Incumbent heterogeneity in creative destruction: a study of three Dutch newspaper organisations

Abstract

With a study of three Dutch newspaper organisations, we identify four dimensions along which incumbent response to discontinuous change may differ: response timing (early or late), size of commitment to the new business (big or small), progression of commitment to the new business (continuous or intermittent), and approaches to bridging the capability gap (internal development, strategic alliance, or acquisition). These response strategies are neither mutually exclusive nor static, and their relative focus differs over time as well as across incumbents. Such inter-temporal and cross-sectional variations in response strategies are influenced by various incumbent-specific characteristics and shaped by interrelated contingencies internal or external to incumbents.

Keywords:

• disruptive innovation
• incumbent heterogeneity
• path dependence
• adaptation

Notes

‘Krant’ is the Dutch word for newspaper. Because of the sensitivity of the data, names of newspapers and related human actors are disguised.

We thank an anonymous referee for directing our attention to the possible conflation between incumbent heterogeneity and market segment specificity. Future research may extend our study by selecting multiple newspaper organisations within a particular segment.

We thank an anonymous referee for the suggestion of constructing a table to summarise the key findings.