TY - JOUR T1 - Product and Service Interaction in the Chinese Online Game Industry JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2014 A1 - Patrik Ström A1 - Mirko Ernkvist KW - China KW - Korea KW - MMOG KW - network KW - online gaming KW - product and service KW - service innovation AB - This article examines the rapidly-growing online game industry in China, which is a prime example of the changing regional landscape of new creative industries in East Asia. The industry’s evolution in China demonstrates the complexity of the growth of this industry through various knowledge and production networks. Despite the fact that Chinese companies were initially a second mover in this industry and had limited technological competence, they managed to move up the value chain within a few years, from operators of foreign-developed games to game developers. The catch-up process in this creative industry has differed from traditional manufacturing industries, which reflects the responsiveness and close proximity between product and service as key elements of the online game experience. This article conceptualizes this product–service offering in the industry and highlights its requirement for a widespread geographical network, as well as close proximity and responsiveness between elements of the network. In the empirical study of the growth of the Chinese online game industry described here, we argue that Chinese companies have managed to grow by utilizing the strategic control of service, player preferences, and responsiveness in this network, and translating this control into constant incremental improvement of their game development offering. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 4 UR - http://timreview.ca/article/789 IS - 5 U1 - University of Gothenburg Patrik Ström is Associate Professor of Economic Geography at the Centre for International Business Studies, Department of Business Adminstration, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He holds a PhD in Business Adminstration from Roskilde University, Denmark and an Econ. Dr. in Economic Geography from the University of Gothenburg. Has was formerly a Pro Futura Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, Sweden. His research focuses on the development of services economies in East Asia and integration of international services markets. Industries of particular interest are knowledge-intensive business services and creative industries such as online computer games. Patrik Ström is also the President of the European Association for Research on Services, RESER. U2 - Ratio Institute Mirko Ernkvist wrote his PhD in Economic History on discontinuous technologies in gaming machine manufacturing. After his dissertation, he spent two years as a JSPS postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tokyo, Japan, focusing on the formation of technology-intensive companies and industry policy in the game industry, involving studies of the game industry in Japan, Korea, and China. He has studied the policy implication of the emergence of virtual economy for the World Bank. In 2012, Dr. Ernkvist joined the Ratio Institute as a Wallander Postdoctoral Researcher. He is currently involved in research about technological change and deregulation of industries. ER -