Hanna-Kaisa Ellonen

The Impact of Social Media Features on Print Media Firms’ Online Business Models

Abstract Many newspapers and magazines have added “social media features” to their web-based information services in order to allow users to participate in the production of content. This study examines the specific impact of the firm’s investment in social media features on their online business models. We make a comparative case study of four Scandinavian print media firms that have added social media features to their online services. We show how social media features lead to online business model innovation, particularly linked to the firms’ value propositions. The paper discusses the repercussions of this transformation on firms’ relationship with consumers and with traditional content contributors. The modified value proposition also requires firms to acquire new competences in order to reap full benefit of their social media investments. We show that the firms have been unable to do so since they have not allowed the social media features to affect their online revenue models.

Magazine Publishers Embracing New Media: Exploring their Capabilities and Decision Making Logic

Abstract During the last decade, new technologies, such as the Internet, mobile phones and more recently the new reading devices, have posed new challenges for the magazine publishing industry and will continue to do so. Here we explore commonalities among magazine publishers in the forefront of integrating new media into their businesses. We approach this by combining two streams of management literature: dynamic capabilities and decision making. A case study of four innovative magazine publishers has been conducted where the practices related to business development and their underlying decision making logic have been analyzed.

The interplay of dominant logic and dynamic capabilities in innovation activities

Within the strategic management literature, both managerial cognition and dynamic capabilities have been identified as drivers of change and transition in changing business environments. The purpose of this study is to explore the interplay of dominant logic and dynamic capabilities in the magazine publishing industry. We investigated four magazine publishing business units of a large media corporation situated in four different countries, namely Finland, the Netherlands, Hungary and Russia. A total of 40 magazine managers were interviewed. The results imply that dominant logic and dynamic capabilities coevolve in a reciprocal relationship, and the interplay of cognition and capabilities seems to be most visible in the seizing and reconfiguring capabilities. The results of the present study also illustrate that there may be several contradictory dominant logics within a single company. Dynamic capabilities useful to innovation processes are developed in the areas that are pinpointed by the managers as the locus of attention. Industry transition does not automatically change what companies think and do. That requires managerial attention and an active reconceptualization of the business and active development of not only day-to-day operations, but capabilities needed to change the way we work.

Creating Loyalty Towards Magazine Websites: Insights from the Double Jeopardy Phenomenon

For years, magazine publishers have been developing their online presence, pursuing a range of different goals and strategies for their websites. One of the key questions in creating online presence is whether to allocate resources on developing the offline print brand and expect brand equity transfer to the online environment or to allocate resources on developing the online brand for new audience. In this paper the authors propose an application of double jeopardy approach for assessing this issue. Finnish secondary data is used to test two competing research hypotheses. The analysis reveals that the magazine publishers who have been able to build market share in online environment seem to have more loyal customer-base in their websites. Market share of printed magazine does not predict loyalty towards magazine websites.

Virtual Customer Communities: An Innovative Case from the Media Industry

Online communication technologies enhance the ability of firms to engage in on-going dialogue with their customers and leverage valuable knowledge. However, there is little formal research on virtual customer communities. The aim of this paper is to offer new insights of the different customer roles and business benefits of virtual customer community-based collaboration in product development. We present a case study from the media industry, and demonstrate how the roles and interactions have been integrated into a novel form of a virtual customer community, supporting continuous product development with a large base of paying customers.

Always The Little Brother? Digital-Product Innovation In The Media Sector

This article concerns digital-product innovation within the media sector. From previous literature we identify eight factors affecting innovation work. Using material from narratives collected from experts within the media industry, we then present a specific framework that summarizes the factors affecting digital innovations either negatively or positively. We identify three underlying phenomena in the Finnish media sector that explain its specific features: First, it is a small market with a long history, second, digital innovations are in the underdog position and thirdly, the brand positions are strong.

The Role Of Knowledge-Integration Practices In Service Innovation Projects

Services comprise an increasingly bigger proportion of contemporary economies, making service innovation more relevant than ever. However, the practices and processes related to the utilisation of knowledge for service development are not very well understood in this context. To narrow this gap, this study focuses on how Knowledge-Intensive Business Service (KIBS) firms utilise knowledge-integration practices in different phases of the service-innovation projects they carry out for their customers. A multiple-case study with in-depth qualitative data is conducted, focusing on four case firms in the Finnish KIBS sector. Case-by-case and cross-case analyses are reflected against four categories of knowledge-integration practices: Rules and directives, sequencing, decision-making, and group problem-solving and routines. The results show the detailed evidence on how these practices are utilised in different types of service-innovation projects. Furthermore, two generic types of service-innovation projects are identified with different implications for knowledge-integration and problem-solving.

The role of the website in a magazine business – revisiting old truths

This paper explores consumer behavioural patterns on a magazine website. By using a unique dataset of real-life click stream data from 295 magazine website visitors, interesting behavioural patterns are noted: most importantly, 86% of all sessions only visit the blogs hosted by the magazine. This means that the visitors short-circuit the start page and are not exposed to any editorial content at all, and consequently not to any commercial content on those pages. Sessions visiting editorial content, commercial content or social media links actually represent only 1% or less of all sessions recorded. Consequently, the online platform gives very limited support for the business model. Our data questions the general assumption that online platforms are key components of a contemporary magazine’s business model.

The Business Value of Consumer Participation through Social Media

Despite the growing enthusiasm about social medias revolutionary potential, there is a lack of research on the possible business-side benefits. The authors maintain that in order to realize social medias business potential, it is essential to identify the roles in which customers can participate in value co-creation. This study explores consumer participation enabled by social interaction technologies in the context of the newspaper and magazine industry. A qualitative analysis of 31 interviews with the publishers of the leading Finnish newspapers and magazines was conducted. A typology of six different roles of online consumer participation was developed: namely, agent, commentator, tester, debater, content producer, and messenger. The more company-driven types of participation agent, commentator, and tester can be integrated with product development support and learning from customers, the more consumer-driven types debater, content producer, and messenger are able to provide brand support and options for value co-creation.

ARE PUBLISHERS READY FOR TOMORROW? PUBLISHERS' CAPABILITIES AND ONLINE INNOVATIONS

In order to cope with technological change, publishing companies need to effectively combine their capabilities and use them to support the development of new and existing products. In this paper, we explore the relationship between the market and technology capabilities of publishing companies and their online innovations. Our comparative case study focuses on four cases representing newspaper and magazine publishers. The case companies seem stronger in market than in technology capabilities. We also note an apparent tendency to build on the strongest capability area and to focus on leveraging those capabilities rather than taking a risk and experimenting in an area in which they are relatively weaker. Further, it seems that publishers have been able to leverage their market capabilities through online experimentation, but have not been able to develop their technological capabilities in the same manner. From the scientific perspective, this study makes two main contributions. Firstly, the empirical in-depth investigation of the capability portfolios of the case firms complements the emerging work on innovation-related capabilities. Secondly, the study adds to the literature on media management in enhancing understanding of the online-related capabilities that are required in publishing companies, and the related development patterns. Our study suggests that experimenting online and producing innovations requiring new types of internal market-related processes and practices is an efficient strategy to develop ones current market capabilities online.