Mobile digital infrastructure innovation towards a tussle and control framework

The 21 st Century is the century of digital infrastructures. The Internet and global mobile telecommunications infrastructures are increasingly converging at different layers. This paper is concerned with the understanding of the innovation of such converged mobile digital infrastructures. Digital infrastructures are established and operated by a heterogeneous collection of public and private organisations, each governed by own interests in the collaborative arrangement. The creation and distribution of value is collaborative, yet governed by conflicting interests. Two separate strands of research explore collaboration, conflict and control in digital infrastructure innovation. Research on tussles between participating interests emphasise the need to understand the complex relationships between collaboration and conflict. Research on architectural control points emphasises individual organisations’ ability to exercise control and generate value. So far these two research strands have not been subjected to a synthesis. The aim of this paper is to provide such an initial theoretical synthesis in the form of a tussle and control framework. The paper defines the concept of control points from a socio-technical point of view and applying this concept to an analysis of digital infrastructures, the tussles between stakeholders, and the discussion of value networks and innovative business models. This contributes to a finer granularity of the analysis of conflict, collaboration, and control on digital infrastructure innovation.