Factors influencing service innovation of MSNs in China: a theoretical and empirical research
| Published date | 18 September 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-09-2016-0106 |
| Date | 18 September 2017 |
| Pages | 368-385 |
| Author | Yang Zhao,Ruoxin Zhou,Yinping Ci |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information user studies,Metadata,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Factors influencing service
innovation of MSNs in China: a
theoretical and empirical research
Yang Zhao
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Ruoxin Zhou
Peking University, Beijing, China, and
Yinping Ci
Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the key factors influencing the service innovation of
mobile social networks (MSNs), figure out the mechanism of all factors in different stages of service
innovation and help mobile social application developers promote better service innovation.
Design/methodology/approach –From previous research, this paper adopted nine initial factors that
influencethe service innovationof MSNs, and divide theservice innovation processinto three stages (i.e.demand
analysis, service design and innovation implementation). On that basis, the authors constructed a model, and
then collected data from 184 managers from 20 leading MSN corporates in China through questionnaires to
examine the model. Furthermore, factor analysis was used to extract key factors influencing the service
innovationof MSNs, correlationanalysis was employedto discuss the relationshipamong factorsand regression
analysis was applied to explore theirspecific roles in different stages in the service innovation process.
Findings –The empirical results show that the service innovation of MSNs is mainly influenced by five key
factors: user, developer, market environment, social environment and technology. The authors found that
different factors played remarkably different roles in the three stages. In specific, all factors but technology
are important in the demand analysis stage; all factors but social environment are critical to service design;
and all factors but user contribute to the implementation of service innovation.
Practical implications –The results of this study can help mobile social application developers and mobile
social service providers in China to better understand the driving force of service innovation and what should
be emphasized in different stages, and then find the optimal path to implement service innovation, improve
their service quality and user experience and facilitate the development of Chinese MSNs.
Originality/value –This is the first research that comprehensively explores factors influencing the service
innovation of Chinese MSNs from multi-dimensional perspectives, which provides profound theoretical
guidance to the practice of service innovation in China. Also, it contributes to the development of innovation
theory of traditional web services.
Keywords Regression analysis, Factor analysis, Influencingfactors, Service innovation, Innovation stages,
Mobile social networks services
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
With the rapid development of mobile telecommunication technology and the popularity of
mobile terminals, mobile social networks (MSNs) have aroused people’s interests and
penetrated in their daily lives. Kayastha et al. (2011) defined MSNs as “an extension of social
networking where individuals with similar interests converse and connect with one another
through their mobile phones and/or tablets.”Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat are all
popular MSNs that are familiar to us in our daily lives. Compared with traditional social
networking on PC, MSNs provide benefits like better man-machine interaction and real-time
situation. With its help, users can generate or share content anytime anywhere, and the
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 35 No. 3, 2017
pp. 368-385
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-09-2016-0106
Received 28 September 2016
Revised 2 April 2017
Accepted 10 May 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
This paper was supported by Youth Innovation Corps Fund (Grant Whu2016020) and Independent
Research Projects of Humanities and Social Sciences, Wuhan University.
368
LHT
35,3
network can serve for people’s social needs and real life (Anderson, 2016). According to
the Report of Demand and Behavior Analysis of Mobile Social Users released by
Nielsen Corporation, MSNs have become an indispensable communication tool for many
people: more than 80 percent of mobile users use mobile social applications (apps) almost
every day, and the average time people spending on the apps is 2.5 hours (Nielsen, 2017).
As people’s daily lives have been infiltrated by MSNs in all aspects, user needs increase
constantly. They not only need to make instant communication, look for interest circles and
meet new friends, but also want to acquire convenient and useful services, and realize
profound interpersonal communications. Therefore, developers of mobile social apps are
devoted to improving their service pattern and providing more product functions as well as
promoting the innovation and development of MSNs services.
In China, MSNs develop fast. According to the 39th Report of China Internet Network
Information Center (2017), up to December 2016, China has 695 million mobile internet users,
more than 70.8 percent of which have been using mobile social apps. The top five mobile
social apps are WeChat, Tencent QQ, Sina Weibo, QQ Zone and MOMO[1]. Other than basic
social services, an increasing number of mobile social apps also provide value-added
services like local life directory, local-based service (LBS) and mobile payment service
(Chen, 2013). It has changed the friendship patterns and exerted a leavening influence on
people’s living and consuming habits. In Apple Inc. App Store (China), the number of mobile
social apps has surpassed 2,000 and new apps come online every week (App Annie Index,
2017). As we can see, the competition between these apps is extremely fierce. Although
mobile social apps have high download, the continuous usage rate is comparatively low.
It can be explained as the functions and services provided by these apps are almost
identical. Apparently, service innovation has become an essential to staying competitive.
However, research on the service innovation of MSNs is in its infancy. Most research
focused on the following topics: development status of MSNs services (Chen and Lu, 2014),
user usage behavior (Zhou and Li, 2014), service design (Kwon and Hong, 2012) and service
pattern (Chen,2013). For developers of MSNsapps, service innovation is thekey to improving
the services quality of products and the premise of improving user satisfaction and loyalty.
In the meantime, service innovation can help developers better integrate advanced
technologies into MSNs, which will provide users with intelligent, flexible and convenient
experience.Besides, service innovationhelps developers cooperate betterwith mobile network
operators, information service providers and manufacturers of mobile terminals, which is
beneficial to creating a good market atmosphere. Therefore,research on service innovation is
key to facilitating the development of MSNs. To achieve the goal, researchers and
practitioners are supposed to know comprehensively about the key factors influencing the
service innovation of MSNs, because the comprehensive understanding is the prerequisite of
realizing service innovation. Furthermore, most extant literature focused on thedevelopment
of MSNs overseas (Ahmed et al.,2014;Haet al., 2015) rather than the empirical analysis of
MSNs services in China. Therefore, a closer look at Chinese market will offer deeperinsights
and implications for the factors influencing the service innovation of MSNs.
The study reported in this paper will address the research gap and identify areas for
current serviceinnovation of MSNs to improveby exploring the following research questions:
RQ1. What are the main factors influencing the service innovation of MSNs in China?
RQ2. How do these factors influence the service innovation of MSNs in different stages?
Literature review
The development of MSN services in China
MSNs have been developing for a decade in China. At the very beginning, MSNs cast as the
extension of PC social networking, and inherited the product modality and service content.
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Service
innovation of
MSNs in China
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