Mobile telecommunications market innovation: the transformation from 2g to 3g

Current research focuses on the dynamics of mobile telecommunications market innovation from the perspectives of technology innovation or service adoption. However,because there is a mutual dependency between them, each perspective alone can only partly explain the pace and direction of change we currenly witness in this market. This research-in-progress combines them into one framework to pursue a holistic understanding of mobile telecommunications market innvoation. We examine the interrelated action and actor layers of the market change. In the action layer the market innovation is identified as composed by the infrastructure innovation and the adoption of innovation. The actor layer defines the social network comprised by providers, users and institutions. This framework allows us to find the mutual influence of infrastructure innovation and innovation adoption, and discloses how the mobile telecommunications market shapes and is shaped by actors in the social network. We use the systems of innovation approach, diffusion of innovation theory and institution theory to identify the roles of the actors involved in different stage of market innovation, and explain the motivation mechanisms for the actors. Based on the characteristics of our research, we draw upon hermeneutics to guide the research design. We aim to test the explanatory power of our framework by understanding the transition from 2G to 3G in Scandinavia.