Commercializing a Multi-Service Mobile NFC Offering
Abstract: This thesis explores service innovation and commercialization processes in a context that necessitates the collaboration of a large number of actors from different industries. Near Field Communication (NFC) services promise to revolutionize everyday life as an NFC-enabled mobile phone replaces the user's keys, credit cards and public transportation travel cards as well as enables new mobile services. Delivering on this promise, however, requires collaboration between actors from the mobile telephony industry, the finance industry, the public transport industry, and the retail industry among others. Reconciling the interests of all these actors is full of complexities.The main contribution of the thesis comes from describing the commercialization of a muti-service mobile NFC offering. The French Cityzi initiative, launched in Nice in May 2010, is the largest commercial rollout of mobile NFC services in Europe so far. This thesis describes the perspectives of several key actors involved in the Cityzi project: a mobile network operator (MNO), service providers in the key application areas of public transport ticketing and contactless payments, as well as two smaller service providers. Based on interviews and secondary data, the different actors' motivations for going into NFC, their strategic choices during the service development and commercialization process, and their NFC-related networking activities are described.The study suggests that the launch of a commercial NFC platform leads to network expansion as piloted applications move to commercialization and new service providers join the initiative. MNO resources, brands and business models are identified as key elements of a commercial NFC platform. These elements serve to structure the commercialization network but the beginning of commercialization does not mean the end of tensions. Discussions on branding and business models seem to be intensified by the move to commercialization. The using setting of service commercialization is strongly influenced by forces external to the focal commercialization net.
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