Title: Influencing factors on the entrant's motivation and ability in the context of the disruption process: a cross-country study in the Western European PWLAN market

Authors: Stefan Huesig; Katalin Timar; Claudia Doblinger

Addresses: Technische Universität Chemnitz, Thüringer Weg 7, 09126 Chemnitz, Germany ' TSG - Telekom Shop Vertriebsgesellschaft mbh, Landgrabenweg 151, 53227 Bonn, Germany ' University of Regensburg, Universitaetsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany

Abstract: This paper explores how regulation affects the motivation and ability of entrant firms to create successful new sub-markets that are shaped by a potential disruptive innovation. We focus on the telecommunication industry, particularly on the hotspot sub-market, to study these effects in the context of a network industry. In this setting, the impact of a potentially disruptive innovation might be different because of the institutional embeddedness of incumbent and entrant firms. We examine this phenomenon by analysing the entrants' strategies and success of market entry into the hotspot sub-market in 17 Western European countries. The results indicate that the sub-market success of entrants in regulated markets depends both on the regulation and the resistance of incumbents to regulation in a specific country. The findings from this paper further contribute to the general understanding of disruptive innovation, suggesting that regulation can be a more powerful force than the nature of the innovation itself on market outcomes. Finally, for Western Europe's telecommunication industry, our results show a predominately sustaining innovation character of WLAN used as public hotspots.

Keywords: regulation; network industry; disruptive/sustaining innovation; telecommunications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTIS.2018.090708

International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems, 2018 Vol.6 No.1, pp.4 - 23

Received: 12 Dec 2016
Accepted: 10 Mar 2017

Published online: 27 Mar 2018 *

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