[Research Seminar] ‘Both Sides of Cloud: More Standardized Tools and More Data Analytics’
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Speakers: Michael IMPINK
HEC PARIS
April 18th, 2024 from 2:30pm to 4pm
in Lille & Paris campus (B252 – P400) & on Zoom
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ABSTRACT
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What is the impact of cloud adoption on app-developer differentiation strategy? Despite the growing trend of accessing IT from a cloud platform, we know little about how this early-stage resource acquisition decision affects startups’ technology adoption, technological differentiation, and performance. Using panel data on app-developing startups’ web technology adoption, I find that startups using cloud platforms adopt more standardized development tools. Moreover, using cloud-based IT and more standardized tools reduces time spent developing tools, enabling startups to cultivate more diverse data analytics capabilities. When paired with fundraising data, my findings paint a picture of high-performing digital startups as standardizing development tools to remedy time-consuming fit issues (i.e., to reduce technology interdependencies and increase compatibility with the platform) and differentiating their startup with more diverse data resources.