Communications Policy and Industrial Dynamics in Media Markets: Toward a Theoretical Framework for Analyzing Media Industry Organization

This article introduces a theoretical framework that can serve as a conceptual basis for media economics research of the development of media industries. The framework incorporates dynamic expansion and contraction processes and the constant interaction between strategy, structure, and government policy. The focus in this article is on strategic behavior of firms in the communications industry. I posit that these organizations are part of a system of organizations. As a part of this system the communications firm changes and affects the structure of the system, but at the same time the organization is affected by this same environment. The capability of media organizations to develop, augment, structure, and adapt a bundle of internal and external competencies is the central organizing concept.