The innovation dynamics in the Korean mobile network services: Focusing on the role of mobile network operator´s capabilities

Radical changes driven by overseas smartphone might weaken mobile network operators´ presence in the domestic market, but they are still active innovators in the market. The trend of convergence between devices, services and technologies within and across industries has offered a breakthrough for the Korean mobile network operators to continuously create new service products in the saturated domestic market. This study explores the mobile network operator´s dynamic capabilities for innovation by structuring innovation models of service design and delivery in Korea´s business-to-business (B2B) mobile service sector. We observed 151 network solutions services which are mainstream services of mobile network operator´s B2B service products. The findings of this research reveal that mobile network operators, as service providers, play a dynamic role in achieving innovation by recombining the existing technologies and components in service design or by delivering customized services for specific customers at the user/provider interface. Such capabilities of mobile network operators are represented as `recombinative innovation´ and `customized innovation´, respectively. These modes of innovation may not be achieved through long-term technological advancement, but can be drawn from existing resources by utilizing them creatively in modification or combination with new ones to develop a uniquely different service product.