Mobile Tech: Superfood or Super Fad of Creative Business?

ABSTRACT Purpose: Creative agencies are well known for pioneering technological transformation due to its reliance on information and communication technology. Not surprisingly creative businesses are experimenting with mobile technology and increasing their investments into mobile business transformation. However, there is a lack of scholarly evidence about whether and how exactly mobile technology use facilitates or stimulates innovation practices in B-to-B firms. Is mobile technology a superfood or super fad of creative businesses? This paper aims to explore the mobile technology deployment and its role in innovation practices of creative B-to-B firms. Methodology: Innovation practices and mobile technology deployment are studied by interviewing business decision-makers from the 31 UK creative business-to-business agencies. The evolved grounded theory approach is used to analyze the interviews data as well as complimentary documents shared by interviewees. Findings: Applying a capability approach and innovation practices theoretical perspectives, this grounded theory research discovered that mobile technology is, in fact, a superfood that with the right combination of resources and capabilities delivers strategic benefits for creative B-to-B businesses. It is the interaction between mobile technology resources and mobile technology capabilities to stimulate and facilitate process and product innovation practices. Moreover, distinct three clusters of creative B-to-B firms have been identified, which demonstrate that depending on organizational commitment of creative businesses to mobile technology deployment, interaction between mobile technology resources and mobile technology capabilities can lead to both innovation practices, in particular process innovation practices only (Cluster A) and both process and product innovation practices (Clusters B and C). Practical Implications: The understanding of mobile technology deployment process that derives from this paper is particularly significant in showing creative businesses’ managers the real value in embracing mobile technology. Considering the clustering of creative agencies based on organizational commitment they have towards mobile technology deployment, this study signals that business decision-makers can deploy mobile technology to effectively manage operations or/and produce new solutions. Originality/Value/Contribution: This paper’s main theoretical contribution is in researching mobile technology deployment process using the capability approach. This study defines “mobile technology capabilities” as a firm’s unique practices employed in orchestrating mobile technology resources to create a competitive advantage. Mobile technology capabilities consist of five distinct practices that firms perform to combine and integrate mobile technology resources into organizational processes, namely learning, leading, transforming, leveraging mobile technology resources and solving problems. Moreover, this study is first to integrate conceptually innovation practices and mobile technology deployment by grounding this conceptualization in an empirical setting – creative agencies delivering advertising, marketing, digital design and digital architecture services.