Understanding the diffusion of mobile services using stakeholder theory

Abstract

The adoption of mobile services presents enormous opportunities for all stakeholders in the mobile telecommunications industry and society as a whole. This paper uses qualitative evidence to assess the diffusion of mobile services in Australia. Stakeholder and transaction cost economics (TCE) theories are synthesized to provide a guiding framework from which mobile services stakeholders are identified and their interactions described. Interaction conditions, including demand uncertainty, complexity, asset specificity, and frequency, are evaluated in order to provide a diffusion context which enhances our understanding of the transactions that occur among the stakeholders of the mobile industry. We find that while mobile carriers are currently in a dominant position in the industry, in the future, content providers are likely to leverage brand loyalty to become influential stakeholders. This may affect the power balance between them. Both instrumental and normative actions undertaken by Australian stakeholders for the diffusion of mobile services are also evaluated. We find that diverse instrumental actions, such as knowledge building and deployment, subsidy, mobilisation, standard setting, and innovation directive, have been undertaken, but have been ineffective in driving the diffusion of mobile services. The normative actions and their impact on society at large are also highlighted.