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Is the clustering of audio-visual companies in London’s Soho really the same as the clustering of Berlin’s new media industry? The media cluster approach has gained a lot of attention not only in academia, but also in political discourse. But, as appealing as the media cluster concept is, one of the most fundamental issues is the comparability of t...
Citations
... However, even though TV2 is the largest media company and was the driving force behind the cluster formation (co-location), the cluster currently has large members from regional news media, the national public service broadcaster NRK, University of Bergen, and international software companies like Vizrt and IBM. Thus, the cluster could also be classified as a "specialized area" (Komorowski, 2017), as it consists of approximately 100 companies in the urban area of Bergen, specializing in media production and media technology, sharing a pool of highly skilled manpower and combined collaboration and competitive relationships and the informal circulation of knowledge. ...
... It is a single case study with a meso-level approach. Media clusters, as Komorowski (2017) and Komorowski and Fodor (2020) have documented, are different in composition and have various regional and national prerequisites. MCB is unique, and the historical and industrial specificity of the cluster must be recognized, as we have underlined in this study. ...
During recent decades new players, forms, and practices have been entering the journalism field, prompting a re-examination of journalism’s professional and organizational boundaries. Many scholars argue for expanding the scope of journalism studies beyond the newsrooms to encompass actors labelled as strangers, peripheral players, or interlopers. Those actors do not belong to traditional journalism but are becoming involved in the production of news, challenging journalism borders from the inside and out. Their influence has been growing and scholarship is increasingly mapping out these strangers and assessing their role in journalism innovation. In this article, we examine the role of one type of implicit interloper in journalism innovation: media-tech companies. We consider companies that provide video management and virtual reality services as implicit interlopers, due to their connection to journalism through the boundary object of news production and lack of claim over journalistic authority. We argue that media-tech companies have been under-researched based on a review of literature on innovation according to Holton and Belair-Gagnon’s (2018) typology of interlopers. Therefore, we examine what kind of innovation comes from the periphery of journalism, and the prerequisites for and the role of those innovations in the context of a specific cluster. We conducted a case study of Media City Bergen based on a thematic analysis of semi-structured elite interviews with executives of media-tech companies. Our findings show how media-tech companies bring innovation to production and distribution, content, and content consumption. Furthermore, they show how disruptiveness and the degree of innovations change with the maturation of the cluster.
... More detailed cluster classifications are also emerging, where the authors single out individual sub-clusters within a larger cluster (e.g., media clusters) [21]. In this case, the focus of research into creative clusters shifts to the level of an individual firm. ...
The formation of a creative economy in Russia, which is becoming a trigger for the economic transformation of “second-tier cities” into integrated creative spaces, requires revision of the existing theoretical and methodological approaches to the classification of creative cities. The purpose of the research is to analyze the existing typologies for creative cities in terms of the appropriateness of their use for the formation of a classification of second-tier cities engaged in reindustrialisation. The content analysis of foreign and national scholarly literature on creative cities enabled the authors, first, to systematise the existing typologies for creative cities, and second, to propose an original classification in accordance with the criterion of a possible implementation of the selected pool in the typology of Russian second-tier cities. The authors set the directions for further research towards the formation of a classification of second-tier cities based on the concepts of a creative city, creative cluster, and secondtier cities involved in the process of creative reindustrialisation aimed at subsequent practical application.
... Using the results of the qualitative research carried out, an attempt was made to assess and understand the role of the media in both citiesboth from the perspective of strategic objectives, entities responsible for infrastructure and media development, and as examples of good practice. Over the past few years, the case study approach has become popular among urban media researchers, for example, the method has been applied to the analysis of media clusters in European cities and selected urban spaces in Poland (Komorowski 2017). According to Wilbur Schramm (1971), the use of the case study is useful in research that aims to analyze decisionmaking processes and the circumstances in which a decision was made, how it was implemented, and what effect it had. ...
Purpose
The goal of this paper is to examine the usage of information technologies and media in two European case studies – Berlin and Warsaw. Findings from the research can be used to create urban policies and media infrastructure design, based on the different strategies of two European cities. Berlin and Warsaw have taken different paths in implementing the smart city concept, adapting the idea to their economic, historical, and social realities. Media are understood here as human-machine and machine-machine communications, and also in terms of both physical and digital media infrastructure.
Methodology
The research aims at examining strategies and institutions (both private and public) in light of the practical implementation of smart solutions by City Hall authorities. The study combines analysis of grey literature (news reports, corporate strategies, City Hall documentation) with qualitative research: 30 semi-structured interviews conducted with local municipalities and city planners in both cities.
Findings
Findings are likely to provide evidence potential drivers and barriers to the implementation of smart city solutions. The results provide evidence that media and information technologies in the city are implemented due to the data policies of entities that usually implement smart city strategy independently. The task of city authorities is to guarantee access to basic infrastructure, which is the basis for creating other solutions by private entities.
Practical implications
The empirical research is likely to provide evidence that Berlin and Warsaw have not yet fully appreciated the solutions based on communication between machines, but there is increasing use of ‘ad hoc’ solutions.
Social implications
This study may be used as a source of information for smart city managers, media infrastructure, and urban strategy with a focus on residents and information and communication technologies. Findings are addressed to media and urban experts and scholars, as well as sociologists, political scientists, engineers, ICT specialists, policy-makers, city managers and citizens.
Value
The study shows the growing importance of mobile devices, media-like services and ICT have resulted in changes in City Hall’s development strategies and new theoretical approaches through which the cities might be analysed. This study finds that networks, platforms and media infrastructure have been used to describe new ways of communication between city authorities, citizens and machines. It has been argued that fostering an advanced media infrastructure (soft and hard) has the potential to create “The Future City”.
... The governance of creative clusters requires combining two different fields: the creative clusters field as such, and the broad field of cluster governance, which often fails to acknowledge the specificities of creative clusters (Komorowski, 2017). The scientific literature has extensively discussed both themes, but mainly separately (e.g. ...
... Changes in the operational environment of creative industries have destabilised the equilibriums of legacy (i.e., traditional) media organisations during the last two decades (Küng, 2017b;Westlund, 2012). These changes include shifting to digital production technology and distribution, moving from mass production to coproduction, transforming broadcast media to convergent cross-media, consolidation and internationalisation of the media industry, and the creation of media clusters and organisational collaborations (e.g., Komorowski, 2017;Küng, 2017a;Picard & Lowe, 2016;Villi & Picard, 2019). As a result, the barriers to entry the industry have shifted and business models disrupted, originating complications for media companies' performance and profitability (Ess, 2014;Küng, 2017aKüng, , 2017b. ...
... The changes sweeping the media industry call for modification, if not reformation, of organisational forms, performance, and management practices of media work (Küng, 2017a;Picard & Lowe, 2016). The ample shifts within the context of media organisations implicate the need for reconceptualization towards more fluid and boundary-crossing collaborative approaches (Hitters & Richards, 2002;Virta & Lowe, 2017), which is evident in the growth of the media cluster phenomenon internationally (Achtenhagen & Picard, 2014;Karlsson & Picard, 2011;Komorowski, 2017). ...
Cross-sector collaboration combining public (non-commercial) and private (commercial) organisational orientations is considered an advantageous and dynamic strategic approach to shared value creation and co-creative innovation in disruptive operational environments of media industries. However, cross-sector collaboration features inherent complexities and organisational tensions due to the fundamental differences between the actors’ strategies and operational models. This article explores organisational tensions and dualities in media work in the cross-sector collaboration of media clusters. The qualitative case study examines the development of the management approach and practical operations of the Finnish media cluster Mediapolis, which aims to produce value, especially through collaborative content and concept innovation. The case study builds on extensive empirical material collected since the Mediapolis project started in 2011 until 2018. The analysis focuses on the management of complexities and organisational tensions in implementing collaborative strategies at Mediapolis, as well as managing the shared operations and work of the cluster. The results reveal tensions between the core dualities in developing Mediapolis as a collaborative arrangement between the participating organisations in practice, despite shared strategic-level aspirations. The findings elaborate on the dynamics of different organisational orientations and business logics, discrepancies between visionary planning and practical actions, and opposing organisational interests and strategies as sources for organisational tensions in collaborative contexts. The article contributes to both the theoretical and practical knowledge on organisational tensions and their management in cross-sector collaboration in media cluster development and provides implications for managing respective complexities in media work.
... Research on creative and cultural industries has been gaining momentum during the 21 st century (Berg and Hassink, 2014;Caves, 2000;Dalpiaz, Rindova, and Ravasi, 2016;Drake, 2003;Hesmondhalgh, 2002;Hesmondhalgh and Pratt, 2005;Peltoniemi, 2015;Pratt, 2008), and contributions have come from a diverse set of research domains such as marketing (Addis and Holbrook, 2010), organisation and management studies (Cohendet, Grandadam, and Simon, 2010;Cohendet et al., 2018), economic geography (Foster, Manning, and Terkla, 2015;Komorowski, 2017;Maskell and Lorenzen, 2004;Power and Hallencreutz, 2002), and sociology (Hirsch, 1972;Jones and Thornton, 2005). More specifically, questions focusing on why firms in the creative industries agglomerate have attracted scholarly attention, and we now know that clustering has an impact on reviving urban spaces (He and Gebhardt, 2014), creative and artistic practices (Ballico, 2017), and innovative capabilities. ...
Research on creative industries has been gaining momentum during the last few decades with contributions coming from diverse fields. This said, there is a paucity of studies to specify how and why companies in the game industry cluster. In this paper, we inquire into how individuals visualise perceptions of their game industry ecosystem in Helsinki, Finland, and Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo is one of the oldest game industry hotspots, whereas Helsinki has entered the picture only during the 21st century. Utilising drawings and their analysis and interpretation as our research method, in this paper we highlight the contested nature of ecosystems as arenas for collaboration and coopetition, shedding light on the diversity of ways individuals conceptualise an ecosystem. Our analysis yields four faces of ecosystems that help in understanding perceptions of clustering in the creative industries.
... Additionally, we acknowledge that media clusters form clearly distinguishable types of agglomerations, driven by different conditions. For instance, Hollywood is driven by other dynamics then Brussels' media clusters (Komorowski, 2017). Based on the elaborations above, we conducted a literature study investigating traditional and recent literature on industry and media clusters, while considering insights from other research fields with the goal to develop a new model that explains why media clusters function. ...
... The drivers are partly inspired by the media cluster typology byKomorowski (2017). ...
There is no consensus in the literature about how successful media clusters can be developed. Using insights from workshops and survey data, this study develops and tests a new model that explains why media activities agglomerate at certain places. The model consists of four economic drivers: urbanization, localization, agglomeration and perception economies. The findings emphasize that a one-size-fits-all policy regarding media cluster development is best avoided, due to the high levels of heterogeneity in the conditions for success.
... As Wieland et al. (2012, p. 13) explain, "a system view differs from a network view in that each instance of resource integration, activities, and value creation, changes the nature of the system to some degree, and thus the context for the next iteration and determination of value creation". While clusters form locally or regionally within national borders (Porter, 1990, p. 154), and agglomeration is one of the most important rationales (Komorowski, 2017;Picard, 2008), value networks and ecosystems are not linked to a region (Peltoniemi, 2004). Strategic networks and alliances most often include a smaller number of actors compared to ecosystems. ...
There has been an explosion of interest in ecosystem research. The 'ecosystem' concept in the literature is frequently associated with the fast-changing environment and platformisation of markets. This article explains why an ecosystem-based perspective can be useful in media economics and management research and in practice and defines and operationalises the concept in a model that can be used for empirical research and in practice. The model can be applied both from a micro (ecosystem player) and meso level (ecosystem) perspective to look at dynamics and interdependencies between media ecosystem players, as well as to plan or analyse value creation activities at three different levels.
... Despite the generally acknowledged benefi ts of creative cluster development and observations on the strong clustering tendencies of CCIs around the globe, there is little consensus on the empirical features and no conceptual clarity regarding the nature of the creative cluster (e.g. Branzanti, 2015 ;Komorowski, 2017a ). The (1) specifi c geographical scales, (2) sector focus, (3) features and (4) policy approaches of creative clusters are heterogeneously described and adopted. ...
... The governance of creative clusters requires combining two different fields: the creative clusters field as such, and the broad field of cluster governance, which often fails to acknowledge the specificities of creative clusters (Komorowski, 2017). The scientific literature has extensively discussed both themes, but mainly separately (e.g. ...
