Evaluating Mobile Application Development Firms: Comparing Views of Advertisers and Advertising Agencies

The purpose of the present paper is to propose a decision model for both advertisers and advertising agencies to evaluate and select mobile application development firms. The researchers first refer to related literature and apply the Modified Delphi Method to postulate the most suitable selection criteria. Then, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is utilized to derive the relative weight and ranking of each decision criteria, which can be used for evaluating and selecting the most suitable mobile application development firm. Then a company, which serves as a case example, is selected for applying this model. The data analysis finds that when selecting mobile application development firms, both advertisers and advertising agencies hold mastery of mobile marketing skill as their top concern. Business marketing division also stress experience in mobile marketing operation, especially ability in innovative layout and execution. In contrast, advertising agencies are able to provide their clients with creative ideas and designs. Therefore, they do not care so much whether marketing application development firms have ability in innovative layout and execution. They are more concerned about ability in customer service, especially team communication and arbitration ability.