Exploring the relationship between structural market conditions and business conduct in mobile data service markets

A firm’s strategic choices are represented in its business model. The choices made here can be evaluated by understanding the impact of those choices on performance such as adoption rate etc. However, the business model choices are affected by the market situation in which the firm operates. Thus, there is a link between market conditions, business model choices, and performance. This link was first formulated in the structure-conduct-performance (SCP) framework in the field of industrial organization. This framework links together the supply-side with the demand-side. MAPIT is a taxonomy for understanding the structural conditions under which intermediaries in online markets choose their strategies, roles and functions that builds on the supply-side of the SCP framework. In this paper, a set of case studies of mobile data service providers is analyzed and described using the MAPIT conceptual framework. The fundamental concept behind the business model choices analyzed in MAPIT is integration – vertically along the value chain and horizontally across value chains. For each case, we describe the relationships between specific structural conditions and the business model choices made by the service providers. Finally, based on the same conceptual structure we reflect more generally on the industry implications of the observations we have made in these cases.