Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2018
  • Article
  • Strategic Management Journal

Threat of Platform-Owner Entry and Complementor Responses: Evidence from the Mobile App Market

By: Wen Wen and Feng Zhu
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

We examine how app developers on the Android mobile platform adjust their innovation efforts (rate and direction) and value-capture strategies in response to Google’s entry threat and actual entry into their markets. We find that, after Google’s entry threat increases, affected developers reduce innovation and raise the prices for the affected apps. Once Google enters, the developers reduce innovation and increase prices further. However, app developers’ incentives to innovate are not completely suppressed; rather, they shift innovation to unaffected and new apps. Given many apps already offering similar features, Google’s entry may reduce such social inefficiency.

Keywords

Platform-owner Entry; Entry Threat; Innovation; Complementors; Mobile App Industry; Digital Platforms; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Market Entry and Exit; Price; Innovation and Invention; Applications and Software

Citation

Wen, Wen, and Feng Zhu. "Threat of Platform-Owner Entry and Complementor Responses: Evidence from the Mobile App Market." Strategic Management Journal 40, no. 9 (September 2019): 1336–1367.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Feng Zhu

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • January 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Driving Efficiency and Sustainability at P&G China

    By: Feng Zhu, Philip Kuai and Billy Chan
    • November–December 2024
    • Harvard Business Review

    How to Avoid the Agility Trap

    By: Jianwen Liao and Feng Zhu
    • November 2024 (Revised April 2025)
    • Faculty Research

    Cheerful Music

    By: Shunyuan Zhang, Feng Zhu and Nancy Hua Dai
More from the Authors
  • Driving Efficiency and Sustainability at P&G China By: Feng Zhu, Philip Kuai and Billy Chan
  • How to Avoid the Agility Trap By: Jianwen Liao and Feng Zhu
  • Cheerful Music By: Shunyuan Zhang, Feng Zhu and Nancy Hua Dai
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.