Institutional Reinforcement in a Newly Emerged Digital Industry

Abstract

There is a growing number of newly emerging digital sectors where firms have potential for a rapid scalable expansion. One of them is mobile gaming, being triggered by development of smart devices, where Finland-based entrepreneurial firms have captured global markets in an extremely fast pace. How and why have these Finnish firms achieved a global market positioning, particularly in the light of Finland’s small home market, relative cultural isolation, and peripheral location? By building on the institutional polycentrism approach, this paper sheds light on how global industry-specific and informal socio-cultural institutional arrangements have been reinforced by local formal, government-sponsored ones to create the conditions for global leadership in a digital industry. This paper makes important contribution to the better understanding of the role of institutions in driving emergence of digital industries and shaping global competitiveness of home country firms in these digital sectors.