Update assimilation in app markets: Is there such a thing as too many updates?

Extant literature suggests that faster app evolution (in terms of changes in quality and functionality) leads to increased app success (in terms of survival and demand). This evolution-success relationship, however, does not account for users' limited capacity to assimilate the changes resulting from a continual stream of app updates. Drawing from extant literature, we theorize that the limited absorptive capacity of users leads to an assimilation gap that results in an inverted curvilinear relationship. Specifically, as app evolution increases app success increases but only to a certain point, after which as app evolution continues to increase, app success begins to decrease. We further argue that users' readiness for change positively moderates this relationship. Additionally, as the marginal adoption costs of updates outweigh their benefits, app evolution hampers app success. In this paper, we advance our understanding of the effect of app evolution on app success and provide implications for app developers.