Abstract

Large organizations need to renew themselves to survive; yet most organizations fail in these efforts due to core rigidities as well as structural and cultural inertia. In this project, I will conduct three case studies exploring different large media firms all with a history of persistent innovation. Each firm repeatedly used different strategies (viz. structural separation, spinouts, and innovation ecosystems) to distance their innovation initiatives from the exploitation focus and traditional structures of the established firm; yet, they all managed to successfully gain capabilities from across organizational boundaries and reconfigure their firm to incorporate the new innovations. Building and extending theory mainly in dynamic capabilities, strategic renewal, organizational ambidexterity, and open innovation I am using process studies to explore these strategies and answer the broader research question: How do established firms innovate and renew capabilities?