What is Mobile Business Models

Our chapter introduces an integrated way to look into the world of mobile offerings, referred often as m-commerce,- through a cross-country analysis of multiple applications in various countries in Europe and Asia. We investigated the role of four dominant factors - technology, government, financial incentives and culture - that influence mobile value offerings and connected them to Methlie and Pederson’s (2005) model of extrinsic and intrinsic attributes in mobile space. We found that there are many applications and services available that provide added value to customers, but an ill-defined business model prevents their successful realization. An unclear working relationship among the value players and their relative power position in the market also hinder the roll out of many services. The key findings from our research consist of-: i. the role of the four factors in development and deployment of m-commerce across multiple countries; ii. The level of influence of each of the four factors has on various applications; iii. the importance of value delivery, not merely the promotion of the “bells and whistles” of new applications, with a clear focus on a viable business model; iv. the role of socio-cultural differences in influencing mobile value applications and acceptance. In addition, we found that competition in the early phase of market growth is counter-productive and cooperative relationship between all value players is absolutely crucial for healthy growth of the mobile market and ultimately leads to a win-win situation for everyone.