A Topic Modeling Approach to Categorizing API Customer Value Propositions
A Topic Modeling Approach to Categorizing API Customer Value Propositions by Mohamed Amin A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Technology Innovation Management Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario Copyright © 2016, Mohamed Amin Abstract Companies increasingly use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to create new value propositions in the digital world. However, there is little knowledge about the type of value propositions that public APIs enable companies to provide. Thus, this study analyzes data from 13,829 API descriptions published in programmableweb.com to: (i) identify and categorize current and emerging API customer value propositions, (ii) analyze the evolution of API customer value propositions, and (iii) showcase Topic Modeling as a feasible technique to study API customer value propositions. This research contributes towards API service systems research by: (i) identifying six categories of API customer value propositions, and (ii) revealing a long tail distribution of API customer value propositions that is flattening. ii Acknowledgements I would like to start by thanking my Supervisor, Professor Mika Westerlund, for his guidance, tolerance, and open mind for new ideas and methods. I would also like to thank the TIM faculty: Professor Tony Bailetti, for teaching me what a Customer Value Proposition in the real world means, Professor Michael Weiss, for giving me the fundamental idea behind this research, and Professor Steven Muegge, for teaching me meticulousness in research and writing. Although I may have not met their standards yet, I know I am headed in the right direction.
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