iBusiness, 2013, 5, 107-112
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ib.2013.53013 Published Online September 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ib) 107
The Research on the Key Success Factors of Mobile
Internet with Interpretative Structural Modelling*
Jiangping Wan1,2, Yahui Zhu1, Lianyu Liang1
1School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China; 2Institute of Emerging Industrializa-
tion Development South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China.
Email: csjpwan@scut.edu.cn, zhu yahui0819@q q.com, ja de_go@163.com
Received August 3rd, 2013; revised August 25th, 2013; accepted Aug ust 31st, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Jiangping Wan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
ABSTRACT
Today mobile Internet is a rapidly rising area. How to deal with the disruptive transition? This paper is intended to
study the success factors of mobile Internet with grounded theory and it is the result that 17 success factors are iden-
tified. Then the following top 10 key success factors are found out through the questionnaire: the user traffic and
scale, product and service innovation, keen market environmental sense, the user experience and business model in-
novation, core technology, the development of mobile terminals, e-commerce and online payment services, custom-
ized services and applications of cloud computing and big data. Finally, interpretative structural modeling (ISM) is
applied to analyze the relationship among the key success factors and the root key success factors of mobile Internet
were figured out, as they are product and service innovation, keen grasp of market environment, the user experience and
core technology. The results will be enlightened for the ente rprises of mobile Internet, mobile phone manuf acturers and
operators.
Keywords: Mobile Internet; Key Success Factors; Grounded Theo ry; Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM)
1. Introduction
As an emerging market, there is no stable development
model of mobile Internet. However, it is necessary for
the mobile Internet to find out its key success factors to
continue the healthy development, which relates to its
success or failure. The characteristics of the mobile In-
ternet include: quickly technological change, short prod-
uct life-cycle, fast improvement of product performance
and technology etc., which make the analysis and eval-
uation of the mobile Internet difficult to be quantified. In
order to solve this problem, interpretative structural
modeling (ISM) is used in this paper.
This paper is organized as follows: introduction and
literature review are in the first, and then the research
design followed. After identifying the influence factors
of mobile Internet with Grounded Theory, the hierarchi-
cal structural relationship among the key success factors
(KSF) is analyzed with ISM, to find out the root success
factors and their influence relation.
2. Literature Review
Mary Meeker, titled the “queen of the Internet”, the ex-
ecutives of Kleiner Perkins venture-capital firm, said in a
speech at Stanford University recently that the global
mobile Internet traffic was growing so fast that it even
exceeded the Internet traffic of desktop system in some
areas. Besides, the mobile industry was still in the early
development stage with great potential [1]. The huge
market prospect of mobile Internet attracts the telecom
operators, terminal manufacturers, Internet companies,
systems integrators etc., leading to the flourish [2].
Kate Matsudaira said: You want to make sure that
APIs return quickly and do not block while waiting for
results, since mobile clients have a limited number of
connections, and design your APIs to allow clients to
request just the information they need [3]. Nafaa Jabeur,
Sherali Zeadaly, Biju Sayed argued that 1) Along with
PC functions, TV, games, and business services are
available through mobile devices, wherever and when-
ever a user might want them. 2) Mobile devices are read-
ily discoverable by nearby people and social services. 3)
Even more services are expected soon, along with nu-
*This research was supported by Key Project of Guangdong Province
Education Office (06JDXM63002), NSF of China (70471091), and
QualiPSo (IST-FP6-IP-034763).
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IB
The Research on the Key Success Factors of Mobile Internet with Interpretative Structural Modelling
108
merous challenges and questions about privacy and data
security [4].
Nicholas C. Zakas argued that the best way to combat
latency is to use as few HTTP requests as possible for a
website or application. The overhead of creating a new
request on a high-latency connection is quite high , so the
fewer requests made to the Internet, the faster a page will
load [5]. Iris Junglas and Jeanne Harris argued that 1)
The usage of consumer devices and applications in the
workplace is a global phenomenon, however, it is by no
means a uniform one. Employees in Brazil, China, India,
and Mexico show disproportionally higher consumer IT
utilization rates in the workplace than any other markets
studied. 2) Employees in emerging markets believe that
using consumer tools for work boosts their empowerment
and, with it, their innovative nature—more so than em-
ployees in mature markets. 3) More employees in
emerging markets experience consumer IT as a produc-
tivity enhancer, making them more efficient and effective
at work [6].
The main steps of grounded theory are as follows [7]:
1) Theoretical sampling; 2) Collecting information; 3)
Coding information, and forming the concepts from in-
formation; 4) Continually comparing between data, and
between conceptions and between data and conceptions;
5) Forming theoretical conceptions, and establishing the
relationships between conceptions; 6) Building theory
and judging it.
ISM is based on the qualitative analysis, belongs to the
structure model and it can translate the fuzzy thought and
views into an intuitive model with good structure. ISM
work program can be div ided into the following steps: 1)
implement the ISM group, including technical experts,
coordinators and participants; 2) set the key issues; 3)
select the factors have influence on the key issues of the
system; 4) list the correlation of the factors; 5) establish
the adjacency matrix and accessible matrix, according to
the correlation; 6) breakdown the accessible matrix and
build the structure model; 7) establish the interpretative
structure model based on the structure model [8].
3. Research Design
Firstly, Grounded Theory is used to identify the factors
contributing to the success of mobile Internet, after read-
ing the relevant literature and reports about mobile In-
ternet in the recent years. Secondly, the hierarchical
structure relation among the key success factors of mo-
bile Internet is analyzed with ISM. And finally, the key
success factors and their relationship can be found out.
Other methods involved in the study include: 1) Depth
interview. Using Grounded Theory, interview the entre-
preneurs and experts in the field of mobile Internet with
in-deep situation, to confirm influence factors. 2) Ques-
tionnaire. Design the questionnaire with the possible in-
fluence factors and conduct the surveys with the senior
practitioners in mobile Internet industry, and cones-
quently the key success factors are acquired by statistical
analysis (Figure 1).
4. The Identification of the Influence Factors
of Mobile Internet with Grounded Theory
The influence factors to the success of mobile Internet
were identified with Grounded Theory. Taking depth
interviews, we understood the development status of mo-
bile Internet and found out the influence factors.
The five experts selected have the following charac-
teristics: 1) well educated, be able to accept and under-
stand new things quickly, and can express clearly; 2)
work in mobile Internet industry for more than 5 years,
and be familiar with the development of the Internet in-
dustry; 3) have a certain understanding of the related
technologies which mobile Internet need.
Through the continued comparison with the raw data
and the concepts, finally 17 factors were identified (Ta-
ble 1).
To be quantitative and standard, the influence degree
of the questionnaire is divided into five grades: critical,
serious, moderate, minor and negligible. Then critical
was given 5 points, serious 4 points, moderate 3 points,
minor 2 points, and negligible 1 point. We have sent 20
questionnaires altogether, and 16 recycled, all recycle
questionnaires were effective. The respondents include
experts in Op erational Department o f Tencent (8), Ningo
Students Studio (4) and the Department of Computer
Science, Georgia Institute of Technology in USA (4).
Through the questionnaire analysis, the descriptive
statistical analysis of each success factor was acquired
(Table 2).
Ten factors with highest mean value were renumbered
(Table 3). The top ten success factors of mobile Internet
L iterature a nalys i s
L itera ture a nalys isDepth inter view
Depth inter view
F in d the fa c tors th at c ontri bute to the s uc ce ss of mobi le
In terne t u si ng G roun ded Theory
Fin d the fac t ors th at c ontribute t o the suc ce ss of mobile
I nte rne t us ing Gr ounded T heory
Que st i on na i resurvey a n d d a ta a n a l ysi s
Questi onna ires urvey and da ta a na lysi s
F ind the key succes s fac tor s
Find the key success factors
Disc over the re la tionshipamo ng the keysuc ce ss factor s
Discover the re lationshipam ong the keysuccess fa ctor s
Conclusion
Conclusion
Figure 1. Research framework.
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IB
The Research on the Key Success Factors of Mobile Internet with Interpretative Structural Modelling
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IB
109
Table 1. The influence factors of mobile internet.
Factors Introductions
F1 User traffic and scale Whether mobile Internet profit model can be formed or not is depend on the user scale and the business flow.
F2 User consumption habit It is the key factors affecting the development of mobile Internet that cultivating the user consumption ha
b
it and using
habit.
F3 Product and service
innovation The formation of good profit model of mobile Internet enterprises, in essence, depend on the whether it can provide the
attractive, innovative and differentiated product or service to the customer.
F4 Keen market
environment sense
In the open market of mobile Internet, the market environment changes rapidly and the competition is fierce. So the
keen grasp of the market environment is benefit for the enterprises to build the differentiated profit model, according to
their development status, the ad v a n t ag e s a n d d i s a d va n t ages.
F5 Self-positioning of the
enterprise
While mobile Internet is in its infancy in China and many enterprises are still busy accumulating customers at the cost
of loss. Therefore, to explore the sustainable mobile Internet profit model is very urgent, and it needs mobile Internet
enterprises to position t hemselves correctly.
F6 User experience In order to promote the profit model innovation of and promote the prosperity of mobile Internet industry , the
enterprises need to be customer orientation, and f ocus on customer experi ence a n d b u s i n e s s model innovati o n .
F7 Innovation of business
model
With the maturity of mobile Internet, all kinds of business model will appear. As to the current business model, the
development of mobile applications shou ld be c on cen trated on. Business model is crucial for the sustainable
development and profit a b i l i t y of China’s mobile Internet industry in the future.
F8 Core technology As the leading force and driving force to the development of new med ia, te ch nol ogy is a basic question to mobile
Internet. Technology platform construction is the foundation of mobile Internet, relating to whether mobile Internet can
become the leading network.
F9 Provide both free and
value added service
Provides the basic services to the or din ary users for free, while offer value-added services to the VIP users with
differentiation demand. The former is more suitable for the current market env iro nment to meet the basic needs, and the
latter can meet the differentiated demand of users.
F10 High-tech technical
personnel High-tech technical personnel with strong recepti vity and core technology play a imp o rtant role in promoting the
development of the Internet.
F11 Development of the
mobile terminal The advantage of mobile Internet lies in how to make the best use of the mobile terminal. Mobile terminals exist in
everywhere in one’s life, as we have to use to mobile phone or tablet every day.
F12 Network Development In termsof the network, because of the enhancement of the wireless data transmission capacity, the mobile extending
feasibility of the application within the group is enhanced greatly, which makes the wireless big data transmission,
multimedia transmission possible.
F13 E-commerce and online
payment
E-commerce is the trend of the future, and with the development of electronic commerce these years, the real econo my
has been webified gradually. Mobile Internet era makes people’s life become more convenient, and may even overturn
the lifestyle of society.
F14 Business core
competitiveness
To promote the profit model innovation in mobile Internet, it is necessary for the enterprise to position correctly, to
focus on customer experience and business model innovation in the business, and to insist on cooperation, building a
good industry e c o s ystem.
F15 Customized service From the Internet’s profit model, it is clearly that only the products and service most closely to the users can be
charged.
F16 Available venture
capital Venture capital contributes to the development of high-tech industry, because it can reduce the risk in development of
mobile Internet enterprises.
F17 Application of Cloud
computing and Big Data Cloud computing and the term i nal will be the ser vers in the future, and mobile Internet enterprises can gradually
become a platform according to this strategy.
include: user traffic and scale, product and service inno-
vation, keen market environment sense, user experience,
business model innovation, core technology, develop-
ment of mobile terminal, e-commerce and online pay-
ment services, customized services and application of
Cloud and big data.
5. The Relationship among the Key Success
Factors
ISM method was used to analyze the relationship among
the top ten key success factors of mobile Internet. In or-
der to express conveniently and uniformly, “X” in the
The Research on the Key Success Factors of Mobile Internet with Interpretative Structural Modelling
110
Table 2. The descriptive statistical analysis of success factor
of mobile internet.
Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
F1 3.9528 0.56039 0.14010
F2 3.1787 0.65670 0.16418
F3 3.7111 0.71063 0.17766
F4 4.5434 0.68023 0.17058
F5 3.0139 0.42956 0.10739
F6 4.5673 0.50486 0.12622
F7 4.4321 0.79054 0.19763
F8 3.5434 0.70451 0.17613
F9 3.0022 0.40290 0.10073
F10 2.7673 0.68083 0.17021
F11 3.4853 0.60934 0.15234
F12 3.0906 0.54010 0.13503
F13 3.2487 0.75670 0.18918
F14 3.0544 0.57285 0.14321
F15 3.3067 0.62054 0.15514
F16 2.9133 0.43732 0.10933
F17 3.2015 0.64291 0.16073
Note: sample siz e N = 16.
Table 3. Top10 key success factors of mobile internet.
Coding Key success factors
K1 User traffic and scale
K2 Product and service innovation
K3 Keen market environment sense
K4 User experience
K5 Business model innovation
K6 Core technology
K7 Development of mobile terminal
K8 E-commerce and online payment services
K9 Customized services
K10 Application of Cloud and big data
cell was used to illustrate the row factor and the column
factor influence each other, “V” means the row factor has
influence to the column factor, while “A” has the oppo-
site meaning, and the cell in space means there is no rela-
tionship between row factor and column factor (Table 4).
According to the re sults above, an adjacent matrix can
be built. For the key success factor for mobile Internet
1, 2,,10,
iiK “1” means Ki is influential to Kj,
otherwise, “0” is used. So the relationship in Table 4 can
be expressed as the adjacency matrix as follows:
1245 6 78910
1
2
3
4
5
6
3
7
8
9
10
1000000000
1100100000
0111100010
1001000000
0100100100
0100111001
0000001100
0000000100
0001000010
0100001111
K
KKKKKKKKK
K
K
K
K
K
AI K
K
K
K
K







 








(1)
According to the formula:

11kkk
A
IAIAI

R
 
(I refer to the unit matrix), the reachable matrix is ac-
quired as follows with the ISM WIN 1.1 software:
1245 6 78910
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
3
1000000000
1100100100
0010100110
1001000000
0000100100
0000111101
0000001100
0000000100
0000000010
0000001101
K
KKKKKKKKK
K
K
K
K
K
RK
K
K
K
K
















(2)
The set for each factor Ki is obtained with the reach-
able matrix R:
1
ijij
PK Km
(3)
1
ijji
QR Km
(4)
ii
PKQK TK
i
(5)
i
PK is called to reachable set, namely the set o f all
the reachable factors from factor Ki.
i
QK , called ad-
vanced set, refers to the set of all the factors can reach Ki.
i
TR means the universal set, that is the set of all the
factors both belong to the reachable set and the advanced
set (Table 5).
The relationship description of the key success factors
above are not intuitive enough. To express the relation-
ship more clearly, the hierarchy is further analyzed (Ta-
ble 6).
According to the hierarchy of the key success factors
of mobile Internet, the ISM model of the key success
factors of mobile Internet is set up (Figure 2).
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IB
The Research on the Key Success Factors of Mobile Internet with Interpretative Structural Modelling
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IB
111
Table 4. The relationship among the key success factors of mobile internet.
K1
K1 User traffic and scale K2
K2 Product and service innovation A K3
K3 Keen market environment sense A K4
K4 User experience A V K5
K5 Business model innovation X V K6
K6 Core technology A A K7
K7 Development of mobile terminal V
K8
K8 E-commerce and online payment services V V K9
K9 Customized services V A
K10
K10 Application of cloud computing and big data A V A A A
Table 5. The reachable set, advanced set and universal set
of the key success factors of mobile internet.
Ki P (Ki) Q (Ri) T (Ri)
K1 1 1, 2, 4 1
K2 1, 2, 5, 8 2 2
K3 3, 5, 8, 9 3 3
K4 1, 4 4 4
K5 5, 8 2, 3, 5, 6 5
K6 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 6 6
K7 7, 8 6, 7, 10 7
K8 8 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 8
K9 9 3, 9 9
K10 7, 8, 10 6, 10 10
Table 6. The hierarchy process of the key success factors of
mobile internet.
Ki P (Ki) Q (Ri) T (Ri)
2346
Stage1, ,,
K
KKK
K1 1 1 1
K5 5, 8 5 5
K7 7, 8 7, 10 7
K8 8 5, 7, 8, 10 8
K9 9 9 9
K10 7, 8, 10 10 10
15910
Stage2,,,
K
KKK
K7 7, 8 7 7
K8 8 7, 8 8
7
Stage3
K
K8 8 8 8
8
Stage4
K
The root key success factors affecting the development
of mobile Internet are K2 products and services innova-
tion, K3 keen market environment sense, K4 user experi-
ence and K6 core technology. They contribute to the
middle layer of the interpretative structure model gr eatly.
For example, the keen market environment sense can
promote the business model innovation, and the devel-
opment of core technologies for plays a significant role
in the application of cloud computing and big data,
which then promotes the development of mobile Internet
terminal greatly. Eventually, the root and intermediary
factors directly affect the K1 user traffic and scale, K
8
e-commerce and online payment and K9 customized ser-
vice. They are the surface key success factors and are
relatively easy to be quantified, so they can be the intui-
tive measure of the development of mobile Internet. The
enterprises of mobile Internet, mobile phone manufac-
turers and operators can evaluate their own development
situation, according to quantifiable key success factors,
and then guide and plan the development of themselves
in the view of the root factors.
6. Conclusion
The top 10 KSF of mobile Internet is found out with
Grounded Theory: the user traffic and scale, product and
service innovation, keen market environmental sense,
user experience and business model innovation, core
technology, the development of mobile terminals, e-
commerce and online payment services, customized ser-
vices and applications of cloud computing and big data.
ISM is applied to analysis the root KSF affecting the
development of mobile Internet, as they are product and
service innovation, keen market environmental sense,
user experience and core technology. The enterprises of
mobile Internet, mobile phone manufacturers and opera-
tors can be enlightened from both the root success factors
and their influence relation. In the future research, the
results should be compared with other research results.
And are there many differences between developed areas
and undeveloped areas for the top 10 KSF of mobile
Internet? Are there many differences between China and
USA for the top 10 KSF of mobile Internet? Isn’t it that
he root KSF of the mobile Internet will change with t
The Research on the Key Success Factors of Mobile Internet with Interpretative Structural Modelling
112
Figure 2. The hierarchical structure model of the key success factors of mobile internet.
time etc.?
7. Acknowledgements
Thanks for the helpful discussion with Mr. Decheng
Dong, Mr. Daffy Yan, Mr. Haozhe Lee and Mr. Zirong
Yan etc. Thanks the support to the questionnaire from
Ningo Student Studio, Operational Department of Ten-
cent.
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