The rise and fall of Nokia Mobile Phones – Case background

Nokia was founded in 1865 and had transformed itself from rubber, paper, and cable industries to a provider of mobile devices and telecommunication infrastructure. Nokia rose during 90’s and early 2000’s to a global leader and innovator in mobile business. Nokia made the first hand-held GSM mobile phone in 1991, the first smartphone, Nokia Communicator, came out in 1996, the first 3G phone, in turn, was published in 2002. Late 90’s had seen many Nokia models with built-in cameras. Nokia poured money into innovation with number of patents and R&D expenditure peaking around mid-2000s and being among the biggest in the field. In 2005, Nokia sold its 1 000 000 000th mobile phone. Nokia took the #1 position among mobile phone manufacturers in 1998 and continued to hold the position for over a decade. 

Yet, from this leading position of strength Nokia’s mobile phone business collapsed and was sold to Microsoft in September 2013. What had happened? How was this possible? Could it have been avoided? 

In this case analysis your task is to analyze Nokia’s rise and collapse, using the theories and concepts learned during the course, and looking into both the internal environment and strategic decisions, and development and the changes and shifts in technology and business environment – all factors that may have contributed to Nokia’s success – and eventual fall. With the benefit of hindsight and learning, you are tasked to analyze what could Nokia management have done differently to save the company. 

We will post more detailed information shortly but you can already begin to work on the assignment by getting familiar with the case readings - but first read this article: https://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000005845497.html or under For Aalto users: HS-Siilasmaa-2018


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

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.

Palmberg, C. & Martikainen, O. (2005) The GSM standard and Nokia as an incubating entrant, Innovation, 7(1), 61-78, DOI:10.5172/impp.2005.7.1.61 PDF (under For Aalto users): Palmberg-Martikainen-2005

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

Wang, J., Hedman, J., & Tuunainen, V. K. (2016). Path creation, path dependence and breaking away from the path: re-examining the case of Nokia. Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 11(2), 16-27. PDF (under For Aalto users): Wang-et-al-2016


Overall schedule

Phase 1 - Rise and rise of Nokia (DL 11.11. 23:00)

Phase 2 - Time as the worldwide business leader - and signs of impending crisis? (DL 25.11. 23:00)

Phase 3 - Crisis and collapse of Nokia's business (+ DEBATE PREPARATION) (DL 1.12. 23:00)

FINAL REPORT SUBMISSION (DL 20.12. 23:00)


Grading

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

For the rubric used to guide us in evaluating the Final Report submission, see pdf: Nokia-Case-evaluation-rubric-2020 (under For Aalto users)



Last modified: Thursday, 29 October 2020, 2:02 PM