Technological innovation, industry platforms or financialization? A comparative institutional perspective on Nokia, Apple, and Samsung

The puzzle of how Nokia lost the smartphone wars has intrigued recent scholarship. Despite Nokia’s dominant position in the mobile phone industry and its technological capabilities and reputation for strategic agility, it was completely wiped out from the market, only a few years after the launch of Apple’s iPhone. The article provides a comparative, historical and institutional account on the smartphone industry by focusing on three key players: Nokia, Apple, and Samsung. This perspective enriches earlier accounts that were overly focused on explaining Nokia’s decline by looking at internal organisational design and conflicts. We propose a two-pronged explanation focused on the reconfiguration of industry platforms and financialisation. The article suggests that single company histories could be enriched by integrating a comparative perspective that examines additional cases. We discuss opportunities for further research to understand how success or failure in technological innovation is embedded in a wider societal and institutional context.