The influence of the breadth of the tech stack on the result of the digital product: А view through the theory of absorption capacity

Abstract

In today’s economy based on knowledge and innovation, the development of absorptive capacity by companies is a critical aspect of business competitiveness. In this study, the tech stack of sites is considered as a specific, measurable part of the digital and innovative development of a company. In literature to date, there is no clear answer to which technologies and in what quantity should be included in the tech stack. From the point of view of assessing the tech stack, mainly qualitative methods are proposed that are quite resource intensive. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to determine the impact of the technologies used by the characteristics of quantity, uniqueness and popularity in the tech stack of the product on the result (the absence of critical errors); as well as in developing a quantitative approach for assessing the impact of the technologies used on the result of a digital product. The quantitative approach was developed and conceptualized based on previous literature, tested on 12 sites of large Russian banks, including 12 main domains and 595 subdomains. An analysis of a study of 216 online applications for banking products showed a positive relationship between the share of unique technologies in the bank’s visible tech stack and the number of errors, as well as a negative relationship between the share of popular technologies in the stack and errors. This study expands the discussion on the development of absorptive capacity, contributes to the understanding of the limitations of absorptive capacity of companies and proposes a quantitative approach for auditing the operational tech stack of companies’ websites.