The Emergence and Scope of Complex System/Service Innovation: The Case of the Mobile Payment Services Market in Finland

Technological advances in the telecommunications sector have made it possible to conduct commerce and payments via mobile handsets enabling a new marketplace based on network technology to emerge. This new marketplace could expand the input and output markets for firms and benefit consumers in the form of time and place independent services. Mobile payment services can be considered a primary element in facilitating the functioning and growth of the overall market. In the European Union, the industry actors are expected to lead the way in establishing the new mobile commerce marketplace, where actors such as mobile operators and financial institutions, but also some new independent entrant firms have been interested in capturing the transaction centre role in the emerging marketplace. The book focuses on understanding the main factors and forces that shape the emergence and scope of the mobile payment system/service market and the nature (/business logic) of the innovation process from the perspective of a broader organisational field level. Mainly this is done in the light of how the key industry actors have tried to create the market up until approximately autumn 2005.