Exploring killer domains to create new value: A comparative case study of Canadian and Korean telcos

Diversifying business portfolios and creating new value has been considered essential strategy for telecommunications companies (telcos) to survive and grow. To successfully execute this strategy, telcos need to find and focus on promising industries, called killer domains. However, few studies have tried to develop criteria for identifying killer domains for telcos' business diversification. This study develops comprehensive evaluation criteria and explores killer domains for Canadian and Korean telcos. This study adopted the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method and surveyed 23 telecommunication experts in Canada and 22 in Korea. Data analysis found that expected benefit is the most important criterion in decision-making for a telco's business diversification, followed by resource fit and the expected cost. There were no significant differences in the relative importance of alternative domains in Korea, but in Canada, digital healthcare was the most crucial domain for Canadian telcos, followed by the security and immersive content industry. The result of this study provides implications for practitioners' and policymakers' decision-making regarding business diversification strategies in the telecommunication industry.