Understanding the development and diffusion of mobile commerce technologies in China: A biographical study with an actor-network theory perspective

Abstract

Mobile commerce technologies cater to multiple types of users who use them for various purposes in a dynamic fashion over time. Their development and diffusion therefore involves many actors who participate in changing market configurations. In this study we address this complex sociotechnical setting by investigating the "biography" of mobile text messaging, an instance of mobile commerce technologies, in China. Specifically, we apply an actor-network perspective to understand the development and diffusion of text messaging over time and the changing actor configurations. This analysis was based on 1,403 news items pertaining to the Chinese telecommunications market, which were screened fro..