Modeling the Dynamics of Emerging Mobile Data Services Markets

Abstract

Like the Internet, a critical mass is essential in recovering the initial costs of development and deployment of mobile data services (MDS). Thus, MDS deployment must create new value and generate new behaviors in specific social contexts over time. Some behaviors of interest include making decisions to acquire the enabling technology, learning to use it, applying it, and then, by word-of-mouth, encouraging others to join in. This chapter examines the evolving MDS phenomenon and recommends a multimodal approach to research in emergent MDS markets based on recent findings. This work draws on field research by Nanyang Business School’s Information Management Research Center (IMARC) focused on the application of innovation diffusion theory to market segmentation. The authors also describe the enabling technology and applications, discuss the value propositions, and propose a model to segment the MDS market.