Dynamic structures of control and generativity in digital ecosystem service innovation: the cases of the Apple and Google mobile app stores

Abstract

Understanding complex dynamics of digital ecosystem service innovation is of key strategic interests of many firms. For example, the primary challenge for the mobile phone industry has been recently transformed from one of joint handset device and telecommunication service innovation towards one of global digital ecosystem development. Apple and Google have as new entrants gained a lucrative share of the market and competitors such as the Nokia-Microsoft alliance, RIM, and HP/Palm are all seeking to compete through their own proprietary ecosystems. The aim of this paper is to understand the structures underpinning the seemingly complex and emergent actions when stakeholders engage in service innovation in digital ecosystems and applies narrative analysis on a large corpus of web articles to understand service innovation within Apple and Google's digital ecosystems and applies narrative analysis on a large corpus of web articles to understand service innovation within Apple and Google's digital ecosystems. This identifies a set of core generative and controlling actions, the underlying structural relationships between these actions, and a discussion of strategies for combining these actions. Our results show the interactive nature of service innovations in a digital ecosystem.

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