An Effectual Approach for the Development of Novel Applications on Digital Platforms

The development of novel software applications on digital platforms differs from traditional software development and provides unique challenges to the software development manager and team. Application producers must achieve application-platform match, application-market match, value propositions exceeding platform’s core value propositions, and novelty. These desired properties support a new vision of the software development team as entrepreneurs with a goal of developing novel applications on digital platforms. Digital platforms are characterized by an uncertain, risky, and resource-constrained environment, where existing approaches—plan-driven, ad-hoc, and controlled-flexible—have limited applicability. Building on the theoretical basis of the theory of effectuation from the entrepreneurship domain, this dissertation proposes an effectual approach to software development. Preliminary studies are conducted to provide prima facia evidence of effectual thinking in software development teams. Also, pilot interviews at local organizations are conducted to augment the approach. Finally, two case studies are conducted to validate the approach. We find conclusive evidence for the efficacy of effectual software development to develop novel applications on digital platforms. We also find that novel ideas are identified, honed, and incorporated, in the application, using effectual thinking. This study contributes to information systems literature by proposing and validating an effectual approach to software development. This study contributes to entrepreneurship literature by illustrating the role of planning and visionary approaches in effectuation settings. This study also contributes to practitioners by highlighting the theoretical underpinnings of existing approaches and the effectual approach which allows software development teams to incorporate effectual thinking and develop novel software applications. Finally, we conclude with a discussion on the theoretical contributions of this study, limitations, and future research avenues