Critical Success Factors of Collaboration for Different Types of Industry Convergence

Diverse technological developments and evolving consumer preferences across the telecommunication, information technology and media sectors have altered the industry landscapes considerably. Industry convergence, based on technology and demand drivers, is an apparent trend in the current business environment and plays a significant role in shaping company strategies and operational activities. Industry convergence results in a new set of complementary capabilities and knowledge requirements for companies operating across formerly distinct industries and brings the growing number of collaborative arrangements to the forefront of technology management. From an academic perspective, convergence represents a special case of punctuation into the established equilibrium of innovation systems, and different types of convergence possess distinctive features that place demand on specific collaboration factors depending on the convergence environment. The new convergence context necessitates new operational management concepts and tools that heretofore have not been examined in the literature. The goal of this study is to differentiate types of industry convergence from the collaboration perspective and to identify the most important collaboration success factors for specific convergence contexts. The theory overview, conducted during the first phase of the study, provides insights into the concepts of industry convergence and inter-company collaboration. Critical success factors, required for effective collaboration in the convergence context, are deduced from the current academic literature. The second phase of the study constitutes the empirical test and validation of the originally deduced factors in the convergence settings of the ICT industry to address the research objective and find the success factors needed for different types of convergence. The current research reveals that different types of convergence bring specific collaboration factors into focus; and a statistical test between all possible pairs of types of convergence shows, in total, 26 statistically significant differences based on the success factors. Technology integration convergence is characterized by the technology push innovation approach and a focus on unique product features. Technology substitution convergence is brought to the market by the advent of radical technological change that threatens to substitute for existing firms‘ knowledge and capabilities. Firms should monitor new technology trends and constantly assess new technology potential in terms of customer and market needs. In the product substitution convergence case, companies leverage existing technological capabilities to add the complementary functionality required by customers. The key focus of the product complementarity type of convergence is often product interoperability and standards development activities. Such general collaboration success factors as trust, effective communication, clear collaboration roles and objectives should be the focus of managerial attention independent of the type of convergence. Findings generated from the study have the potential to broaden the understanding of industry convergence and provide valuable insights to managers who are engaged in daily collaboration activities. The success of an organization is based on its ability to anticipate convergence, predict the future direction of technology and market trends and build collaborations to enable successful innovation, new product development and new customer value creation. Understanding collaboration insights as a result of industry boundaries convergence may deepen the knowledge about constant interactions between the firm‘s operational activities, strategy and macro environment. Given the overwhelming trend of industry convergence, it is of eminent importance to study the effect of different types of convergence on the governance mechanisms of the collaborations

How to maintain the sustainable development of a business platform : a case study of Pinduoduo social commerce platform in China

At present, the ‘platform business model’ has indicated innovative potentials not just in traditional industrial sectors such as telecommunications, IT and retail, but also other sectors like social commerce. However, ‘Platform’ is not static as it is firmed at the beginning. Using Pinduoduo as a case study, this research conducts in-depth interviews and surveys in China to analyze the dynamic change of the platform provider’s role for successful platform operation via the lens of platform business models. As a “2.0 generation eCommerce platform”, Pinduoduo platform has become the largest social commerce platform in China with continuous growth at a high speed. The study found that stabilisation of the platform has experienced two stages: spread and evolution. At the spread stage, the role of platform provider focuses on forming “incentive to participants” through “Low price + Social contact” strategy and “Gamification + brand channel” strategy. At the evolution stage, the provider’s role is transformed into manager of products/services quality and revenue structure. Pinduoduo’s quality control is composed of three levels, including front-end quality control, middle-end quality control and back-end quality control. Besides, platform revenue structure strategies are sponsor-type. The purpose of this study is to enlighten the current players in the market on how they might utilize the underlying rationales in framework to further develop their platform business models. From the perspective of a platform, sustainable development of a theoretical framework is proposed based on these findings to facilitate future research in this area

Critical Success Factors of Collaboration for Different Types of Industry Convergence

Diverse technological developments and evolving consumer preferences across the telecommunication, information technology and media sectors have altered the industry landscapes considerably. Industry convergence, based on technology and demand drivers, is an apparent trend in the current business environment and plays a significant role in shaping company strategies and operational activities. Industry convergence results in a new set of complementary capabilities and knowledge requirements for companies operating across formerly distinct industries and brings the growing number of collaborative arrangements to the forefront of technology management. From an academic perspective, convergence represents a special case of punctuation into the established equilibrium of innovation systems, and different types of convergence possess distinctive features that place demand on specific collaboration factors depending on the convergence environment. The new convergence context necessitates new operational management concepts and tools that heretofore have not been examined in the literature. The goal of this study is to differentiate types of industry convergence from the collaboration perspective and to identify the most important collaboration success factors for specific convergence contexts. The theory overview, conducted during the first phase of the study, provides insights into the concepts of industry convergence and inter-company collaboration. Critical success factors, required for effective collaboration in the convergence context, are deduced from the current academic literature. The second phase of the study constitutes the empirical test and validation of the originally deduced factors in the convergence settings of the ICT industry to address the research objective and find the success factors needed for different types of convergence. The current research reveals that different types of convergence bring specific collaboration factors into focus; and a statistical test between all possible pairs of types of convergence shows, in total, 26 statistically significant differences based on the success factors. Technology integration convergence is characterized by the technology push innovation approach and a focus on unique product features. Technology substitution convergence is brought to the market by the advent of radical technological change that threatens to substitute for existing firms‘ knowledge and capabilities. Firms should monitor new technology trends and constantly assess new technology potential in terms of customer and market needs. In the product substitution convergence case, companies leverage existing technological capabilities to add the complementary functionality required by customers. The key focus of the product complementarity type of convergence is often product interoperability and standards development activities. Such general collaboration success factors as trust, effective communication, clear collaboration roles and objectives should be the focus of managerial attention independent of the type of convergence. Findings generated from the study have the potential to broaden the understanding of industry convergence and provide valuable insights to managers who are engaged in daily collaboration activities. The success of an organization is based on its ability to anticipate convergence, predict the future direction of technology and market trends and build collaborations to enable successful innovation, new product development and new customer value creation. Understanding collaboration insights as a result of industry boundaries convergence may deepen the knowledge about constant interactions between the firm‘s operational activities, strategy and macro environment. Given the overwhelming trend of industry convergence, it is of eminent importance to study the effect of different types of convergence on the governance mechanisms of the collaborations

Technology convergence and intercompany R&D collaboration: Across business ecosystems boundaries

Technology-based industry convergence brings forth new competence-destroying technologies, increases product complexity and drives companies to enter into collaborative R&D arrangements outside their current business ecosystems. The technology-based convergence context is classified as technology substitution and technology integration convergence types, and requires new collaborative competencies spanning business ecosystems that are not identified in the current literature. This paper explores the critical success factors (CSFs) of inter-company R&D collaboration in different types of convergence projects. The study finds that the convergence types are differentiated by their focal areas: product features, relative product advantage and market need orientation. We further discuss the important CSFs of the convergence types and provide insights for managers in our results.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Product convergence perspective on collaboration success factors

Convergence represents an important trend in today’s business environment and calls for system-wide perspective on interactions between technology, product, and strategy and operations management. In relation to the information and communications technology industry, technological innovations and changes in consumer preferences have led technologies and product features to partially merge. Two types of product-based industry convergence are identified in the literature: product substitution and product complementarity. To adapt to new business conditions, companies need to collaborate to get access to new competencies and knowledge for converged product development. This paper, using personal interviews as the research method, contributes to the existing body of knowledge on convergence and intercompany collaboration from an operational management level point of view by determining and comparing the main success factors needed for partnering under product convergence types. The differentiating factors are product features, relative product advantages for the customer and determining the company position in the industry value network.Peer reviewe

TECHNOLOGY CONVERGENCE AND INTERCOMPANY R&D COLLABORATION: ACROSS BUSINESS ECOSYSTEMS BOUNDARIES

Technology-based industry convergence brings forth new competence-destroying technologies, increases product complexity and drives companies to enter into collaborative R&D arrangements outside their current business ecosystems. The technology-based convergence context is classified as technology substitution and technology integration convergence types, and requires new collaborative competencies spanning business ecosystems that are not identified in the current literature. This paper explores the critical success factors (CSFs) of inter-company R&D collaboration in different types of convergence projects. The study finds that the convergence types are differentiated by their focal areas: product features, relative product advantage and market need orientation. We further discuss the important CSFs of the convergence types and provide insights for managers in our results.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe