Mobile application ecosystems from the application developers' perspectives: the cases of App Store and Android Market

Objectives The study provides an insight into the mobile application ecosystems which are shaped around the novel phenomenon of app stores. It investigates the important factors that application developers perceive in their interactions with these ecosystems. The motivation for the study stems from scarcity of earlier research on the app stores despite their considerable impact on restructuring of the global mobile industry. The aim is to understand the current structure of the ecosystems, and to find out the factors that application developers find important during their activities on these ecosystems. Methodology The study undertakes a multiple-case study approach by focusing on the application ecosystems that have shaped around the two largest market players (i.e. App Store by Apple, and Android Market by Google). The empirical data are collected by an original data gathering method on the Internet with is supported by concurrent data analysis. The method allows for collecting immediate, in-depth qualitative data from a large number of developers all across the world. Findings Findings are twofold: 1) The study shows that in the current structure of mobile application ecosystems, platform providers, as the keystones, hold most of the traditional roles of the industry into their app stores’ technological settings. As a critique to the current literature on business ecosystems, the study indicates that the platform providers can apply high entry barriers to the ecosystem for developers even at the early stages of evolution if assured of their app stores’ benefits. Additionally, the study contributes to the current literature by introducing a new strategy for integration of application distribution process (semi-integration) which is applied by Google. 2) The study finds that application developers are highly influenced by the network effects on the app stores, and suggests that the cross-side network effect has a stronger effect on developers’ behaviors. The study contributes to the current research on app stores via empirically supported findings on developers’ perspectives. It outlines developers’ requests for: a reasonable entry barrier to the ecosystem that allows the qualified developers in; a comprehensive documentation affording the expectations of beginner to advanced developers; a flawless development platform with facilities for memory management and fast testing of applications; and a fast review process for quality control of the published applications. It also confirms that the potential for the global economy of scale of a platform is highly acknowledged by developers in their attitudes towards the application ecosystem

UTILIZATION OF ACCELERATOR FACILITIES IN MOBILE APP DEVELOPER STARTUPS

This interpretive grounded theory study describes and analyses how early-stage mobile app developer startups utilize an accelerator’s facilities to develop and publish their game applications on a platform. The data was collected by interviewing 20 startups participating in an accelerator operated by a mobile platform-owner. Our model shows that the accelerator is affecting our early-stage startups in five areas of: their 1) market-related activities, 2) resources, 3) startup’s capabilities, 4) experimenting activities, and 5) game design activities. We discuss how the startups utilize the accelerator’s facilities to improve their capabilities and knowledge inside their firms which can affect their game design, access to resources, and improve their market-related activities. Furthermore, they make the accelerator into a social boundary resource through which they aim 1) to collaborate with and impact the platform decisions more effectively, and 2) to gain access to resources from other members of the ecosystem, in order to increase the chance of acquiring more users and building a reputation for entering other platforms. Our study enriches the existing literature in the areas of mobile application development and accelerators by shedding light on the game development activities of early-stage startups that have been selected to a platform-owned accelerator. Keywords: Mobile App Development, Boundary Resource, Accelerators, Grounded Theory study

Dynamics of Success for Early-Stage Mobile Game Startups

Mobile platforms offer an opportunity for creating and distributing apps through app stores. Many developers, in the form of startups, have joined these platforms with economic motivations. However, they face several challenges on the way to creating a business. Firstly, the startup nature of the businesses implies a scarcity of financial resources and a dearth of business experience in developing and selling apps. Secondly, the popularity of the platforms has resulted in fierce competition among apps, hence difficulty in bringing an app to the attention of users. Thirdly, the startups are compelled to operate within the app store structures under the market-making rules of the platform owner. Finally, the contextual factors related to the type of an app may create additional difficulties. For example, game developers must cope with the heterogeneity of users' expectations, users' reluctance to wait for a game to be fixed in the case of problems, and the mainstream freemium monetization model which makes revenue-making more complex.  This dissertation explains how early-stage mobile game startups operate in order to succeed. It uses the qualitative classic Grounded Theory Methodology for both analyzing and theory building. The data is collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 international game startups that were participating in a business accelerator – founded by a platform-owner – in Finland. The main research question asks 'What are the dynamics of success for early-stage mobile game startups?' The two more specific research questions ask how startups utilize the facilities of an accelerator, and how they excel in the market after publishing their games.  The theoretical contributions of the dissertation are threefold. Firstly, it contributes to the literature on the role of the platform owner in the activities of startups. It discusses the role of the accelerator as a social boundary resource in improving the capabilities of startups in terms of game design, access to resources, and improved market activities, as well as providing an opportunity for the startups to impact the platform owner's decisions and to access resources from other members of the ecosystem. Secondly, it contributes to the literature on experimentation in software startups by explaining how mobile game startups follow an experimentation approach and use game analytics to discover areas of improvement and new potential markets. Thirdly, the developed theoretical model of 'dynamics of success for early-stage mobile game startups' explains that by utilizing the accelerator's facilities and taking an experimentation approach, startups aimed to iteratively raise game quality, visibility and user engagement in the pursuit of initial success for future expansion to other platforms. Moreover, the findings provide practical implications for mobile game developers, platform owners and business accelerators

Rebuilding Trust in Cryptocurrency Exchanges after Cyber-attacks

Cryptocurrency exchanges are subjected to cyber-attacks and cryptocurrencies worth millions of US dollars are lost every year. The value of cryptocurrencies is volatile and the cyber-attacks on the exchanges make them even more volatile. Whenever these cyber-attacks happen, the customers might lose their trust not only on a given exchange but also on cryptocurrencies in general. Hence, the exchanges need to rebuild trust among their current and potential customers after a cyber-attack. In this paper, we present findings from a study on cyber-attacks on seven different exchanges, focusing on how they responded after the cyber-attacks to rebuild customers’ trust. Analyzing the responses of current and potential customers to the trust rebuilding techniques used by the exchanges, we also assessed the efficiency of these techniques.Peer reviewe