Incumbent responses to disruptive business models : a case study from the German sports rights broadcastingmarket
Abstract
When disruptive technologies become incorporated in new business models (BMs) by entrants, they pose a significant threat to incumbents. But how do established firms respond to the entry of disruptive BMs? This thesis explores the issue by drawing on qualitative data from a case study in the German sports rights broadcasting market. Analyzing how Sky Sport adapted its BM to the entry of OTT (“over-the-top”) streaming service DAZN reveals that incumbents can respond with a threefold strategy of imitating the disruptive BM, defending the current BM, and creating new BMs. Moreover, the findings indicate that while these adaption strategies happen simultaneously, they are interlinked and depend on the resource complementarity from the incumbent’s existing BM. The study further identifies the specific underlying BM elements that the incumbent changes, providing managers in the pay TV sector with a comprehensive list of tools to innovate their BMs. The results contribute to literature on disruptive innovation (DI) and BMs.