Platform business models : incumbent adaptation perspectives subsequent to discontinuous changes

Abstract

This thesis explored the impact of platforms on South African Banking, Telecom and Media industries, studying how the industry competes or collaborates with the phenomenon. Thus far, research focuses on non-existential threats, which allowed for long-term adaptation and scant evidence about incumbent adaptation under discontinuous changes. This research looked at two key questions: (a) how discontinuous changes impact incumbents; and (b) how incumbents adapt their exploration and exploitation balance subsequent to discontinuous changes. A qualitative methodology was applied to answer these research questions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with leaders and senior management involved in the organisational sense-making process to understand the phenomenon. Interview findings were analysed using thematic analysis to generate insights and meanings from the adaptation experiences. This study contributes to the literature by combing incumbent adaptation, discontinuous changes, and organisational design aspects based on in-depth interviews. There are four main findings: one, platforms were perceived as a threat, affirming past research; two, leadership assumes 3–5 years for full-scale adaptation before entirely disrupted, supporting past research in the domain; three, contrary to the literature, which expects increased exploration during discontinuous changes, Incumbents balancing their exploration and exploitation initiatives is a significant revelation; four, the transformation journey was mostly led by Top Management Teams (TMT), who preferred to run these initiatives as a separate organisation. However, these Incumbents are yet to achieve the much-talked-about network effects and the scale compared to digital-first ventures; whether their approach yields result or not, no Oracle can tell.