Disruption and Social Media – Entrant Firms as Institutional Entrepreneurs

Journal article, 2014

Technological change often leads to competitive turbulence in established industries. Little is known about how the introduction of social media affects incumbent and entrant firms. This paper explores the impact of social media on the fashion journalism industry. Our findings show that entrant fashion bloggers have toppled incumbent fashion journalists. Through a netnographic analysis of published blog content, we argue that entrants have become dominant by transforming the profession of fashion journalism and in doing so, they have acted as institutional entrepreneurs. We argue that entrants are less bound by established institutional practices and that their ability to redefine the dominant logic of an industry can explain why they have outperformed incumbents.