Abstract

As the automotive industry transitions toward Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), competitive advantage increasingly depends on software integration, digital platforms, and ecosystem capabilities rather than manufacturing efficiency alone. This shift creates strategic challenges for vertically integrated firms whose historical hardware-based success may become a source of rigidity in software-centered ecosystems. Drawing on Path Dependence Theory and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, this study introduces the efficiency–agility paradox, in which organizational structures that generate operational efficiency may simultaneously reduce strategic agility during platform transitions. Using a comparative case study approach and archival data, this research compares Nokia’s failed smartphone transition with BYD’s ongoing shift toward software-defined mobility. The findings indicate that while vertical integration provides operational advantages and technological coordination, it may also create structural inertia that limits ecosystem adaptability. The analysis further suggests that ecosystem openness functions as a critical dynamic capability that mitigates technological lock-in by enabling external collaboration and platform flexibility. Nokia’s decline illustrates the risks of closed ecosystem dependence, while BYD’s future competitiveness will depend on its ability to balance internal integration with ecosystem openness. This study contributes to electronic business research by extending platform transition analysis from mobile ecosystems to intelligent mobility ecosystems and by proposing the efficiency–agility paradox as a conceptual explanation for incumbent firms’ strategic rigidity in software-driven industries.

Download

Share

COinS