Abstract
Mobile communications are permeating virtually every aspect of our lives. The market is experiencing rapid improvements in technologies, while mobile operators are trying to figure out new ways their infrastructures can provide services to the customers. Furthermore, userinnovation with new ways of using these technologies generates powerful feedback loops back into the innovation processes. In this turbulent environment it is difficult to capture and conceptualize how newness comes about and what the main characteristics of innovation are. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how the concept of interactive innovation can be applied to explain the development of mobile services. This study adopts the perspective of the developer rather than the user. Moreover, through the social construction of technology lens, the concepts of sense-making and bricolage are applied to explain the innovation appropriation process during the mobile data value chain improvement process. One of the conclusions drawn is that in the rapidly changing and complex context of mobile services development, the traditional notion of ‘interactive innovation’ cannot fully explain this phenomenon that takes place.
Highlights
Significant previous research efforts have explored how newness or innovation is communicated as best practices in social systems (Rogers 1983; 1995; 2003), how innovations can create competitive advantages for companies (Porter and Millar 1985) or even to transform industry structures (Porter 2001), how they can be explained through economic analysis (Avgerou and La Rovere 2003), how they emerge from the R&D process (Zaltman, Duncan et al 1973; von Hippel 1988), how they are turned into meaningful use in social practice (Bijker, Hughes et al 1987; Bijker and Law 1992; Mackenzie and Wajcman 1999; Tuomi 2002), how they are improvised and emergent rather than designed (Ciborra and Lanzarra 1994; Ciborra 1997), among others
We will identify the mobile services development process; identify possible influencing networks in the shaping process; conduct an empirical research to evaluate the relevancy of interactive innovation framework to the subject theme; analyse if the interactive innovation framework proposed in previous studies is suitable in the case study setting; and explain these findings in terms of the social construction of technology
This study focused on identifying the interactive innovation processes within mobile telecom services development, and the role of internal and external networks in the innovation shaping process
Summary
Significant previous research efforts have explored how newness or innovation is communicated as best practices in social systems (Rogers 1983; 1995; 2003), how innovations can create competitive advantages for companies (Porter and Millar 1985) or even to transform industry structures (Porter 2001), how they can be explained through economic analysis (Avgerou and La Rovere 2003), how they emerge from the R&D process (Zaltman, Duncan et al 1973; von Hippel 1988), how they are turned into meaningful use in social practice (Bijker, Hughes et al 1987; Bijker and Law 1992; Mackenzie and Wajcman 1999; Tuomi 2002), how they are improvised and emergent rather than designed (Ciborra and Lanzarra 1994; Ciborra 1997), among others.The concept of interactive innovation (Rothwell 1994) is an attempt to understand and explain how configurational technologies are shaped and knowledge is transferred among diverse networks in this context in a process of in- and out-bound network influences (Robertson, Swan et al 1996; Newell, S., Swan et al 2000; Swan, Jacky A., Newell et al 2000; 2003). 1.1 Aims and ObjectivesThe aim of this paper is to apply the interactive innovation concept for characterising the development of mobile services.We will identify the mobile services development process; identify possible influencing networks in the shaping process; conduct an empirical research to evaluate the relevancy of interactive innovation framework to the subject theme; analyse if the interactive innovation framework proposed in previous studies is suitable in the case study setting; and explain these findings in terms of the social construction of technology.One of the conclusions drawn is that the traditional notion of ‘interactive innovation’ cannot fully explain this phenomenon that takes place in a rapidly changing and complex context like the mobile services development environment.This section will draw out the main characteristics of research with innovation diffusion theory, and explore the areas of interactive innovation, organisational implementation of technology, networks of innovation, and the domestication of technology.The diffusion of innovations is defined for Rogers (1995) “as the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system”. The concept of interactive innovation (Rothwell 1994) is an attempt to understand and explain how configurational technologies are shaped and knowledge is transferred among diverse networks in this context in a process of in- and out-bound network influences (Robertson, Swan et al 1996; Newell, S., Swan et al 2000; Swan, Jacky A., Newell et al 2000; 2003). The aim of this paper is to apply the interactive innovation concept for characterising the development of mobile services. We will identify the mobile services development process; identify possible influencing networks in the shaping process; conduct an empirical research to evaluate the relevancy of interactive innovation framework to the subject theme; analyse if the interactive innovation framework proposed in previous studies is suitable in the case study setting; and explain these findings in terms of the social construction of technology. Most discussions about innovation in the past stressed a strong focus on the diffusion processes, considering users as relatively passive actors in relation to the adoption of technologies (Newell, S., Swan et al 2000)
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