Messaging specifications, properties and gratifications as institutions: How messaging institutions shaped wireless service diffusion in Norway and Japan

We address the following question: why have a large number of mobile services been successful in Japan but received only lukewarm response in Norway despite Norway’s lead in the late 1990s in wireless messaging? Current explanations are not sufficient in explaining this dilemma. We approach mobile service diffusion through the lens of new institutionalism by analyzing how messaging institutions emerged both on supply and demand sides that enabled and constrained mobile service innovation. A tripartite framework of institutional fields consisting of architectural service specifications, service properties, and use gratifications is formulated. Using secondary data we show that mobile service specifications in Japan integrated better interpersonal communication and data services and thereby allowed instrumental and aesthetic properties to align with expressive properties of messaging. In Norway disjoint service specifications caused service properties and gratifications to remain disconnected, which inhibited data service adoption and channeled data service adoption towards simple SMS based messaging solutions. Differences in service specifications and prospective gratifications not only account for differences in overall service diffusion, but offer valuable insights into institutional forces that shape complex mobile service innovation.