Balancing Exploration and Exploitation Through Revolutionary Technological Change The Case of SVT’s Transition to Software-Based Production

Abstract

Public service broadcasting organizations fulfill an important societal mission in supporting democratic, cultural, and social objectives. However, public service broadcasters are increasingly subject to discontinuous environmental change. To avoid obsolescence and continue fulfilling their public service mission, they must balance exploitation of current operations with exploration of new capabilities and technologies. The purpose of this study is to develop a deeper understanding of how antecedents specific to public service broadcasting create and influence tensions between exploitation and exploration, and how different balancing approaches may be employed to manage these tensions. To address this purpose, the study examines Sveriges Television’s (SVT) development and implementation of the software-based production system Next-Gen Online (NEO) as an empirical case. The study employs an abductive qualitative research approach based on semi-structured interviews, observations, and documentary data. The findings reveal how environmental, inter-organizational, intra-organizational, and managerial antecedents influence both tensions and balancing conditions between exploitation and exploration. Furthermore, the study demonstrates how contextual ambidexterity, structural separation, temporal separation, and domain separation may be combined over time to manage these tensions. The study suggests that public service broadcasters that understand cycles of technological and environmental change and employ appropriate balancing approaches may strengthen their ability to adapt to future technological discontinuities while