Twitter as Disruptive Innovation in Sport Communication

Abstract

This Twitter Research Forum essay by Ann Pegoraro, one of the leading sport management and marketing scholars on social media, focuses on the need to study Twitter as a disruptive innovation in sport communication. Making a case that Twitter has disrupted the one-to-many, single-medium framework of sport consumption traditionally offered by television to the many-to-many possibilities of Internet-enabled sport participatory consumption, Pegoraro poses that Twitter’s disruptiveness is distinctive in that it was up to the users to define how this platform would be used. Noting varied response to research on Twitter and sport, it is argued that the research process and the building of theory is necessarily not a neat and tidy direct line process. In observing that much research on Twitter and sport to date has ported many of the categories of research agendas and key theories that have driven earlier research on media and sport, the essay concludes that the research process that has been started portends hope for future comprehensive theoretical analysis.

Sport and social media research: A review

“…Questionnaires were used in five articles (e.g., Eagleman, 2013;Hopkins, 2013;McCarthy, 2014;Walsh, Clavio, Lovell & Blaszka, 2013), qualitative data were collected in six articles (e.g., Abreza et al, 2013;Gibbs & Haynes, 2013;Hopkins, 2013;Kian & Zimmerman, 2012;McEnnis, 2013;O'Shea & Alonso, 2011), and content analyses were conducted in eight articles (e.g., Antunovic & Hardin, 2012;Clavio & Eagleman, 2011;Hambrick, Frederick, & Sanderson, 2013;Pronschinske et al, 2012;Sanderson, 2011;Sanderson & Hambrick, 2012;Waters, Burke, Jackson, & Buning, 2011). Other studies conducted social network analysis (e.g., Hambrick, 2012), or were developed as conceptual/reflective pieces (e.g., Billings, 2014;Butler & Sagas, 2008;Gantz, 2013;Garcia, 2011;Hardin, 2014;Hutchins, 2014;Pedersen, 2013Pedersen, , 2014Pegoraro, 2014;Rowe, 2014;Sanderson, 2014;Williams & Chinn, 2010) or case studies (e.g., Pfahl, Kreutzer, Maleski, Lillibridge, & Ryznar, 2012;McCarthy, Rowley, Ashworth, & Pioch, 2014;Schoenstedt & Reau, 2010).…”

“…Rowe (2014) also acknowledged that research on Twitter is still very much exploratory, and advised scholars to position the social media tool within broader capitalist and market forces in an effort to extend knowledge beyond current understanding. Pegoraro (2014) portrayed Twitter as a disruptive innovation and indicates that improved understanding of the platform relies on innovative and incremental advances in theory. Overall, these brief reflections provide sound commentary on research on Twitter (and social media), and the directions for research in this context introduced within each essay are well aligned with suggestions articulated in the latter portion of the current review.…”

Social media in marketing: A review and analysis of the existing literature

“…In this regard, Hutchins (2014) greatly supported the importance of examining the role of social media over different contexts to expand the existing knowledge toward such important issues of social media. In the same line, Pedersen (2014), Knoll (2016), Pegoraro (2014) and Rowe (2014) attributed the importance of addressing the related issues of using social media platforms to the innovative nature of these technologies as well as the current state of research over this area is over initial, exploratory stage which, in turn, required further interest and understanding. As well as, in their recent review study, Filo et al (2015) debated that despite the fact there is a good number of studies that have examined social media and its applications over different area of interest, there is still an need of proposing a theoretical model covering the most important dimensions that could have either positive or negative influence on the success of implementing such systems.…”

Innovating Youth Tournament Schedules to Minimize School Absenteeism

“…Instead, a disruptive strategic innovation lens is employed to challenge the traditional delivery of elite youth hockey tournaments. Here, a disruptive strategic innovation is a type of advancement that leads to a new way of doing business, one that is both different than, and in conflict with, the traditional way of operating (Charitou & Markides, 2003;Christensen, Raynor, & McDonald, 2015;Pegoraro, 2014). Some of the most highly publicized disruptive strategic innovations include Uber, within the taxi business (Christensen et al, 2015), as well as Twitter's impact on the distribution of news and communication between people in all blocks of life (Pegoraro, 2014).…”

“…Here, a disruptive strategic innovation is a type of advancement that leads to a new way of doing business, one that is both different than, and in conflict with, the traditional way of operating (Charitou & Markides, 2003;Christensen, Raynor, & McDonald, 2015;Pegoraro, 2014). Some of the most highly publicized disruptive strategic innovations include Uber, within the taxi business (Christensen et al, 2015), as well as Twitter's impact on the distribution of news and communication between people in all blocks of life (Pegoraro, 2014). Within the context of sport, one of the most widely cited disruptive strategic innovations has been the use of sabermetrics or advanced statistics in professional sport (Mason & Foster, 2007;Wolfe et al, 2007).…”