CS-E5130 - Digital Business Management D, Lecture, 4.11.2021-9.12.2021

The Once and Future Kings of Personal Computing and Communication – Assignment Background

History of personal computing and communication has seen great successes, with firms riding the waves of creative destruction and technological life cycles – often to the top but also down the slope or failing to make the switch to a rising curve.

We’ve seen computing move from room- and closet-sized mainframes to first fit on a desktop, then portable, handheld, mobile and even wearable. Communication technology has cut its wires and become ubiquitous, available everywhere. 

The successful firms have clearly done something right in managing technological innovation and digital business – taking into account the specifics of Internet Economy and platform business models. 

In this assignment you are tasked with analyzing three major disruptions in digital business:

• How Microsoft gained a dominant position in personal computers (and Apple failed)?
• How Nokia gained a dominant position in mobile phones (and Microsoft and others failed?
• How Google and Apple gained a dominant position in smartphones (and Nokia and Microsoft failed)?

… and last, to provide your analysis for the best bet of what is the current or upcoming technological life cycle that a competitor could ride to usurp the current kings of personal computing.

Is it the cloud, 5G, wearables, social, AR/VR, metaverse, blockchain, autonomous vehicles, smart speakers – or something else? Or are the positions of the current incumbents unassailable (why)?

Deliverables & Deadlines

Your personal first task is to join a group in MyCourses.

Your group should then create and submit a case analysis report addressing the assignment content viewpoints described in more detail below.

The report should meet the following criteria:

• Submitted as a PDF
• Around 10-12 pages + excluding appendices (like reference list), cover page, table of context
• Single line-spacing
• Font size 12
• Used sources to be cited and listed as references following some consistent citation notation. Name-year notation for citations is preferred.

The Final Report submission is DL 23:00 on December 19th, 2021. Submission takes place in MyCourses as a group (one group member submits on the behalf of the whole group). 

Case assignment instructions

You are expected to study the three disruptions and provide a written analysis that addresses the four viewpoints described in overall below.

Your report should aim for an analysis based on the theories and concepts you have learned on the course and your own learning during this exercise – and not ‘just’ describe ‘what happened’.

Put effort on explaining your statements and conclusions, explicitly using the theories and concepts learned.

1: THE RISE OF MICROSOFT IN PERSONAL COMPUTERS

Discuss the background and analyze the reasons that enabled Microsoft’s rise during the era of personal computers becoming mainstream. Contrast these with Apple’s actions, a personal computer first-mover.

What were the technological and innovation life cycles involved? What was the role of patents and standardization? What were the systemic view reasons behind their success? How did they manage/participated in the(ir) ecosystem(s) and how it contributed to their success? How they exploited market failures characteristic to Internet Economy? What was the role of platforms, both in the technical and business model sense?

What were the three key factors in Microsoft’s success?

2: THE RISE OF NOKIA IN MOBILE PHONES 

Discuss the background and analyze the reasons that enabled Nokia’s rise during the era when mobile phones became mainstream. Contrast these with their competitors’ actions, and specifically Microsoft (their operating systems for mobile/handheld devices).

What were the technological and innovation life cycles involved? What was the role of patents and standardization? What were the systemic view reasons behind their success? How did they manage/participated in the(ir) ecosystem(s) and how it contributed to their success? How they exploited market failures characteristic to Internet Economy? What was the role of platforms, both in the technical and business model sense?

What were the three key factors in Nokia’s success?

3: THE RISE OF GOOGLE ANDROID AND APPLE IN SMARTPHONES

Discuss the background and analyze the reasons that enabled Apple’s and Google Android’s rise during the era when smartphones became mainstream. Contrast these with their competitors’ actions, and specifically Nokia and Microsoft.

What were the technological and innovation life cycles involved? What was the role of patents and standardization? What were the systemic view reasons behind their success? How did they manage/participated in the(ir) ecosystem(s) and how it contributed to their success? How they exploited market failures characteristic to Internet Economy? What was the role of platforms, both in the technical and business model sense?

What were the three key factors in Apple’s and Google’s success?

4: WHAT NEXT?

Apple and Google (Alphabet) have enjoyed tremendous success in the smartphone era. Are their positions safe, unassailable (why or why not)?

What could be the current or emerging technology life cycle a competitor could ride to usurp them? Will the threat come from newcomers or perhaps the other giants, like Facebook, Amazon or Tencent - or can Microsoft and Nokia topple them from their current positions of strength?

These readings include a wealth of information on the case but you may and perhaps should seek additional case information.

Readings

Alibage, A., & Weber, C. (2018). Nokia Phones: From a Total Success to a Total Fiasco: A Study on Why Nokia Eventually Failed to Connect People, and an Analysis of What the New Home of Nokia Phones Must Do to Succeed. In 2018 IEEE Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET).  PDF (under For Aalto users): Alibage-Weber-2018

Bouwman, H., Carlsson, C., Carlsson, J., Nikou, S., Sell, A., & Walden, P. (2014). How Nokia failed to nail the Smartphone market. In: 25th European Regional Conference of the International Telecommunications Society (ITS), Brussels, Belgium, 22-25 June 2014. PDF (under For Aalto users): Bouwman-et-al-2014

Cusumano, M. A. (2011). The platform leader's dilemma. Communications of the ACM, 54(10), 21-24. 

Cusumano, M. A. (2012). Platforms versus products: Observations from the literature and history. In History and Strategy. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Doz, Y., & Kosonen, M. (2008). The dynamics of strategic agility: Nokia's rollercoaster experience. California Management Review, 50(3), 95-118. PDF (under For Aalto users): Doz-Kosonen-2008

Doz, Y. (2017). The Strategic Decisions That Caused Nokia’s Failure. INSEAD Knowledge, November 23rd 2017. PDF (under For Aalto users): Doz-2017

Huy, Q., & Vuori, T. (2014). What Could Have Saved Nokia, and What Can Other Companies Learn? INSEAD Knowledge, March 14th 2014. PDF (under For Aalto users):  Huy-Vuori-2014

Huy, Q., & Vuori, T. (2015). Who Killed Nokia? Nokia Did. INSEAD Knowledge, September 22nd 2015. PDF (under For Aalto users): Huy-Vuori-2015

Laamanen, T., Lamberg, J. A., & Vaara, E. (2016). Explanations of success and failure in management learning: What can we learn from Nokia’s rise and fall?. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 15(1), 2-25. PDF (under For Aalto users): Laamanen-et-al-2016

Lamberg, J. A., Lubinaitė, S., Ojala, J., & Tikkanen, H. (2019). The curse of agility: The Nokia Corporation and the loss of market dominance in mobile phones, 2003–2013. Business History, 1-47. PDF (under For Aalto users): Lamberg-et-al-2019

McCray, J. P., Gonzalez, J. J., & Darling, J. R. (2011). Crisis management in smart phones: the case of Nokia vs Apple. European Business Review, 23(3), 240-255. PDF (under For Aalto users): McCray-et-al-2011 

Palmberg, C., & Martikainen, O. (2003). Overcoming a technological discontinuity: The case of the Finnish telecom industry and the GSM (No. 855). ETLA Discussion papers.

Shaughnessy, H. (2013). Apple’s Rise and Nokia’s Fall Highlight Platform Strategy Essentials. Forbes, March, 8. PDF (under For Aalto users): Shaughnessy-2013

Suarez, F., & Lanzolla, G. (2005). The half-truth of first-mover advantage. Harvard Business Review, 83(4), 121-7.

Overall schedule

Grading

Groups receive the same grade. Evaluation is based only on the final report. Group assignment grade is 50% of your course grade.