IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/124386.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Technological innovation, industry platforms or financialization? A comparative institutional perspective on Nokia, Apple, and Samsung

Author

Listed:
  • Kornelakis, Andreas
  • Petrakaki, Dimitra

Abstract

The puzzle of how Nokia lost the smartphone wars has intrigued recent scholarship. Despite Nokia’s dominant position in the mobile phone industry and its technological capabilities and reputation for strategic agility, it was completely wiped out from the market, only a few years after the launch of Apple’s iPhone. The article provides a comparative, historical and institutional account on the smartphone industry by focusing on three key players: Nokia, Apple, and Samsung. This perspective enriches earlier accounts that were overly focused on explaining Nokia’s decline by looking at internal organisational design and conflicts. We propose a two-pronged explanation focused on the reconfiguration of industry platforms and financialisation. The article suggests that single company histories could be enriched by integrating a comparative perspective that examines additional cases. We discuss opportunities for further research to understand how success or failure in technological innovation is embedded in a wider societal and institutional context.

Suggested Citation

  • Kornelakis, Andreas & Petrakaki, Dimitra, 2024. "Technological innovation, industry platforms or financialization? A comparative institutional perspective on Nokia, Apple, and Samsung," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 124386, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:124386
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/124386/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ronald Dore, 2008. "Financialization of the global economy," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 17(6), pages 1097-1112, December.
    2. Christensen, Clayton M., 1993. "The Rigid Disk Drive Industry: A History of Commercial and Technological Turbulence," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 67(4), pages 531-588, January.
    3. Lazonick, William, 2010. "Innovative Business Models and Varieties of Capitalism: Financialization of the U.S. Corporation," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(4), pages 675-702, January.
    4. Neil Rollings & Laurent Warlouzet, 2020. "Business history and European integration: How EEC competition policy affected companies’ strategies," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(5), pages 717-742, July.
    5. Cusumano, Michael A. & Mylonadis, Yiorgos & Rosenbloom, Richard S., 1992. "Strategic Maneuvering and Mass-Market Dynamics: The Triumph of VHS over Beta," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 66(1), pages 51-94, April.
    6. Andrew Popp & Susanna Fellman, 2017. "Writing business history: Creating narratives," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(8), pages 1242-1260, November.
    7. Arjan van Rooij, 2015. "Sisyphus in business: Success, failure and the different types of failure," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(2), pages 203-223, March.
    8. Ragin, Charles C., 2000. "Fuzzy-Set Social Science," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226702773, October.
    9. Ali-Yrkkö, Jyrki & Hermans, Raine, 2002. "Nokia in the Finnish Innovation System," Discussion Papers 811, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    10. Claudio Giachetti & Gianluca Marchi, 2010. "Evolution of firms' product strategy over the life cycle of technology-based industries: A case study of the global mobile phone industry, 1980-2009," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(7), pages 1123-1150.
    11. Saeed Khanagha & Shahzad (Shaz) Ansari & Sotirios Paroutis & Luciano Oviedo, 2022. "Mutualism and the dynamics of new platform creation: A study of Cisco and fog computing," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 476-506, March.
    12. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226702766 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Ali-Yrkkö, Jyrki & Kalm, Matias & Pajarinen, Mika & Rouvinen, Petri & Seppälä, Timo & Tahvanainen, Antti-Jussi, 2013. "Microsoft Acquires Nokia: Implications for the Two Companies and Finland," ETLA Brief 16, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paolo E. Giordani & Francesco Rullani, 2020. "The Digital Revolution and COVID-19," Working Papers 06, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    2. Tobias Kretschmer & Aija Leiponen & Melissa Schilling & Gurneeta Vasudeva, 2022. "Platform ecosystems as meta‐organizations: Implications for platform strategies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 405-424, March.
    3. Li, Xu, 2024. "When firms may benefit from sticking with an old technology," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120131, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Hahn, Katrin, 2019. "Innovation in times of financialization: Do future-oriented innovation strategies suffer? Examples from German industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 923-935.
    5. Cosimo Abbate & Alessandro Sapio, 2016. "Gazelles and muppets in the City: Stock market listing, risk sharing, and firm growth quantiles," LEM Papers Series 2016/33, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    6. Tomi Laamanen & Juha-Antti Lamberg & Eero Vaara, 2016. "Explanations of success and failure in management learning : What can we learn from Nokia's rise and fall," Post-Print hal-02276713, HAL.
    7. Kamini Gupta & Donal Crilly & Thomas Greckhamer, 2020. "Stakeholder engagement strategies, national institutions, and firm performance: A configurational perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(10), pages 1869-1900, October.
    8. Cheng, Cheng-Feng & Chang, Man-Ling & Li, Chu-Shiu, 2013. "Configural paths to successful product innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(12), pages 2561-2573.
    9. Markus Mayer & Markus Voeth, 2022. "Improving negotiation success in B2B sales organizations: is structured negotiation management a success factor?," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(2), pages 163-196, February.
    10. Mina Baliamoune-Lutz, 2004. "On the Measurement of Human Well-being: Fuzzy Set Theory and Sen's Capability Approach," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2004-16, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    11. Photis Lysandrou, 2016. "The colonization of the future: An alternative view of financialization and its portents," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 444-472, October.
    12. Kusa, Rafał & Suder, Marcin & Duda, Joanna, 2023. "Impact of greening on performance in the hospitality industry: Moderating effect of flexibility and inter-organizational cooperation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    13. Gary Goertz & Tony Hak & Jan Dul, 2013. "Ceilings and Floors," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 42(1), pages 3-40, February.
    14. Claudio Giachetti & Giovanni Battista Dagnino, 2014. "Detecting the relationship between competitive intensity and firm product line length: Evidence from the worldwide mobile phone industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9), pages 1398-1409, September.
    15. Elizabeth J. Altman & Frank Nagle & Michael L. Tushman, 2013. "Innovating Without Information Constraints: Organizations, Communities, and Innovation When Information Costs Approach Zero," Harvard Business School Working Papers 14-043, Harvard Business School, revised Sep 2014.
    16. Christian Dahl Winther, 2007. "Optimal research effort and product differentiation in network industries," Economics Working Papers 2007-19, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    17. Skarmeas, Dionysis & Lisboa, Ana & Saridakis, Charalampos, 2016. "Export performance as a function of market learning capabilities and intrapreneurship: SEM and FsQCA findings," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(11), pages 5342-5347.
    18. Arts, Bas & de Koning, Jessica, 2017. "Community Forest Management: An Assessment and Explanation of its Performance Through QCA," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 315-325.
    19. Grohs, Reinhard & Raies, Karine & Koll, Oliver & Mühlbacher, Hans, 2016. "One pie, many recipes: Alternative paths to high brand strength," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(6), pages 2244-2251.
    20. Jantunen, Ari & Tarkiainen, Anssi & Chari, Simos & Oghazi, Pejvak, 2018. "Dynamic capabilities, operational changes, and performance outcomes in the media industry," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 251-257.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    comparative capitalism; financialisation; industry platforms; innovation; technology;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General
    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:124386. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.