The Rise and Fall of Superstars: Examining Mobile App Success from a Product Network Perspective

dc.contributor.advisorChoo, Kim-Kwang Raymond
dc.contributor.advisorLiu, Charles Z.
dc.contributor.authorJozani, Mohsen M.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberZhu, Hongyi
dc.contributor.committeeMemberLiu, Long
dc.creator.orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8953-3983
dc.date.accessioned2024-02-12T14:41:53Z
dc.date.available2021-08-27
dc.date.available2024-02-12T14:41:53Z
dc.date.issued2020
dc.descriptionThis item is available only to currently enrolled UTSA students, faculty or staff. To download, navigate to Log In in the top right-hand corner of this screen, then select Log in with my UTSA ID.
dc.description.abstractApp discovery remains a major challenge for app developers and marketing teams. In this study, I propose that mobiles apps inherently form a cohesive product network through the product recommendations offered by the platform, which exhibits interesting dynamics and can be used to understand the determinants of success in mobile app markets. Integrating the theory of Leader-member Exchange with the social network framework of leadership effectiveness from organizational network literature, a dynamic product lifecycle framework is developed to examine how the social network principles of Relations, Embeddedness, Structural Patterning, and Social Utility influence top chart appearance and position patterns of mobile apps. To validate the theoretical framework, I construct a comprehensive panel dataset with more than 1 million daily observations from 36,000 apps over a period of seven (7) months from both Google Play and Apple App Store. Through a wide range of econometric and social network analyses, I empirically show that the type of the network connections to leader apps significantly influences a non-leader app's chance to appear in the top chart and that the attributes of the virtual product recommendation network are strongly associated with the patterns of position change on a mobile top chart. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications for developers, platform operators, and marketing teams in the mobile app markets.
dc.description.departmentInformation Systems and Cyber Security
dc.format.extent96 pages
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12588/4190
dc.languageen
dc.subjectgoogle play
dc.subjectmobile app
dc.subjectproduct network
dc.subjectrecommendation system
dc.subjectsocial network analysis
dc.subjecttop chart
dc.subject.classificationInformation technology
dc.subject.classificationBusiness administration
dc.titleThe Rise and Fall of Superstars: Examining Mobile App Success from a Product Network Perspective
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.dcmiText
dcterms.accessRightspq_closed
thesis.degree.departmentInformation Systems and Cyber Security
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Texas at San Antonio
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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