Document Type

Article

Abstract

Experts continuously predict that mobile technology would create new competitions in the business world and that all e-commerce would be on wireless devices in the near future. This technological trend indicates that Mcommerce has been envisioned to be a major force of business competition. To any organizational member in an institutional field, a more comprehensive understanding of M-commerce strategy would thus become critical. Since conventional wisdom emphasizes economic aspects of technological strategy, a more comprehensive understanding of M-commerce would need to incorporate social/political aspects of strategic choice because such social/political backdrops in an institutional field often shape an organization’s decision. Institutional theorists, for instance, argue that organization members’ decisions are often driven by social/political pressures in an institutional field, particularly when the environment is surrounded by emerging technological issues. With its developing nature, M-commerce well fits into such an uncertain context. Institutional theory could thus help better understand how social/political forces in an institutional field influence an institutional member’s decision. More specifically, this paper proposes that each of three isomorphic pressures, coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures, positively influences an organization’s M-commerce strategy. These propositions encourage business and technology decision makers to consider social/political factors embedded in their institutional landscape and in turn better shape their organizations’ M-commerce strategy.

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