Social Origins of Great Strategies Advertising Suppliers to Realize Disruptive Social Media Technology

Pinar Ozcan () and Douglas Hannah ()
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Pinar Ozcan: Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 1HP, United Kingdom
Douglas Hannah: Questrom School of Business, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Strategy Science, 2020, vol. 5, issue 3, 193-217

Abstract: Research often examines disruption in the context of head-to-head competition between firms and technologies. In contrast, we examine the unique dynamics of disruptive technologies within supplier ecosystems. We do so through an inductive multiple case study set in the global advertising industry from 2008–2013, as the industry grappled with the emergence of social media. Using rich archival and field data, we closely track five global consumer goods manufacturers and their associated advertising suppliers as they attempted to integrate social media into their advertising activities. Our primary contribution is to unpack the process by which firms reconfigure their supplier ecosystems to address disruptive new technologies. Our framework reveals that integrating new technologies may require firms to reconfigure the distributions of both activity and power, and that fundamental trade-offs may leave the value of new technologies unrealized. Broadly, we contribute to research and theory on buyer-supplier relationships, alliances, and technology disruption by bringing a more realistic perspective that considers firms’ network of suppliers and interfirm turf wars in technology adoption.

Keywords: market transformation; technological change; ecosystems; competitive strategy; alliances; power; vertical integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orstsc:v:5:y:2020:i:3:p:193-217

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