The Mobile Internet as Antecedent for Down-Scoping Corporate Service Portfolios

This paper investigates how technological innovations such as broad-band mobile Internet and the development to performance- and search-based online advertising determine the corporate scope of established Internet players. Theoretically grounded in the resource-based view and the theory of dynamic capabilities and complemented by a contingency perspective, this study investigates an established Internet player offering domain trading and domain parking services. It finds that the widely appreciated, exogenous technological innovations of the mobile Internet act as antecedent of change in corporate scope and service offerings, which cause not only up-scoping, but also down-scoping decisions [1]. Thereby, the paper contributes to the literature on resource- and capability-based opportunities in technologically changing e-business environments and complements prior research on exogenously driven corporate scope and e-business model developments.

[1]  James Guthrie,et al.  HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND LABOR PRODUCTIVITY: DOES INDUSTRY MATTER? , 2005 .

[2]  J. Rifkin.  The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism , 2014 .

[3]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  Review: Information Technology and Organizational Performance: An Integrative Model of IT Business Value , 2004, MIS Q..

[4]  Avi Goldfarb,et al.  Online Display Advertising: Targeting and Obtrusiveness , 2011, Mark. Sci..

[5]  K. Zhou,et al.  Technological capability, strategic flexibility, and product innovation , 2009 .

[6]  J. Barney.  Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy , 1986 .

[7]  Jonas Hedman,et al.  The business model concept: theoretical underpinnings and empirical illustrations , 2003, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[8]  Arnold Picot,et al.  Reflections on societal and business model transformation arising from digitization and big data analytics: A research agenda , 2015, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[9]  Scott L. Newbert.  Empirical research on the resource‐based view of the firm: an assessment and suggestions for future research , 2007 .

[10]  Ting-Peng Liang,et al.  Consumer Attitudes Toward Mobile Advertising: An Empirical Study , 2004, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[11]  Vladimir Zwass,et al.  Electronic Commerce and Organizational Innovation: Aspects and Opportunities , 2003, Int. J. Electron. Commer..

[12]  Eric T. Bradlow,et al.  The Little Engines That Could: Modeling the Performance of World Wide Web Search Engines , 2000 .

[13]  Suresh Kotha,et al.  Continuous “Morphing”: Competing Through Dynamic Capabilities, Form, and Function , 2001 .

[14]  Clayton M. Christensen,et al.  Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change , 2000 .

[15]  Mutaz M. Al-Debei,et al.  Developing a unified framework of the business model concept , 2010, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[16]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Architectural Innovation and Modular Corporate Forms , 2001 .

[17]  Izak Benbasat,et al.  The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems , 1987, MIS Q..

[18]  Anindya Ghose,et al.  An Empirical Analysis of Search Engine Advertising: Sponsored Search in Electronic Markets , 2009, Manag. Sci..

[19]  E. Brynjolfsson,et al.  Wired for Innovation: How Information Technology Is Reshaping the Economy , 2009 .

[20]  Leyland F. Pitt,et al.  Integrating the smartphone into a sound environmental information systems strategy: Principles, practices and a research agenda , 2011, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[21]  Jairo A. Gutiérrez,et al.  An evaluation framework for viable business models for m-commerce in the information technology sector , 2010, Electron. Mark..

[22]  I. Cockburn,et al.  Measuring competence?: exploring firm effects in pharmaceutical research , 1994 .

[23]  Clayton M. Christensen,et al.  Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave , 1995 .

[24]  Louis Raymond,et al.  Resource-based view and competitive strategy: An integrated model of the contribution of information technology to firm performance , 2006, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[25]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments , 1986 .

[26]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change , 1990 .

[27]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  Inter‐temporal economies of scope, organizational modularity, and the dynamics of diversification , 2004 .

[28]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[29]  M. Pratt.  From the Editors: For the Lack of a Boilerplate: Tips on Writing Up (and Reviewing) Qualitative Research , 2009 .

[30]  Xiaowei Yang,et al.  Ads-portal domains: Identification and measurements , 2010, TWEB.

[31]  Sanjay Sharma,et al.  A Contingent Resource-Based View of Proactive Corporate Environmental Strategy , 2003 .

[32]  Theophanis C. Stratopoulos,et al.  Determinants of a sustainable competitive advantage due to an IT-enabled strategy , 2003, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[33]  J. Ricart,et al.  How to Design a Winning Business Model , 2011 .

[34]  D. Hoffman,et al.  How to acquire customers on the Web. , 2000, Harvard business review.

[35]  Andrea Everard,et al.  The effects of online advertising , 2007, Commun. ACM.

[36]  Harbir Singh,et al.  Asset redeployment, acquisitions and corporate strategy in declining industries , 1997 .

[37]  Michael A. Hitt,et al.  Antecedents and Performance Outcomes of Diversification: A Review and Critique of Theoretical Perspectives , 1990 .

[38]  Claudia Löbbecke,et al.  Pricing Quality Attributes of Internet Domain Names: A Hedonic Model for Words , 2014, AMCIS.

[39]  Louisa Ha,et al.  Online Advertising Research in Advertising Journals: A Review , 2008 .

[40]  J. Ricart,et al.  Competitiveness: Business Model Reconfiguration for Innovation and Internationalization , 2010 .

[41]  D. Straub.  Foundations of Net-Enhanced Organizations , 2002 .

[42]  H. Chesbrough,et al.  The Role of the Business Model in Capturing Value from Innovation: Evidence from Xerox Corporation's Technology Spin-Off Companies , 2002 .

[43]  R. Amit,et al.  The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future Research , 2011 .

[44]  E. Penrose.  The theory of the growth of the firm twenty-five years after , 1960 .

[45]  Sylwia Męcfal.  Recenzja książki. Robert K. yin, Case Study Research. Design and Methods (fourth Edition), thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2009 , 2012 .

[46]  James D. Thompson.  Organizations in Action , 1967 .

[47]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and environment , 1967 .

[48]  Howard R. Moskowitz,et al.  Integrating science into web design: consumer‐driven web site optimization , 2009 .

[49]  Lori Rosenkopf,et al.  Balancing Exploration and Exploitation in Alliance Formation , 2006 .

[50]  Erik Brynjolfsson,et al.  The second machine age: work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies, 1st Edition , 2014 .

[51]  Yves Pigneur,et al.  Clarifying Business Models: Origins, Present, and Future of the Concept , 2005, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[52]  A. Kaul.  Technology and Corporate Scope: Firm and Rival Innovation as Antecedents of Corporate Transactions , 2012 .

[53]  B. Wernerfelt,et al.  A Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1984 .

[54]  Chrysanthos Dellarocas,et al.  Double Marginalization in Performance-Based Advertising: Implications and Solutions , 2010, Manag. Sci..

[55]  Deepak K. Datta,et al.  Dumb and Dumber: The Impact of Downsizing on Firm Performance as Moderated by Industry Conditions , 2008, Organ. Sci..

[56]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Opportunity Costs and Non-Scale Free Capabilities: Profit Maximization, Corporate Scope, and Profit Margins , 2009 .

[57]  D. Teece.  Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance , 2007 .

[58]  Claudia Loebbecke,et al.  Moving to the mobile internet: analyzing Sedo's domain parking services , 2011, ICEC '11.

[59]  Jinwoo Kim,et al.  What's so different about the mobile Internet? , 2003, CACM.

[60]  C. S. Chen,et al.  Smart phone - the choice of client platform for mobile commerce , 2005, Comput. Stand. Interfaces.

[61]  Claudia Loebbecke,et al.  Commoditized digital processes and business community platforms: new opportunities and challenges for digital business strategies , 2013 .

[62]  Xavier Lecocq,et al.  Business Model Evolution: In Search of Dynamic Consistency , 2010 .

[63]  Thiagarajan Ravichandran,et al.  Effect of Information Systems Resources and Capabilities on Firm Performance: A Resource-Based Perspective , 2005, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[64]  Claudia Löbbecke,et al.  Extending Successful eBusiness Models to the Mobile Internet: The Case of Sedo's Domain Parking , 2013, AMCIS.

[65]  John P. Ulhøi,et al.  Business Model Dynamics and Innovation: (Re)establishing the Missing Linkages , 2011 .

[66]  J. Barney.  Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage , 1991 .

[67]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Theory Building From Cases: Opportunities And Challenges , 2007 .

[68]  Jaideep Anand,et al.  Redeployment of corporate resources: A study of acquisition strategies in the US defense industries, 1978-1996 , 2004 .

[69]  Martin Ford,et al.  Rise of the robots : technology and the threat of a jobless future , 2015 .

[70]  Michael E. Porter.  Qué es la estrategia , 2011 .

[71]  Stephen Shaoyi Liao,et al.  Combining empirical experimentation and modeling techniques: A design research approach for personalized mobile advertising applications , 2008, Decis. Support Syst..

[72]  J. Spender,et al.  The Resource-Based View: A Review and Assessment of Its Critiques , 2009 .

[73]  Arno Scharl,et al.  Diffusion and success factors of mobile marketing , 2005, Electron. Commer. Res. Appl..