The Effects of Technological Innovation on the Competitive Process of Mobile Telephony in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo

This article aims to present the results obtained from a study seeking to determine whether technological innovation affected the competitive process of the mobile telephony sector in Brazil between 2012 and 2018. To achieve this aim, the panel data technique was used with dependent and independent variables in the cross-section format. The evaluation of the competitive process was carried out considering the impact of the new technologies adopted by the companies in the segment, the prices, and the quality indicators of the service provided on the market share of each operator in the São Paulo region, the largest consumer market in Brazil. The results provide strong evidence that technological innovations in the mobile telephony sector, expressed by the variables of technologies and quality in the provision of services as well as the proxies used for price, affected the competitive process, especially in the strategies for expansion and the loyalty of the customer base.

Keywords: Mobile Telephony, Technological Innovation, Panel Data, Competitive Process, Metropolitan Region of São Paulo