The impact of e-retailer characteristics on initiating mobile retail services: A modular innovation perspective

Abstract

The rise and challenges of m-commerce have led to an urgent need to examine how firms adopt the emerging sales channel. Early studies mainly discussed the differences between e-commerce and m-commerce. Our study shows the modular innovation from e-retailing to m-retailing, which changes the core component of service delivery but keeps the operations intact, provides more opportunities for well-entrenched firms. Using a dataset of e-retailers, we find e-retail characteristics have an impact on firm`s migration to the mobile domain. Firms with online service competencies, economies of scale, and physical outlets are more inclined to exploit opportunities provided by mobile technologies.