5G for the Future of Telecommunications: How Innovation Platforms

Redefine the Mobile Network Operators' Role

Lucrezia Mancini, Edoardo Meraviglia, Mattia Magnaghi, Antonio Ghezzi and Andrea Rangone

Politecnico di Milano, Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering,

Via Lambruschini 4B, 20156, Milan, Italy

Keywords: Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Innovation Platform, 5G, Platform Governance, Digital Transformation,

Business Model.

Abstract: The paper addresses the transition process that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) can undertake after the

advent of 5G technology and the unique opportunities it introduces. It focuses on how seeing 5G as an

innovation platform can support the strategic repositioning of these actors, enabling them to regain influence

in the market, especially in the enterprise market. Therefore, an exploratory study of 8 cases was conducted,

including different players of the 5G Italian telecommunication industry. Results show that industrial 5G has

many common points with innovation platforms, being a promising technology that enables additional

services and applications on top of it. The associations between 5G and innovation platforms offers a new

perspective on the challenges and the ongoing dynamics for MNOs, highlighting the platform consolidation

complexity and outlining potential future scenarios. The MNO is identified as a potential candidate to

orchestrate the ecosystem, although this remains a prospective view. Finally, a framework is presented to

picture the 5G landscape, offering strategic insights to maximize MNOs’ competitive advantage.

1 INTRODUCTION

Mobile Network Operators (MNO)’s situation is not

the most prosperous due to the economic difficulties

afflicting the whole industry. Moreover, several

emerging technologies are rising and evolving very

rapidly. Among these, 5G is particularly interesting,

given its enormous potential with respect to the

previous connectivity generations (Gooderham et al.,

2022). 5G innovative characteristics make it more

than a simple internet access, but rather a perfect

foundation for building application services,

especially for the enterprise sector. The 5G new

opportunities are a crucial occasion for MNOs to

regain power in the mobile telecommunication

market, after the decline that has led them to become

mere commodity providers (Cave, 2018). The Italian

scenario presents a peculiar legislation, for which

MNOs are the only ones able to acquire the licences

to access the spectrum. This introduces another

specific factor to be included in the premises on the

analysis. The 5G technology has been sometimes

defined as an enabling innovation platform,

(Ahokangas et al., 2021) however, existing literature

about platforms is still fragmented, both in terms of

definition from a managerial perspective and about

the strategic challenges they may introduce. So, it

could be interesting to delve the platform literature to

see if this analogy could be exploited by MNOs

Hence, the paper aims at answering the following

research question: “How can MNOs resume a

relevant role in the mobile telecommunication

ecosystem through the usage of 5G intended as an

innovation platform?”, combining the investigation

about the MNOs transition process with innovation

platforms and the definition of roles within them.

The study explores the topics through an

exploratory multiple-case study with the main players

of the 5G Italian industry (Eisenhardt, 1989). Data

were analysed adopting the Gioia methodology

(Gioia, 2013). The main findings show the 5G

technology enabling nature, considering how its

features are suitable for the Industry 4.0 revolution.

This potential is challenged by the high infrastructural

costs, the development delays and by the market

unreadiness. MNOs focus is shifting from the

commodity provider position, placing attention on

service creation and on the ecosystem orchestration.

Customization and collaboration with partners are

key factors for marketing positioning, while lack in

Mancini, L., Meraviglia, E., Magnaghi, M., Ghezzi, A. and Rangone, A.

5G for the Future of Telecommunications: How Innovation Platforms Redeﬁne the Mobile Network Operators’ Role.

DOI: 10.5220/0013470700003929

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2025) - Volume 2, pages 899-906

ISBN: 978-989-758-749-8; ISSN: 2184-4992

899

vertical skills and effective communication remain

hurdles.

The study offers a fresh perspective identifying

potential scenarios in the mobile telecommunication

ecosystem. It highlights the MNOs evolving role as

possible ecosystem orchestrators, but without

drawing definitive conclusions, given the in-progress

nature of the unit of analysis. Then, practical aids for

MNOs are introduced. Indeed, they should aim at

becoming platform orchestrators, leveraging

partnerships and open innovation. Their success will

also depend on strategic branding, ecosystem

management and internal reorganization.

Figure 1: Change in Revenue 2010-2023.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 The Evolution of MNOs Through

Time

Three different phases can be distinguished in the

mobile telecommunication industry advancement

(Gooderham et al., 2022) and in the MNOs role

evolution. The first phase (1990-2010), the 2G-3G

era, started with MNOs as main players, that being

the only ones to offer voice and SMS services,

managed to become very profitable. However, by the

2000s, internal operators’ competition became

critical (Ghezzi et al., 2013, 2015) ending in a price

war that drastically lowered margins. Also, new

opportunities emerged, shifting the market focus on

web, media and ICT services, introducing turbulence

and shaking the industry equilibrium (Ghezzi, 2012;

2013). The second phase, or 4G era (2010-2020),

encapsulates the decline of MNOs, that completely

lost their competitive advantage due to their inability

to adapt to external changes, not entering the

multimedia content segment (Lehr et al., 2021),

instead continuing to provide only connectivity. In

contrast, other players such as Mobile Virtual

Network Operators (MVNOs) and Over The Top

(OTT) companies realized the new potential, entering

the competition (Cave, 2018) and further lowering the

MNOs value (Gooderham et al., 2022).

The third phase, beginning in 2021 and called 5G

era, comes with the fifth connectivity generation and

its great opportunities, especially in B2B, to remodel

MNOs business model and regain competitiveness,

after the failure in 4G capitalization (Lehr et al.,

2021).

2.2 Platform

Platforms businesses disrupted many industries, and

five different typologies can be distinguished in the

literature, namely internal platforms, or a collection

of tools and resources used to create a modular

framework to develop derivative products (Gawer &

Cusumano, 2014); supply chain platforms, that act as

tools to facilitate resource management, improving

efficiency (Gawer, 2014); multi-sided platforms,

interfaces that facilitate connection between different

user groups affected by network externalities

(Trabucchi & Buganza, 2021); innovation platforms,

basis for the development of complementary products

or technologies by external parties, thanks to the

adoption of standards as modular building blocks that

facilitate the creation of an ecosystem of developers

(Gawer, 2021); and hybrid platforms, seeking

synergies by integrating different aspects (Jacobides

et al., 2024). Platforms generate value through

network effects, that increase user appeal as

participation grows, driving economies of scale and

efficiency. Their technological nature further allows

scalability and extendibility of businesses,

maintaining centralised the value capturing (Gawer,

2021). Transaction platforms facilitate exchanges by

easily connecting users (Jacobides et al., 2024), thus

reducing market friction (Bonina et al., 2021).

Innovation platforms incentivize third parties to

innovate, triggering collaboration among different

actors (Gawer & Cusumano, 2014), who are

interdependent (Rietveld et al., 2019).

In innovation platforms many actors are involved

in final offer creation, that is enhanced by all the

complementarities added by the external developers.

It is the orchestrator job to balance value capturing

among actors based on the generated value proportion

(Jacobides et al., 2024).

The literature recognizes various players involved

in platform models with different roles. Innovation

platforms see on the one hand the end users, namely

the final offers beneficiaries (Gawer, 2014), and the

complementors or developers on the other. These are

important for the generation of a complete

proposition, since they develop complementary

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products/services to enhance the initial platform

offering (Cennamo, 2018). Platform owners are

instead central players who must govern the platform

dynamics. Governing a platform implies assuming its

control and engaging in strategic decisions aimed at

maximizing the platform success. An orchestrator

should address four main aspects: the firm scope, or

the selection of elements to produce in-house (Gawer

& Cusumano, 2014). The technology design,

balancing openness and control of technological

standards to attract innovators, while ensuring enough

quality and stability (Jacobides et al., 2024). Also, the

timing of opening the platform is also delicate, and

should be based on the readiness of external

contributors (Parker & Van Alstyne, 2018). The

external relations with complementors and the set up

of rules that affect developers (Singh & Kapoor,

2024). Lastly, the internal organization, the creation

of specific internal processes to manage critical

situations (Gawer & Cusumano, 2014). Platform

success is more dependent on resource orchestration

than their control (M. Van Alstyne & Parker, 2017),

thus, leadership skills and attitude are fundamental

for platform owners, fostering inclusion and

cooperation (Parker & Van Alstyne, 2018), activating

network effects to build mutually beneficial

relationships and to align all participants' interests for

shared value creation (Jacobides et al., 2018).

2.3 Research Gap

To define the most appropriate research question, the

two streams of the literature have been critically

analysed to highlight the gaps to be addresses. From

the platform literature emerged a certain entropy in

the definition of roles and responsibilities within the

platform itself. Indeed, papers assumed roles as

already established, neglecting the dynamics behind

their affirmation (Gawer, 2021), (Bonina et al., 2021).

In particular, the authority that should govern the

platform is often taken for granted as central, not

clarifying the reason why this centralization is

necessary (Jacobides et al., 2024). Moreover, recent

trends in open innovation emphasize decentralization

and interoperability, making roles’ boundaries even

more blurred. This is the case of MNOs, where there

is not yet a clear central role for managing the B2B

offers. Thus, 5G lays the groundwork for regaining

influence in the market, but this process will not be

free of challenges (Lehr et al., 2021). In fact, MNOs

do not have the necessary specific expertise to

develop industrial application and to diffuse

awareness about an emerging technology, The matter,

hence, is understanding how those actors can

successfully overcome those barriers.

The resulting research question is “How can

MNOs resume a relevant role in the mobile

telecommunication ecosystem through the usage of

5G intended as an innovation platform?”

3 METHODOLOGY

A qualitative analysis was deemed appropriate for

exploring the dynamics of the study (Heath, A. W.,

1997), and the exploratory case study (Yin, 1984)

research method was adopted, given the limitations in

formulating a priori hypotheses to be tested, and the

most likely scenario in that theoretical propositions

will emerge from the data collected. The study can be

considered relevant both because it addresses gaps

emerged from the existing literature, and since its

findings can be useful for MNOs that are facing the

transition and that need to be aware of their limits and

opportunities. The unit of analysis is the transition

process of MNOs during the 5G era, so the

investigation will be dependent on it, and the study

refers to the Italian context, given the legislation that

allows only the MNOs to access the spectrum.

Specifically, the paper will explore how innovation

platform perspective, applied to 5G, can an enabling

tool for MNO’s repositioning process. Indeed,

industrial 5G has many similarities with the elements

of innovation platforms and some peculiar conditions

that make it a suitable environment for addressing the

gaps: the technology is still at an early validation

phase, where roles and responsibilities have yet to

settle, even more so considering how disparate the

resources and skills needed for different industrial

applications may be. After identifying the most

suitable Italian MNOs to be included in the sample

(MNO A, MNO B, MNO C), other actors were also

included aiming at gathering more perspectives to

observe the unit of analysis. In fact, one of the main

difficulties for MNOs when it comes to 5G industrial

applications is their poor knowledge of the specific

field the services are addressed to. It is still unclear

then how these applications will be constructed and

established in the market. This is why other figures

besides operators can add crucial insights to this

investigation, for example IT system integrators

(SIs). Those actors are closer to the vertical industries

that could need the applications, but being IT

consultants, they can work as a bridge for MNOs to

approach those markets. Thus, in addition to three

MNOs, the final sample also includes one MVNO

(MVNO A), three SIs (SI A, SI B, SI C), and one real

5G use case (Use Case A). Data were collected

through semi-structured interviews to leave enough

5G for the Future of Telecommunications: How Innovation Platforms Redeﬁne the Mobile Network Operators’ Role

901

space to respondents for capturing a higher amount of

information (Yin, 1984). The 11 interviews obtained

from the 8 cases represents the primary source of

evidence, since they directly address the research

question. Nevertheless, the sample was expanded

with 1 podcast, 11 YouTube videos, 9 news articles,

9 reports, and 5 company websites, triangulating the

interviews also with secondary sources of

information that increases reliability. After that, all

the data were processed using the inductive Gioia

methodology for coding (Gioia et al., 2013), that

allowed to theoretically process information, while

staying rooted to the empirical nature of data.

4 FINDINGS

The coding process highlighted aspects arisen from

data, that have been categorized under three

overarching dimensions regarding innovation

platforms, barriers and opportunities for MNOs, and

enabling characteristics of 5G.

4.1 Innovation Platform

The informants confirmed that 5G is more than

simple connectivity, as it represents a “horizontal

enabler with edge data centres” (MVNO A), so the

fundament to “support a wide range of applications”,

“innovative solutions” and “business-critical

services” (MNO C), as also Use Case A corroborates.

However, these promises are threatened by the

delayed technology development (MNO A) (SI A),

and by the market immaturity, not yet ready to

embrace 5G applications (Pietro Labriola). The

hardware expenditures to enable the generational

transition are significant, while the capacity that

MNOs will have to return these investments is still

uncertain: “it is an entirely new network, and the

investments that need to be made are significant” says

Giovanni Miragliotta. Also, from the analysed use

case, that is not placed in Italy, it emerged that 5G

spectrum liberalization accelerated the development

by enabling low-cost, flexible testing for private

entities (Use Case A). 5G is built as a modular layered

structure, based on standardized elements that

provide the system with flexibility and expandability

(MNO A), allowing “to respond in a

multidimensional way to multidimensional service

needs” (MNO C). Use Case A assert that “there will

be basic components that might fit all”, providing

standard pieces that optimize replicability. Indeed, its

“whitebox”, open-source hardware is generic and

programmable through the provision of Application

Programming Interfaces (APIs) (Tommaso Melodia).

These work in an open logic, serving external

development by increasing accessibility allowing a

more flexible innovation process, letting third parties

develop their own contribution (Francesco Sortino).

The interfaces openness can also make riskier and

more vulnerable the network, potentially reducing the

solutions’ quality. So, MNOs usually stress their

selection process to individuate the right partners

basing on their credibility and trustability. To fully

harness 5G advantages, the technology “requires the

creation of new ecosystems of actors who will have

the skills to harness its capabilities”, claims Giovanni

Miragliotta and that together possess the specific

skills to generate the final offer (SI B), becoming “life

cycle partners” (Use Case A). Consequently,

cooperation and interoperation become crucial (SI A),

and relying on partnerships is fundamental to supply

the most complete and innovative solutions,

maximizing benefits. Anyway, collaboration face

barriers, particularly in communication between

different parties (SI C).

4.2 MNO Challenges and

Opportunities

From data connectivity is perceived as a commodity,

hence the 5G monetization for consumers is hard, and

this segment generates low margins: “no one is

willing to pay a significant price” (SI C). “The margin

that the operator is able to make from the content is

exactly the same regardless of its value”, comment

Alessandro Colonna, referring to the commodity

providers’ role assumed by MNOs after their failure

of the 4G era. “The operator has fundamentally lost

its positioning”, mainly following the advent of OTT

and the iPhone (SI C), that exploited MNOs as

pipelines to run their business using the connectivity

without paying for it (MNO A). Another challenge for

MNOs is the inability to communicate 5G potential to

customers, who do not justify investments without

tangible demonstrations. This highlights the need to

implement real cases, “helping these companies

understand what they can do with these platforms”

(MNO C). Here, MNOs are in a “moment of great

redefinition” (SI B), trying to pose themselves as

coordinators between the various roles “ (MNO B),

aiming at offering an “end-to-end service

management”, supervising the entire value chain,

“from requirements to implementation” (MNO C).

With this resources orchestration, MNOs seek to

become the primary reference entity in 5G projects

(MNO A), providing the most comprehensive offer

(MNO C). As expected, MNOs lack vertical expertise

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needed to address every industrial sector (SI A), and

this “cause them knowledge gaps in their

understanding of use cases” (Use Case A). So, beside

leaning on specialized partners, they started to

organize by verticals, training and qualifying internal

staff to acquire additional competencies. This

restructuring confers MNOs a more consultant-like

emphasis (MNO A), with pre-sales skills, that will

help them in effectively communicating 5G

applications value. The 5G applications development

is driven by market requirement, as these solutions

needs to be functional to the needs (MNO B). Hence,

the “scouting” phase is crucial to get knowledge of

market trends and potential positioning areas (MNO

C). Moreover, searching for “external sources of

ideas” (MNO C) can be decisive, as it could allow to

capture innovative insights “as soon as they emerge”

(Alessandro Colonna).

4.3 5G as an Enabling Technology

5G introduces promising features for the enterprise

space, thus, the real revolution of this technology will

be expressed in the B2B arena Giovanni Miragliotta.

Thanks to low-latency, high reliability and capacity

to connect thousands of devices (MNO B), 5G

become a performant and secure network, perfect to

support services that require speed, high capacity and

a precise process control (MNO C). Key potential

sectors for 5G business growth include

manufacturing, healthcare, tourism, energy,

transportation, and smart cities, where the

combination of 5G with other technologies such as

IoT and AI can drive Industry 4.0. Additionally, 5G

efficiency consents to reduce the overall maintenance

and operational expenses. Hence, it is evident that the

real 5G value added is constituted by on-top

application services: the technology opens new

business model opportunities as answers market

needs (MNO A). 5G flexibility also give a chance of

personalization. This further increases value for end

users, since vertical sectors addressable are different

and can have divergent requirements. So, the

possibility to build ad-hoc, tailored projects enhance

their appeal (SI B).

5 DISCUSSION

5.1 Framework: Mobile

Telecommunication Ecosystem

Given the research goals and the similarities between

the findings and innovation platforms, a framework

was developed to encapsulate information on 5G and

the mobile telecommunications ecosystem, reworked

using innovation platform theory as a lens. In this

way, the concepts have been associated to the

theoretical elements characterizing the innovation

platform model, producing a structure that will be the

starting point for the generation of new theoretical

support. The framework is articulated in six

interconnected levels. The first level concern the 5G

infrastructure, that constitutes the platform

foundation element on that all the structure leans

(Gawer & Cusumano, 2014) (Jacobides et al., 2024).

The crucial modifications introduced by 5G make it

more innovative, but even if it consents to improve

the business and production activities of companies

(Gooderham et al., 2022) (Cave, 2018), it is also more

expensive in terms of hardware. The three enhancing

elements of 5G are its capacity to connect a huge

number of devices, the very low latency and the ultra-

high reliability, that together with network slicing and

edge computing functions make this network suitable

for the realization of industrial applications.

Moreover, 5G presents a great flexibility allowed by

the modular architecture (Singh & Kapoor, 2024)

implied by the adoption of standards and whitebox

hardware. The block layering logic identifys and

isolates the basic components as the building blocks

(Cusumano et al., 2019) of the infrastructure,

reducing the dependability of the system. Due to these

properties, 5G stands as the basic horizontal platform

from that to innovate and build complementary

components. Indeed, the use of shared APIs (Bonina

et al., 2021) and open-source software incentivize the

development of innovative features and

functionalities attracting different entities in the

creation of components. So it has the positive effect

given by the increment of accessibility (Gawer &

Cusumano, 2014) and external collaboration, but on

the other side there is the higher vulnerability of an

open network. Hence, it is important for Italian

MNOs to rely on trusted and selected partners, that

can assure high quality final results. As shown in the

second level, the architecture openness generates a

fruitful environment for the creation of an ecosystem

of different actors who provide the various

components, and that necessarily have to interoperate

and cooperate to synergistically produce the outputs.

Therefore, players with different expertise enter the

system, making up a chain of “complementors”

partnerships dependent upon each other (Gawer,

2021). In this ecosystem, a particular entity tries to

undertake an intermediary role, setting up as a single

point of contact between the final client and the

underlying network of players (De Silva et al., 2018).

5G for the Future of Telecommunications: How Innovation Platforms Redeﬁne the Mobile Network Operators’ Role

903

In this scenario, this entity becomes the main

reference for clients, who do not have to interface

with all the complementors, but that only see a figure

that act as a final collector of the parts, managing end-

to-end the service. Hence, it supports the companies

in all the phases of the project, relying on the

competencies and contributions of third parties

aiming at offering a complete service. In Italy, MNOs

are trying to take this function, since an intermediary

position could be suitable for them (Gooderham et al.,

2022). Indeed, it is unrealistic for MNOs to develop

comprehensive expertise across all domains within

every industry, and the many collaborations that

MNOs are generating focus on the overall

improvement of the solutions they offer, so they are

trying to manage a number of different actors who

could add value to the end result that they would not

be able to bring. Besides, posing as mediators could

reduce communication barriers providing a common

high-level language among all participants. Another

redefinition of MNOs concerns their attempt to get

closer to the final application areas, and fill their skills

lacunes by developing internal specialized sections,

training their salesforce and organizing it by verticals

(Gooderham et al., 2022). This rearrangement would

not be enough to make them independent from

partners, but it gives them a consultative setup,

helping them to properly connect with the final

customer and to be able to sell the service. MNOs also

needs to interface with the market. Indeed, the

creation of services originates from the knowledge of

the needs that came out of the it. For this, another

level of the framework delves into how Italian MNOs

cope with the commercial environment, considering

the systematic exploration and analysis of market

opportunities, also called scouting, to stay

competitive introducing new offerings. This activity

is performed directly by the MNOs marketing

departments or using external channels to effectively

exchange information and experiences, facilitating

the early identification and testing of emerging needs

and technological solutions. The enterprise space is

represented in the 5th level, articulated in vertical

sectors (Li & Malerba, 2024), that could also be very

specialized segments with specific needs, so their

requirements collection is another crucial aspect that

the reference figure must cover. The 6th and last level

represent the solution for the collected needs, that is

the final 5G application service. Given the uniqueness

of each potential solution, and the flexibility of 5G,

the personalization level for the application is

potentially high.

Figure 2: Framework.

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5.2 Theoretical and Practical

Implications

The associations that the framework point out

between the mobile telecommunication ecosystem

and the innovation platform elements have been

formalized to officially recognise these links. Indeed,

the technological features of 5G lay the basis for the

foundation infrastructure of an innovation platform,

given its modularity, standardization and scalability

in the industrial environment. This acknowledges the

parallelism among 5G infrastructure and the platform

foundation element (Gawer, 2021). Secondly,

combining 5G features with the presence of a

reference figure can facilitate cooperation among the

different actors, who are involved in the

complementary parts development, necessary for

innovation. These are the roles of complementors and

of the platform owner (Gawer, 2021), which could

ideally orchestrate the platform to facilitate

development. Indeed, the benefits of a central actor

can activate network effects, enhancing the

ecosystem and the technology. The study is one of the

first to link 5G with the concept of innovation

platform, highlighting their intersections and offering

a new point on 5G by positioning it in the platform

research strand. In doing so, it reveals the existing

challenges of the mobile telecommunications sector

using the innovation platform lens. Because the

phenomenon is still evolving, the study outlines

potential scenarios rather than definitive conclusions,

emphasizing the entropy surrounding roles’

consolidation. The MNO idea as the central

orchestrator is thus a potential outcome based on the

study data and on platform theories, not a fixed

conclusion. Lastly, some practical suggestions are

introduced, to show how innovation platforms can be

a useful tool for MNOs to implement the change.

First, it is important that MNOs acquire awareness

about their conditions, that are now perceived as

commodity providers (Cave, 2018). So, connectivity

offers are just a must-have condition, while to reach a

competitive position they must build appealing

services on top. Therefore, MNOs should constantly

monitor the market and remain open to change for

capitalizing on opportunities as soon as possible.

Indeed, the occasion for MNOs now is like the one

came with the media sector between the end of 2G 3G

era and the beginning of the 4G era (Ghezzi, 2013),

but that they did not manage to exploit (Lehr et al.,

2021). Given the nature of MNOs and their lack of

knowledge in specific areas (Gooderham et al., 2022),

they should focus their efforts on becoming central

coordinating actor for the 5G platform, becoming a

pillar for the ecosystem. Nevertheless, this position is

not easy to achieve, considering both the competition

they face, and the difficulty to change market

perception. Hence, MNOs should actively drive the

change, smartly working on their strategies to

strengthen their position both internally and with

respect to external actors.

6 CONCLUSIONS

The paper explored how MNOs can exploit 5G

opportunities combined with the innovation platform

perspective as a tool for regaining power in the

mobile telecommunication industry. The issue was

addressed through a qualitative case study approach,

that comprises 8 explorative cases. Data were

collected focusing on the MNO transition process,

and information was processed through the Gioia

methodology that generated three key theoretical

dimensions about innovation platforms, MNO

challenges and opportunities, and 5G as an enabling

technology. The analysis of the findings produced a

framework that structures data according to the

characteristics of an innovation platform,

highlighting the correlation between these latter and

the ones of 5G and its surrounding ecosystem. This

correlation provides new insights and outlines

potential challenges and future scenarios. It suggests

that MNOs could play a central role in orchestrating

the ecosystem, without making definitive claims.

Finally, some practical suggestions are formulated,

that MNOs could use to exploit this research.

6.1 Research Limits and Future

Avenues

A relevant limit comes from the qualitative nature of

the research approach. Apart from the restricted data

sample, interviews are biased by the personal

opinions of respondents. Comparative studies could

be then interesting. Moreover, the dataset is restricted

also for the sensitivity of confidential information,

that could not be accessed. The fast-evolving nature

of 5G can make obsolete the implications of the study

in a short period of time. Longer term longitudinal

studies could instead monitor the MNOs real

evolution over time, assessing the protracted impacts

on their repositioning process. Since this study

analyses the innovation platform aspects only in

relation with 5G, the findings generalizability to other

areas is difficult. Broader conclusions could be drawn

by applying this theoretical model to different

phenomena in different domains.

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