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The Role of Early Adopters in the Diffusion of New Products: Differences between Platform and Nonplatform Innovations
Author(s) -
Frattini Federico,
Bianchi Mattia,
Massis Alfredo,
Sikimic Uros
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of product innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.646
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1540-5885
pISSN - 0737-6782
DOI - 10.1111/jpim.12108
Subject(s) - imitation , leverage (statistics) , business , contingency , diffusion of innovations , marketing , constructive , product (mathematics) , new product development , early adopter , opinion leadership , industrial organization , product innovation , value (mathematics) , process (computing) , computer science , public relations , psychology , social psychology , linguistics , political science , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , machine learning , operating system
This paper takes a contingency view to investigate how the role of early adopters ( EA s) in the diffusion process changes between platform and nonplatform innovations, what launch decisions firms take to leverage the role of EA s, and how these decisions change between platform and nonplatform innovations. Relying on an exploratory multiple case study of eight industrial product innovations launched in I taly in the 2000s, the paper suggests that the EA s of these innovations play two distinct roles in the diffusion process. The first role, called dissemination , sees EA s triggering and bolstering the propagation of information regarding their opinion about the value for money, properties, advantages, and disadvantages of the new product after they have bought and applied it in their operations. The second role, labeled imitation , consists of EA s inadvertently communicating to later buyers the fact that they have bought the new product, which propels imitative behavior and thus subsequent adoption. A key finding of the paper, which supports a contingency view of innovation diffusion, is that the dissemination role played by EA s has an impact on the adoption of platform innovations, whereas the imitation one is the mechanism through which EA s stimulate subsequent adoption in the case of nonplatform new products. Furthermore, the paper's results point to a constructive view of the process of launching an innovation, whereby firms target at launch different segments of EA s, whose identity is shaped depending on the platform versus nonplatform nature of the innovation and thus on the role they are expected to play in the diffusion process. Concerning managerial implications, this study provides a first tentative understanding of the launch decisions that product and marketing managers may use to target the most appropriate segments of EA s, to leverage their roles and ultimately to favor diffusion. As regards platform innovations, targeting decisions should be driven by the goal to improve the chances that EA s will be willing to disseminate their experience and opinion regarding the new product. As regards instead nonplatform innovations, firms should target EA s whose specific characteristics increase the likelihood of an imitative reaction by later buyers that fear to suffer a competitive disadvantage if they do not conform to EA s' behavior.