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
