Pre-Launch Decisions Which Influence Innovation Success

Case Study 7

Pre-Launch Decisions which Influence Innovation Success

(Submitted by Malovika Banerjee)

1. What are the respective roles of early adopters and network development in the market acceptance of innovations?

Early adopters play two major role in the market acceptance of innovations:

• Early adopters are curious, adventurous consumers. They are attracted by the technical content and degree of sophistication of the innovation.  They are the ones to purchase and try out the new product and express their opinion about the product and in the process, they trigger the flow of information regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the product, value for money etc.
• Their second major role is to communicate to the later buyers that they have purchased the product, which helps reduce the resistance and uncertainty of later buyers and thus, they help in subsequent adoption of the product.

Network development plays a vital role in the market acceptance of innovations. In the present era of highly competitive market, an organization’s ability to interact and co-operate with the other actors to foster relevant complementary knowledge and, in the process, to reduce uncertainty can go a long way. For e.g. letting the actors of the adoption network manufacture products based on the innovation’s technology increases the availability of complementary products. This in turn substantially enhances the value of innovation.

It also reduces the risk and the costs incurred by the firm when supporting a systemic innovation, if the firm is in a long term strategic partnership with the critical members of the adoption network.

1. What are the critical differences in the timing and positioning of successful versus unsuccessful innovations?

The firm should secure support from the critical member of the adoption market immediately after the launch of the product. Failure to do so may result in a lot of resistance by the later buyers and result in subsequent drop in sales of the product.

It is important for firms not to rush to market an incomplete product in order to establish their technological superiority. This propagates a very negative image of the product among the early adopters which affect subsequent purchases of the product.