The Mobile Internet as Antecedent for Down-Scoping Corporate Service Portfolios

摘要

This paper investigates how technological innovations such as broadband mobile Internet and the development to performance- and search-based online advertising determine the corporate scope of established Internet players. Theoretically grounded in the resource-based view and the theory of dynamic capabilities and complemented by a contingency perspective, this study investigates an established Internet player offering domain trading and domain parking services. It finds that the widely appreciated, exogenous technological innovations of the mobile Internet act as antecedent of change in corporate scope and service offerings, which cause not only up-scoping, but also down-scoping decisions. Thereby, the paper contributes to the literature on resource- and capability-based opportunities in technologically changing e-business environments and complements prior research on exogenously driven corporate scope and e-business model developments.