Configuring mobile app update strategy for growth: An empirical analysis of a landscape search model
Industrial Management & Data Systems
ISSN: 0263-5577
Article publication date: 22 January 2024
Issue publication date: 16 February 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This study attempts to discover effective strategies for mobile commerce applications (apps) to grow their consumer base by releasing app strategic updates. Drawing on the landscape search model from strategy research, this study conceptualizes mobile app update strategy as three interdependent decisions, i.e. what business elements are changed in an app strategic update, how substantial the changes are and when strategic updates are released relative to the competitive environment.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a field data set of 1,500 strategic updates of seven rival apps in the mobile travel market, this study integrated fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) with econometric analysis to analyze how app strategic update decisions interdependently influence app performance.
Findings
This study identified three effective and one ineffective mobile app update strategies from the mixed-method analysis, which verified the complex interdependency of app strategic update decisions. A general takeaway from these strategies is that a complex strategy problem on the mobile platform must be solved with respect to the constraints and capabilities of mobile technology.
Originality/value
This study moves beyond a linear view of the relationship between app update frequency and app performance and provides a holistic view of how and why app strategic update decisions mutually influence one another in their impact on app performance. This work makes contributions by identifying interdependency as a conceptual bridge between strategy and mobile app literature and developing an empirically testable version of the landscape search model.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos: 72101241 and 72293572), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) (No: G1323541816) and an Insight Grant from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Canada (No: 435-2017-0138).
Citation
Wang, F., Nan, N. and Zhao, J. (2024), "Configuring mobile app update strategy for growth: An empirical analysis of a landscape search model", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 124 No. 3, pp. 1155-1178. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-03-2023-0181
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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