Strategic Media Entrepreneurship: Theory Development and Problematization

Introduction

Media entrepreneurship is a growing field of research around underlying phenomena that are quickly developing. Media firms need to become more entrepreneurial (van Weezel, 2010; Will, Brüntje, & Gossel, 2016), and manage digitization internally (Habisch & Bachmann, 2017; Pérez-Latre & Sánchez-Tabernero, 2015), as well as capitalize on the use of digital media to connect with audiences and stakeholders (Evens, Raats, & von Rimscha, 2018). In this regard, media entrepreneurship shares many challenges and opportunities with general entrepreneurship around the mediatization of entrepreneurship (cf. Couldry & Hepp, 2017; Hjarvard, 2013; Lindgren, 2017). This is reflected in recent overviews along core journals in the field, who invite a re-thinking and re-conceptualization of entrepreneurship and strategy in regards to digital technology (Nambisan, 2018; Plesner & Gulbrandsen, 2015; Shen, Lindsay, & Xu, 2018). The theoretical relevance of this paper, therefore, is grounded in their calls for more research and theoretical developments towards better understanding entrepreneurship in times of increasing digitization and mediatization.

The practical relevance of this paper is seen in current trends around digitization, eroding boundaries of the media industry, and increasing competition from new players in changing media markets, which create pressures for organizational survival and opportunities for innovation. These developments are consequential for media managers and organizations for two reasons. First, because they need to act more strategically and find new ways to conceptualize these challenges for being able to respond adequately to them (see for example Daidj, 2018; Horst & Järventie-Thesleff, 2016; Järventie-Thesleff, Moisander, & Villi, 2014; Küng, 2017b; Maijanen & Jantunen, 2014; Oliver & Parrett, 2018). Second, because they need to continually drive new ideas and more radical innovations to sustain success (see for example Achtenhagen, 2017; Baumann & Brüning, 2017; Evens et al., 2018; Hasenpusch & Baumann, 2017; Khajeheian & Tadayoni, 2016; Price Schultz & Jones, 2017; Zboralska, 2017). Towards this aim, Hang (2016, p. 3) explains that in today’s environment “adaptation to the newness and proactive transformation are crucial to achieve and sustain business success. Therefore, media firms need to develop strategic tools that enable new business creation and facilitate capturing opportunities arising from the emerging fields”. This means, media organizations need to become more entrepreneurial (Will et al., 2016), but necessarily so in strategic manner. As a consequence, media organizations need to manage entrepreneurship strategically.