INCUMBENTS’ FRAMING: THREE ESTABLISHED COMPANIES RESPOND TO THE INTERNET

The quest to explain how incumbents respond to changes in their industry is affirming the role that managerial cognition plays in those decisions. Recent empirical evidence suggests that anticipating the nature and timing of industry changes could increase the likelihood that the organization develops an effective response. Mounting evidence suggests also that such ability to anticipate and respond may depend on decision-makers’ prevailing and emerging cognitive frames. This raises a number of questions about the nature of those cognitive frames and how they impact the decision making processes and ultimately organizational response. In this paper we report the findings from three case studies of how established incumbents respond to changes to their industries brought about by the emergence of the Internet.