The Relationship of Competition and Financial Commitment Revisited: A Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis in European Newspaper Markets

Abstract

Research generally supported a positive effect of competition intensity on financial commitment into news production within U.S. markets. The authors test this assumption across European newspaper markets by applying fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. Although oligopolistic too, European newspaper markets reveal a somewhat different pattern. The market condition “high number of competitors” in combination with “high competition intensity” is a sufficient condition for financial commitment across the different markets in this study.