Organizational Strategies used to Adapt to the Digital Innovation within the Marketing Industry: A Case Study of a Norwegian Media Agency and Media Network

Abstract

This study investigates organizational strategies used to adapt to the digital innovation within the marketing industry, through an interpretative case study of a large Norwegian media agency, as part of a large Norwegian media network. Data was collected through documentation, archival records, interviews, and informal discussions. We view the changes as a part of and a result of the ongoing platformization processes within multiple industries. We view the digital marketing industry as an information infrastructure, made up of subsets of smaller information infrastructures and software platform ecosystems. We combine insights on platform theory and information infrastructure theory anchored within information systems research and offer two main contributions to existing research. We identify, describe, and discuss a contribution to a theory regarding the platform organization first described by Ciborra in 1996. Then, we propose a new definition to complement the existing, in an attempt to highlight the value offering of the organizational platform in a digital landscape. Our second contribution is related to the value offering of the platform organization. We identify a mechanism related to how the platform organization is adapting to the pace of disruption facilitated by the innovative properties of platform ecosystems and information infrastructures.