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

Sammanfattning

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