strengthen its skills base. As such, developing “talent” is a key aspect of the Scottish Government’s Strategy for the Creative Industries. However, while creativity has been interrogated across academic disciplines in recent years, talent remains under-theorised within the academy and lacks a clear definition across policy and industry. Taking the screen industries as its focus, this paper draws on empirical data derived from a series of knowledge exchange workshops funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh designed to initiate dialogue between academics, policy-makers and stakeholders within Scotland and beyond. In doing so, it scopes out some of the key ways in which screen “talent” is conceptualised by these groups and raises questions regarding how particular understandings may impact on policies designed to identify, attract and retain a diverse range of skilled workers within the sector. We argue that greater precision should be used in policy discourse to emphasise the importance of developing particular and discrete craft skills rather than privileging a workforce that is highly flexible and mobile. We also suggest that policy-makers and educators must acknowledge and encourage transparency regarding the precariousness of building a career within the screen industries

From the Margins to the Centre: Supporting contemporary craft and creative workers in rural and remote geographies

Creative and cultural industries are an increasingly significant element of rural and island economies, but investigation of the support of creative processes in such areas has remained neglected. It has been argued that creative hubs can be used to mitigate issues associated with precarious patterns of work by offering opportunities for a supportive, safe context as well as economies relating to proximity. Funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), this research focused on the Northern Isles of Scotland and aimed to explore the role of such hubs in supporting the work of creative and craft workers in the region

Materiality Matters: Exploring the use of design tools in innovation workshops with the craft and creative sector in the Northern Isles of Scotland

This paper presents initial reflections regarding the use of bespoke design tools within a series of innovation workshops carried out with practitioners and stakeholders active in the craft and creative industry sector in the Scottish Islands of Orkney and Shetland. We argue that by emphasising such bespoke material tools located in and inspired by the local landscape, history and culture, we encouraged engagement, provided space for innovation and enabled creative collectives in their goal of enhancing and sustaining the creative economy in rural geographies

Craft, textiles, and cultural assets in the Northern Isles: innovation from tradition in the Shetland Islands

This article explores design innovation approaches in the creative economy in the Northern Isles of Scotland, specifically, the Shetland archipelago, focusing on the textiles sector. Shetland has a rich history of craft work, including Fair Isle knitting and lace making. We contend that the value of cultural assets in contributing to the creative economy is underexamined and that there is a paucity of understanding of the innovative potential of craft and creative practitioners in the region. The insights presented are derived from Innovation from Tradition workshops, which aimed to reframe the creative economy within an island context, elicit knowledge surrounding local cultural assets and explore the innovative capabilities of creative practitioners. We reflect on how a design innovation approach allowed us to garner the collective wisdom held in communities and foreground the focal themes of practice, place and people