(Hidden) social influences in switching mobile service platforms

• Main Authors: TUUNAINEN, Virpi K., TUUNANEN, Tuure, NAH, Fiona Fui-hoon
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2012
• Subjects: Mobile devices; services and service platforms; Consumer switching behavior; Social effects; Network effects; Databases and Information Systems; E-Commerce; Social Media
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/10068; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/11068/viewcontent/HiddenSocialInfluences_pv.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

During the past few years, the mobile industry has gone through a radical change from business focusing on excellence in device manufacturing and supply chain management to ecosystems around successful focal players, such as Apple and Google, controlling these service platforms. In order to compete in this environment, these firms need to understand what makes a consumer switch between these mobile service platforms. To that end, we conducted an inductive qualitative study with university students from Finland and USA as subjects (142 altogether), delving into how and why consumers switch mobile phones, and what are the factors affecting their decisions. Our results indicate that tacit, or hidden, social influences are emerging as important factors that are intertwined with both same- and cross-side network effects in the mobile service ecosystems.