The Relationship of Competition and Financial Commitment Revisited: A Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis in European Newspaper Markets

Abstract

Research generally supported a positive effect of competition intensity on financial commitment into news production within U.S. markets. The authors test this assumption across European newspaper markets by applying fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. Although oligopolistic too, European newspaper markets reveal a somewhat different pattern. The market condition “high number of competitors” in combination with “high competition intensity” is a sufficient condition for financial commitment across the different markets in this study.

Notes

¹ NCCR Democracy-Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century

² Berlin (n = 741), Copenhagen (n = 749), London (n = 740), Paris (n = 741), Rome (n = 738), and Zurich (n = 748). Germany (n = 1,482), Denmark (n = 1,489), UK (n = 1494), France (n = 1,495), Italy (n = 1,459), and Switzerland (n = 1,523).

³ In a X-Y plot almost all cases would lie above the main diagonal indicating X ≤ Y.

⁴ Cases that are members in the intersection of two sets are also members in the original sets.

⁵ Although QCA is suitable for small n studies, its functionality depends on an appropriate relation of the number of cases and the number of conditions tested, too (Schneider & Wagemann, 2010).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Loris Russi

Loris Russi, PhD, is a Marketing and CRM Consultant at Swisscom and was a researcher at the media economics department of the IPMZ-Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich.

Gabriele Siegert

Gabriele Siegert is professor of communication science and media economics at the IPMZ-Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich. Her research focuses on media economics, media management, and advertising issues.

Matthias A. Gerth

Matthias Gerth, PhD, is a Public Relations and Corporate Communications Consultant at Ernst Basler + Partner in Switzerland and was a researcher at the media economics department of the IPMZ-Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich.

Isabelle Krebs

Isabelle Krebs is a research assistant and doctoral candidate at the IPMZ-Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich. Her research focuses on media management and media branding.