Abstract

The hyper competition among rivals and enveloping threats from complementors are crucial external sources that influence app update strategies of B2C platforms. However, prior app-related literature largely focuses on factors affecting app performance, with scant attention on external drivers of the continuous app evolution, that is app updates. Besides, the results of app updates on market performance are mixed in extant literature. Therefore, this study is motivated to explore how competitive pressures from rivals and enveloping threats from complementors affect evolutionary rate of B2C apps and its subsequent effects on market performance. Our empirical study demonstrates that quick evolution of rival and complementor apps increases evolutionary rate of B2C apps. In contrast, a greater number of better performed rival and complementor apps decreases the evolutionary rate. Furthermore, we unveiled an inverted U-shaped relationship between evolutionary rate of B2C apps and market performance. The theoretical implications are also discussed.

Download

Share

COinS