Kan man sänka transaktionskostnader med hjälp av mobila tjänster?

Abstract

Some people believe that betting and gambling will be one of the major parts of mobile commerce (m-commerce). Many betting situations are dependent on correct and timely information. This information does not necessarily have to be formalized. This is one of the reasons why people who bet at a trotting track is an interesting group to study. One other interesting aspect of this is that the track is a mobile context, which the player visits for a limited time and during this visit wanders between different places. The purpose of this master thesis is to answer the following question: is a mobile information service a way to lower the transaction costs for retrieving information connected to gambling at a trotting track. The theoretical framework is based on theories from e-commerce, marketing and mobility and mobile IT use. In order to answer our question we have conducted an ethnographical inspired study at the Åby Trotting Track in Mölndal. Our results have indicated that there are two general types of information, official and unofficial. It is also possible to divide the players into two general categories depending on the number of information sources used and how this information was used in order to make the betting decision. One another important finding is that there is a need for a personalization of the information that origins from official channels. Based on our findings we have conducted the first two steps in developing a prototype. A web based trotting service (Trotting Pal) designed for Ipaq handheld computers has been designed. The development of this prototype will continue after this master thesis has been completed. From our results we draw the conclusion that a mobile service can lower the transaction costs that arise in connection to information search. A mobile service also gives the possibility to personalization of the official information and at the same time makes it easier to spread and obtain unofficial information.