Factors for revenues and market share growth in the mobile telecommunications industry

Abstract

This study explores the factors that influence the top line development of mobile telecommunication companies. First, it aims to shed light on the inherent differences between the two types of companies that compete in the mobile telecommunications industry, incumbents and attackers. Second, this piece of research also contributes to the ongoing discussion in the literature about the relative importance of factors, namely the environment-focused or the firm specific factors. To answer the two principal questions, regression models have been built based on a set of 15 factors including macroeconomic factors, regulatory factors, competition factors, industry specific factors, the time factor and company specific factors for a European sample of 141 mobile operators for the period 1999 - 2009. The level of detail helps to understand in depth the effect of each of the selected factors on the absolute size as measured by revenues, the size relative to the market in terms of market share and the growth of revenues and market share. The empirical results show that some variables affect incumbents and attackers in the opposite way. These are the regulatory factors, the competition factors and some industry specific factors such as the development stage of the market, the mainline penetration and the market price level. Then, there is another set of variables that differ in the strength of the relationship. Thus, the differentiated analysis generates additional insights especially regarding the effect of the company specific variables such as company age, company price level, customer value and customer usage. This research provides clear evidence that the aggregated market and industry specific factors influence stronger the development of mobile operators than their concrete strategic positioning as reflected in their company specifics and that their consideration creates a solid base for managerial decisions.