Session 2: Adoption

Question 1

Example of slow market adoption?

Answer 1

Nespresso, took them 20 years to figure out a good strategy for market adoption

Question 2

What are the waves of technological development and when they happened?

Answer 2

1. 1770s: Early Mechanization
2. 1840s: Steam Power + Railways
3. 1890s: Steam Power + Railways
4. 1940s: Electrical + Heavy Engineering
5. Fordist Mass Production
6. 1990s: Information + Communications Technology

Question 3

What are the technological paradigms?

Answer 3

– Thought structure or way of thinking (about a problem)
– Paradigms identify the problems to be addressed,
and close off other approaches

Question 4

Why is technological change cumulative?

Answer 4

– Technologies build on one another - Path Dependent Trajectories

Question 5

Draw the S curve of technology perfomance

Answer 5

Slide 9

Y: Technology perfomance
X: Time (or Aggregate R&D spending)

Question 6

What happened to Xerox?

Answer 6

Apple destroyed them, despite them being the first to come with a GUI

Question 7

Key points about technological change

Answer 7

1. Cumulative and evolutionary
2. Not a smooth, automatic process – it takes place in
   spurts and jumps.
3. In hindsight some changes can be identified as ‘revolutionary’ in nature – leading to tidal waves of changes called ‘technological revolutions’ or new ‘techno-economic paradigms’
4. Technological change has major implications for the competitiveness of firms.

Question 8

Draw The product life cycle model

Answer 8

Slide 16
Y: Number of innovations/time
X: Time

1. Fluid phase: Dominant design is not established
2. Transitional Phase: Product innovations
3. Specific Phase: Process innovations

Question 9

What happens in the fluid stage of product lifecycle?

Answer 9

1. Innovation: Frequent major product changes
2. Products: Diverse design, often customised
3. Basis of competition: Functionally product performance
4. Vulnerabilities of industry leaders: To imitators and to successful breakthroughs
5. Innovation strategy: Performance maximizing

Question 10

What happens in the transitional stage of product lifecycle?

Answer 10

1. Innovation: Major process changes required by rising demand
2. Products: One product design, stable enough for volume
3. Basis of competition: Product variation
4. Vulnerabilities of industry leaders: To more efficient and higher quality producers
5. Innovation strategy: Sales maximizing

Question 11

What happens in the specific stage of product lifecycle?

Answer 11

1. Innovation: Incremental cumulative improvements
2. Products: Mostly undifferentiated, standard products
3. Basis of competition: Price
4. Vulnerabilities of industry leaders: To technological innovations that present superior product substitutes
5. Innovation strategy: Cost minimizing

Question 12

What does dominant design do?

Answer 12

1. Establishes what defines the product and what is required by the product.
2. Basic design architecture that becomes the accepted market standard.
3. Constitutes industry agreement on the attributes of a design that holds overwhelming market share.
4. Not always based on technological superiority.

Question 13

How should an organisation change the nature of its innovative activity in order to survive?

Answer 13

From product to process innovation.

From radical to incremental innovation

Question 14

What are the different competencies required in each product lifecycle phase?

Answer 14

1. fluid phase → identifying ill-defined consumers needs
2. transitional phase → developing distribution channels
3. specific phase → designing standard products

Question 15

Do services follow a product life cycle model?

Answer 15

Many industries and products follow a life cycle model. Many industries, including services, don’t.

Question 16

What happens after the establishment of a dominant design?

Answer 16

Product innovation becomes gradually less important; process innovation becomes more important.

Question 17

What is the most important thing to focus on in the specific phase?

Answer 17

In the specific phase firms focus on incremental improvements to the design and manufacturing efficiency.

Question 18

Draw and explain the S-Curve of technology diffusion

Answer 18

1. Adoption initially slow because technology is unfamiliar
2. It accelerates as technology becomes better understood
3. Eventually the market is saturated and rate of new adoptions declines

Categories
1. Innovators
2. Early adopters
CHASM
3. Early Majority 
4. Late Majority 
5. Laggards

Question 19

What’s Moore’s chasm?

Answer 19

Between early adopters and early majority

Question 20

What’s the relationship between adoption and diffusion?

Answer 20

Adoption and diffusion are two sides of the same coin: the diffusion of an innovation depends on the adoption by users.

The adoption of innovation often follows an s-curve pattern.

The technological performance often follows an s-curve pattern. Slowing performance improvements may indicate when an industry matures.

Question 21

What signs show industry maturity?

Answer 21

Slowing performance improvements