Mashup network ecosystem structure: A driving force of competitive actions

Over the last decade, the Internet has played host to an explosion of developer innovation in the form of mashups. However, few empirical studies have explored the nature of competition within the mashup ecosystem, which grows by virtue of developers' independent choices and where API providers function as both competitors and complementors. This study explores competitive dynamics and social network analysis within the context of the mashup ecosystem. Hypotheses propose associations between competitive action and network structure constructs. 1277 blog postings are analyzed to collect competitive actions taken by 8 mapping APIs, and social network analysis is performed on the mashup-API network. The results show that API providers perform competitive actions that fall into six categories: marketing, product development, service, legal, capacity and success; that observed actions are performed in specific patterns, and that a limited relationship does exist between network position and competitive action in this context.