Patterns of structural and sequential ambidexterity in cross-border media management

ABSTRACT

Organisational ambidexterity – the ability of a company to successfully link exploitation and exploration – is a fruitful approach for cross-border management. It is a crucial concept for media companies that, because of the dual (cultural and economic) character of their products, need to reconcile strategies of mere expansion with local customisation when engaging across borders. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with international media managers, this article captures patterns of ambidextrous strategising and organising in cross-border media activities. The article focuses on digitisation, which has altered the opportunities for balancing exploration and exploitation in internationalisation. The analysis reveals how, in this context, exploitation takes centre stage and how patterns of ambidexterity differ significantly depending on the media type and the background of the company.

KEYWORDS:

• Ambidexterity
• exploitation
• exploration
• media management
• digitisation
• internationalisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. D-A-CH is an abbreviation for the three neighboring German-speaking countries Germany (D), Austria (A) and Switzerland (CH).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the FWF Austrian Science Fund [I 2089];DFG German Research Foundation [265446483];Swiss National Science Foundation [10001CE-158014].

Notes on contributors

Pamela Nölleke-Przybylski

Pamela Nölleke-Przybylski is research assistant at the School of Journalism at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Germany). Her research interests are in media management, entertainment acquisition and production, journalism studies, and science communication. Her dissertation focuses on production practices in entertainment television and the role of creativity within this process.

M. Bjørn von Rimscha

M. Bjørn von Rimscha is full professor of media business at the Department of Communication at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany). His research interest is in structural, organisational and individual drivers of (entertainment-)media production and advertising.

Johanna E. Möller

Johanna E. Möller is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Communication at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany). Her research engages with transnational and transcultural communication as well as the politics of media technologies. Following her work on the cross-border activities of media companies, as with the team presented in this article, she now focuses on the political implications of privacy related media practices from a comparative Polish-German view.

Denise Voci

Denise Voci is research assistant at the Department for Media and Communication Studies at the University of Klagenfurt (Austria). Her research interests are in media management, the economic, political and democratic implication of the dual character of media goods, as well as in CSR and sustainability communication. In her dissertation, she focuses on comparing media systems in the framework of cross-border media communication from a media economics perspective.

Klaus-Dieter Altmeppen

Klaus-Dieter Altmeppen is full professor of journalism at the School of Journalism, head of the Center Flight and Migration, and co-head of the center for media ethics and ethic of the digital society at the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Germany). His theoretical and empirical research focuses on responsibility communication (also on migration), media and digital ethics, publicity, media organizations, media management, and media economics. From 2010 to 2014 he has been President of the German Communication Association (DGPuK).

Matthias Karmasin

Matthias Karmasin is full professor at the Department for Media and Communication Studies at the University of Klagenfurt (Austria) and director of the Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His research interests are in media ethics, media management and communication theory.