IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orisre/v37y2026i2p761-781.html

Third-Party Software Development Kit Utilization and Mobile App Market Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Yu Xia

    (Shenzhen Finance Institute, School of Management and Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518172, China)

  • Hailiang Chen

    (Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

  • Yulin Fang

    (Faculty of Business and Economics, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

Abstract

In the highly competitive mobile market, third-party vendors located outside the purview of hosting mobile platforms are becoming major suppliers of functional tool kits for mobile app development and innovation. Mobile app developers, however, face the uncertainty of whether and how to use third-party software development kits (SDKs) from these external vendors to create more appealing and engaging mobile apps. This study examines the extent to and conditions under which third-party SDK utilization affects mobile app market performance. Drawing on the platform ecosystem literature and boundary object theory, we contextualize the boundary-spanning practice in mobile app development as the extent to which developers utilize third-party SDKs and theorize the performance impact of third-party SDKs. Moreover, the boundary-spanning perspective leads us to examine how the performance impact of third-party SDKs varies across tool types versus platform types, the evolution of platform boundaries, and levels of app developers’ platform-specific experience. By conducting difference-in-differences-style analyses on a longitudinal data set of 335,958 multihoming mobile apps released on Apple App Store and Google Play Store, our study reveals that utilizing more third-party SDKs is positively associated with daily active users of mobile apps. This positive impact is limited to tool-type third-party SDKs, however, and is attenuated by platform updates and app developers’ platform-specific experience. This study contributes to the platform-based software innovation and platform governance literature and provides managerial implications for app developers, platform managers, and third-party SDK providers.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu Xia & Hailiang Chen & Yulin Fang, 2026. "Third-Party Software Development Kit Utilization and Mobile App Market Performance," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 37(2), pages 761-781, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:37:y:2026:i:2:p:761-781
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.2023.0504
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.2023.0504
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/isre.2023.0504?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:37:y:2026:i:2:p:761-781. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.