Rethinking cross-border mobile payment ecosystems: A process study of mobile payment platform complementors, network effect holes and ecosystem modules

Abstract

This study investigates how and why the Cross-Border Mobile Payment (CBMP) platform complementor develops complementary CBMP ecosystems. Drawing on research into platforms and ecosystems, platform complementor, CBMP, and International Business (IB), we propose that the evolution of CBMP platform complementors follows a modular process driven by transaction costs and network effects. Data from a research setting of a CBMP platform complementor’s international expansion between 2016 and 2020 suggest that the positive and persistent network effect holes provide an economic incentive for the CBMP platform complementor to create ecosystem modules. However, the mechanism by which ecosystem members participate in the module and co-create value is that they create full chain accountability, absorbing the network effect holes and lowering the module’s transaction costs. We propose a modularized process model that explains the CBMP platform complementor’s evolution based on our findings. We believe that our study contributes to the IB studies and operations by exploring the new phenomenon of CBMP platform complementors, adopting innovative research methods by integrating modularization and process patterning analysis, and extending the traditional transaction cost theory to the digital realm by incorporating the mechanism of network effect holes to its application in the formation of CBMP task modules.