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Academic research on service innovation has highlighted the distinct characteristics of services innovation, the knowledge complexes involved, and how services can be autonomous sites of innovation. It also highlights that successful services innovations are often not technology based but can depend on new organizational or managerial practices or marketing and distribution strategies. This paper makes an empirical and a conceptual contribution to this literature by focusing on one sub-sector of the services sector: digital media applications and services. Conceptually, this paper is interdisciplinary and draws upon a range of work on innovation and production in media and communication studies, innovation studies, evolutionary economics, and sociology. Empirically, this paper draws on ten years of qualitative case study research focused on innovation in the digital media sector in Ireland and, to a lesser extent, Europe. More specifically, we draw upon research on the internet, mobile, and games sectors. A key finding emerging from this research is that, despite the widespread popular and academic focus on technology and codified knowledge, a much broader knowledge base (particularly tacit, creative and non-technological knowledge) underpins successful innovative practices in digital media firms. This paper examines the combination of creative ideas and skills, social learning processes of content creators, management, market and business knowledge that underpin the development new digital media applications and services. It argues that a better understanding of the character of knowledge inputs and the innovative practices in digital media companies may contribute to a better understanding of innovation in the knowledge economy.

This article explores how, in an era of increased globalization with respect to investment, trade and `flows' of certain goods and services, nation-states and cultural factors still play an important, if somewhat changing, role in relation to the development of content for new multimedia platforms. This article critically engages with the `global march of technology' thesis as it applies to the field of multimedia `content' applications. We define this multimedia applications field as both an emerging new media industry and a new cultural form which (like the mature media) offers a potential public space for the negotiation of cultural values and forms of identity. We are mainly concerned with the application of multimedia technologies for the production of cultural products aimed at final users in the home and the implications of current globalization trends for diversity of content and local cultures. The article also addresses aspects of national and EU public policies related to the support of the digital `content' industry. To explore these concerns, this article draws upon a detailed case study conducted over a period of two years in the Irish branch of a multinational software company. One team in this branch was involved in the localization of different forms of on-line information developed for the American market but reedited for different European markets.

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Purpose -Digital technological innovations are commonly perceived to be radically disrupting the power or role of corporate actors within the music industry and their established industrial practices and interests. In particular, the internet is widely regarded as having produced a ''crisis'' for the music industry. While such assumptions reflect the predominance of technological deterministic thinking in relation to the music industry, this paper aims to draw upon historical insights from past research on radical technical innovation processes to inform this approach to examining some of the key innovations that have occurred in the music industry in the digital era.Design/methodology/approach -This paper draws on a range of qualitative data obtained primarily from a recently completed Irish-based music industry research project, primarily comprised of interviews conducted with key music industry informants and personnel.Findings -Key findings indicate that ongoing legal innovations, combined with the widespread adoption of social networking sites and other online content platforms are (amongst other factors) serving to maintain and bolster the position of major music copyright owners.Originality/value -In the context of the contemporary ''knowledge economy'', the authors propose paying special attention to one specific area of policy innovation -that related to the intellectual property rights (IPRs) regime. In particular, they place emphasis on the copyright strand of IPRs in shaping the outcome of digital platforms for the promotion and dissemination of music. In doing this, they consider the evolution of a re-configured music industry ''structure'' which re-conceptualises the music artist as an ''all-encompassing bundle'' of rights through which a diverse range of revenue streams are increasingly streamlined back to a small handful of major copyright owners.