No "third way" for economic organization? Networks and quasi-markets in broadcasting

Abstract

We present two linked, longitudinal case studies of the use of quasi-markets in United Kingdom broadcasting over the past decade: one looks at the regulated outsourcing of programme making to independent producers, the other at the development of an internal market system within the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). New network forms are shown to have arisen from the interaction of legal regulation, contracts, and property rights. However, these organisational forms are also seen to be associated with increased transaction costs and with signs of deterioration in programme quality and innovation. We suggest that for such networks to be a viable "third way" between markets and hierarchy, closer attention needs to be given to the issue of institutional design.

Early independent production entrepreneurs in the UK television: pioneering agents of neoliberal intervention

“…The level of risk was potentially very high but this was cushioned in the early years of Channel 4 by the terms of trade which provided for a cost plus formula in awarding commissions alongside what was effectively business training. This was what Winter (2000) has described as capability learning for many of the new firms founded at that time, while Deakin et al (2009) have described this intervention as the creation of a quasi-market.…”

“…The aspirant producers -a new group of entrepreneurs -became the agents of change in this new broadcasting ecology. However, the economics of the sector lacked the drivers for scale until a series of regulatory This is framed by insights from the recent work on entrepreneurial firms and, for this industry, the tensions in the relationship of rents and opportunism (Alvarez, 2007;Williamson, 1991) within a regulatory regime which was initially established as a quasi-market to reap the supposed efficiency gains of free markets without affecting the beneficial structure of public service broadcasting (Deakin et al, 2009). Table 2 Study participants quoted in this essay 1 Male 20-13 entered TV in 1992 through a work placement then a series of freelance jobs as researcher/associate producer at multiple companies.…”

Vanishing hands? On the link between product and organization architecture

“…In some instances, a shift towards more integrated modes of organization was caused in response to competitive pressures rather than changes in the product's architecture (e.g., in several Italian industrial districts, Guerrieri et al, 2001;Paniccia, 2002;Cainelli and Zoboli, 2004). Another interesting observation put forth by Christensen et al (2002) and to some extent Deakin et al (2009) is that in some industries, modularity and disintegration were found to reduce product differentiation. The issue that remains open in these investigations is whether it is modularity causing this or its combination with disintegration.…”

L’approche morphologique des mondes de l’information : modèles et données pour l’analyse séquentielle de la personnalité des journalistes

“…Dans la télévision, l'externalisation d'un grand nombre de tâches consécutive aux baisses d'effectifs et à la recherche d'une plus grande adaptabilité aux variations des goûts de l'audience a conduit souvent à la diffusion paradoxale de programmes moins variés. L'introduction de la « compétition créative » entre producteurs de contenus à la BBC en 2007 à la faveur du programme Window of Creative Competition (WoCC) a par exemple eu cet effet dans les années 2000 (Deakin, Lourenço & Pratten, 2009, Turner & Lourenço, 2012.…”