Case studies of mobile commerce in Hong Kong and selected Middle Eastern markets

: roles and effects of inter-firm information systems on organization form choice

Abstract

Mobile penetration has been growing at an exponential rate over the past decade, Mobile services have become an integral part of peoples' daily lives beyond basic communication needs. Consequently, mobile commerce (m-commerce) has become an important phenomenon that is demanding more understanding from both academic scholars and practitioners. Amongst the key stakeholders in the value chain, mobile network operators (MNOs) were the first to lead in the development of m-commerce. NTT-DoCoMo's i-mode was also an early successful example of m-commerce in Japan, representing the case of MNO Portals. Recently, device manufacturers have also been active in launching mobile application stores (App Stores) following the global success of Apple's App Store. Both MNO Portals and App Stroes possess an m-commerce platform (mCom Platform) which is central to both forms of m-commerce deployments. With the research objective of providing researchers and practitioners with further understanding of current m-commerce implementations, a key focus has been placed on the roles and effects of the mCom platform (i.e., the inter-firm IS infrastructure between related m-commerce value chain players). This thesis is conducted within a conceptual model of Organizational Form Choice prediction based on combined theoretical framework of Transaction Cost Economics and Agency Theory. Thus, this thesis proposes two approaches: (1) to adopt a positivist approach deployed to test the predictive conceptual framework of Organization Form Choice prediction based on combined Transaction Cost Economics and Agency Theory, focusing on MNO Portals' and App Stores' implementations within the m-commerce scenarios, and (2) to apply an evaluative and analytical framework based on RBV to investigate the mCom platform as IS resource to provide further insights of current m-commerce scenarios in the market. In particular, to the best knowledge of the researcher of this thesis, no academic work has been conducted on m-commerce using the combined TCE and agency theory framework. This thesis thus contributes to the acamdemic literature by providing aditional theoretical insights with empirical evidence. In summary, this thesis aims to address the following gaps. It first provides further industry insights into MNO Portals and App Stores based on well-developed theories; second, it highlights the importance and impact of the mCom platform as an inter-firm IS resource; third, it applies the combined TCE and agency theory framework to m-commerce; fourth, it tests the theoretical framework with empirical case studies; and finally it provides comparative market insights on the advanced mobile market versus the developing mobile market, with a special focus on the MNO Portals and App Stores phenomenon.

Date of Award	15 Feb 2011
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Douglas VOGEL (Supervisor)