Succeeding with contactless service innovations - strategic recommendations based on a comparative analysis of mobile business ecosystems in Norway

Abstract

Contactless communication technology in mobile phones (e.g. Near Field Communication) has a potential to simplify our everyday life by enabling services like mobile payment, ticketing, access keys and information sharing services. The recommendations in this paper are based on a comparative case study of previous mobile service ecosystems used in Norway. The findings of this study add insights into key success factors for the mobile network operator during the different business ecosystem evolutionary stages. The recommendations include the fact that mobile network operators can succeed in kick-starting contactless mobile payment services by taking a role as a trusted service manager, focusing on establishing the ecosystem and contactless payment service together with partners in the bank sector. Therefore, in an expansion phase the mobile network operator must open up for collaboration and connect with a portfolio of aggregators, merchants and third party niche players offering secure and high quality services and applications. The mobile network operator can establish contactless payment services as the market standard by creating barriers for competing payment service solutions.