Decision-Makings of CoPS Innovation Strategy, Power and Dominant Design - the Case of SKT and KTF

This study aims at examining each firm's decision-makings of complex product and system (hereafter CoPS) innovation strategy, so that it tries to reveal the nature and role of CoPS innovations strategy. And it designed a comparative case study along with qualitative methods, by having two mobile operators' digital rights management (hereafter DRM) innovation in South Korea's digital music service industry. Through literature review, this study formulated three research propositions: (i) Each firm's decision-makings of CoPS innovations strategy are analytical negotiation process among economic actors in an industry; (ii) Each firm's market power originated from its market share from the installed base through network effect and switching cost influence decision-makings of CoPS innovation strategies; (iii) Each firm's decision-makings of different CoPS innovation strategies are related to their intension of achieving better market power, consequently dominant design. Through empirical examination of two mobile operators' decision-makings of DRM innovation strategy, this study empirically verified three research propositions.