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Paper info: Increasing the cake and splitting it too: Interfirm relations through phases of technology and market developement

Title


Increasing the cake and splitting it too: Interfirm relations through phases of technology and market developement

Authors


Espen Andersen, Marie Bergliot Viken and Øystein D. Fjeldstad

Place of Publication


The paper was published at the 17th IMP-conference in Oslo, Norway in 2001.

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Abstract


This paper discusses the interfirm relations in an economy with strong demand sideeconomies of scale (network externalities) and scope (service complementarities). Inthe ICT business, the behavior of other, complementary suppliers in the hardware,software and service software market have significant effect on the revenues andtechnological innovation rate and pace of each firm. Moreover, there is aconvergence of technology and business models, in which the IT industry'stechnology is adopted by the telecommunications firms while the business models oftelecommunications companies are adopted by IT firms, that further motivates andcomplicates inter-firm relationsThe Norwegian and Nordic ICT industry, with special focus on the rapidly emergingmarket for mobile phone services is used to illustrate the unique nature of co-opetivecontext in this industry. This region, a leader in mobile technology development anduse, includes internationally competitive equipment manufacturing firms, operatorsand service providers, as well as consulting firms. These firms differ in business logicwith potential implications for both within group and between group implications forinter-firm relationships.A conceptual model of the mobile phone marketplace is developed, with reference tothe Norwegian market, to analyze and discuss roles, motives and dominant inter-firmrelation between the various actors.