Lead users and the adoption and diffusion of new products: Insights from two extreme sports communities.

Wirtschaftswissenschaften

Schreier, Martin, Oberhauser, Stefan, Prügl, Reinhard

Lead users and the adoption and diffusion of new products: Insights from two extreme sports communities.

Schreier, Martin, Oberhauser, Stefan, Prügl, Reinhard: Lead users and the adoption and diffusion of new products: Insights from two extreme sports communities., Marketing Letters, 2007; Jg. 18 (1-2): 15-30: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1305668.

Originalarbeiten in wissenschaftlichen Fachzeitschriften mit Review-Verfahren

Lead users are proposed as a valuable resource for marketers in terms of the (1) development, (2) adoption, and (3) diffusion of new products. We present the first consumer study to provide evidence that the latter two suggestions are justified. First, we find that lead users demonstrate stronger domain-specific innovativeness than more "ordinary" users. Second, lead users perceive new technologies as less "complex" and might therefore be better prepared to adopt them. Third, we find that lead users demonstrate stronger opinion leadership and weaker opinion seeking tendencies. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the marketing of new products.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1305668

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