Journal of Business Research 64 (2011) 1147–1150

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Business Research

Winning strategies for innovation and high-technology products management

Sang-Hoon Kim a,⁎, Kun-Huang Huarng b,⁎⁎
a
Seoul National University, Republic of Korea
b
Feng Chia University, Taiwan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Though numerous studies examine the issues on innovation, diffusion, and adoption of high-tech products,
Received 1 December 2010 the industry practitioners still have many questions unanswered. Twenty papers in this special issue of the
Received in revised form 1 March 2011 Journal of Business Research explore six major venues in this area. The contributors presented the studies in the
Accepted 1 April 2011
track of innovation, diffusion, and adoption of high-tech products at the Global Marketing Conference held in
Available online 28 July 2011
Tokyo, Japan in September 9–12, 2010. All these papers have gone through double-blind reviews and
Keywords:
revisions. The scholars share the successful experiences in innovation, analyze the diffusion of information
Adoption and communication technology, investigate the adoption of high-tech products, discuss the technology
Diffusion management issues, and evaluate the marketing strategies for high-tech products.
High-tech © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Innovation

1. Introduction
Innovation has become a key concept in the business world as the
global economy seeks to escape from a period of major recession.
Despite developments of so many breakthrough technologies and
products, high-tech firms, big or small, are still struggling in creating
and extending the new market opportunities. With technology being
a necessary condition, marketing should play a critical role in fulfilling
the dream of successful diffusion of high-tech products and services.
It is an honor and pleasure of co-guest editors to present high quality
papers that are to provide rigorous and relevant insights into the critical
issues of this area in the special issue of the Journal of Business Research.
This special issue is a direct outcome of the Global Marketing Conference
held in Tokyo, Japan during September 9 to 12 in the year 2010, which
Korean Academy of Marketing Science and Society for Marketing
Advances co-organized. The conference was very successful in the sense
that it gathered scholars from several countries all over the world and that
it received more than 1000 submissions. The track of “Innovation,
Diffusion, and Adoption of High-Tech Products” was one of the most
popular tracks among 48 of them at the conference. The conference papers
submitted to this track went through three stages of blind review
processes, and the guest editors are proud to include 20 most excellent
papers in this issue.
⁎ Correspondence to: S.-H. Kim, Graduate School of Business, Seoul National
University, 599 Gwanak-Ro, Gwanak-Gu, Seoul 151-916, Republic of Korea. Tel.: + 82
2 880 6934.
⁎⁎ Correspondence to: K.-H. Huarng, 100 Wenhua Rd., Seatwen, Taichung 40724,
Taiwan.
E-mail addresses: profkim@snu.ac.kr (S.-H. Kim), khhuarng@fcu.edu.tw
(K.-H. Huarng).
The following sections discuss major issues in the research area of
innovation, diffusion, and adoption, and then summarize the papers
included in this special issue. In the last section, the guest-editors
acknowledge the contributors to this special issue.
2. Emerging issues in innovation and diffusion research
When the first edition of Everett M. Rogers' book of Diffusion of
Innovation came out in 1962, there were 405 papers on the topic
(Rogers, 1995). The total number of publications in innovation diffusion
grew ten-fold by 1995, over 4000. It is almost certain that the number
would be more than 40,000 by now. Considering that the key word of
“innovation” is popular across all academic subcategories of business
research, it might be far beyond our guesstimate.
With such a long history and great interest, innovation literature
has sought to answer the questions such as:
• How can firms successfully develop innovative new products or
services?
• Which innovation characteristics affect consumers' adoption of
innovative new products and how?
• How can we forecast the speed and pattern of innovation diffusion?
• How can we forecast the demand of innovative new products?
• How do consumers behave in adopting (i.e., making decisions and
purchasing) innovative products?
• What are the roles and traits of innovators and other adopter categories?
• What roles do marketing actions play in innovation adoption and
diffusion?
A myriad of behavioral studies investigated the phenomenon of
innovation adoption and diffusion, thereby yielding numerous managerial

0148-2963/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2011.06.013
1148 S.-H. Kim, K.-H. Huarng / Journal of Business Research 64 (2011) 1147–1150
insights valuable for managers of high-tech firms. Meanwhile, modeling
and forecasting of innovation diffusion constitutes another big stream of
research. As Sultan, Farley, and Lehmann (1990) report in a meta-analysis
study, innovation diffusion models, including the famous Bass model and
its variants, have become very effective as well as efficient. Another
substantive venue of innovation research is so-called technology
acceptance models (TAM), first introduced by Fred Davis in 1989. Though
the key elements of Davis (1989) model are ease of use and usefulness,
there are various versions of TAM incorporating variables such as
compatibility, complexity, and relative advantage based on earlier studies
(e.g., Tornatzky & Klein, 1982). To reflect diverse context and product
uniqueness, scholars have replicated and extended the TAM models in all
possible directions (e.g., Venkatesh & Davis, 2000).
Although huge literature of innovation research answered many of
the above questions, both the scholars and practitioners still face
challenges to address the issues such as the following.
• How can firms make their innovation processes successful?
• How can firms successfully commercialize technologies?
• What factors affect the global diffusion of high-tech products?
• What roles do online buzz and social networks play in innovation
adoption and diffusion?
• What kinds of strategic behavior do consumers make and how
should marketers respond to them?
• What marketing strategies are effective in creating new markets?
We briefly discuss the above six issues one by one.
First, despite the fact that there is plenty of research tackling
innovation process, firms are still struggling in making it successful.
One possibility is that current research fails to notice that there are
different factors working at different stages of innovation develop-
ment. Further, firms need to consider innovation process not only in
the realm of business but also in the broad context of social change.
Second, technology commercialization gets more and more important
as companies seek for growing opportunities in the midst of recession.
However, studies in this area haven't made big strides for decades. Active
research on many critical issues such as industry-university collaboration,
technology transfer, and the evaluation of early-stage high-tech firms, is
necessary.
Third, as the world becomes smaller, the issue of global diffusion
garners more attention. Therefore, more research on technology
adoption needs to focus on the country level adoption rather than
individual or company level ones. To better understand and forecast
the country level diffusion, one needs to figure out the differences
among various economies in terms of information and communica-
tion infrastructure. Measurements and classification schemes are
essential in order to build and test the theories on this matter.
The fourth challenging issue in innovation and diffusion research is
regarding the role of social networks. A unified TAM developed by
Venkatesh, Davis, Morris, Davis, and Davis (2003) identify social influence
as a key construct that determines both usage intention and usage
behavior. Though theoretical research in this venue is very active these
days (e.g. Goldenberg et al., 2009; Goldenberg, Libai, & Muller, 2001), the
number of empirical studies is negligible. Also, theoretical and empirical
work on the effectiveness of online word-of-mouth activities will enhance
the understanding of consumers' innovation adoption behavior.
Fifth, consumer behavior research in the context of high-tech
marketing needs to further address the strategic behavior of consumers.
Techno-savvy consumers armed with vast information behave in an
opportunistic way. They balk at the new product introduction and
frequently leapfrog (i.e., skip a version of a product for the next one).
They try to minimize economic and physical risks in many ways.
Sometimes they even produce and disseminate false information or lead
negative campaigns to protect their own benefit. Further theoretical
developments on post-adoption behavior also appear to be promising.
Finally, empirical work on the linkage of various marketing
strategies and their effects would be desirable. As companies design
and manufacture their products in many different countries, the
concept of country-of-origin (COO) has evolved into a multi-national
one. Scholars need to reexamine the effects of country of manufacture
and country of brand in a more realistic and complicated setting. As
social network service (SNS) plays important roles in the adoption of
innovation, efficiency and effectiveness of marketing strategies based
on online or mobile SNS ask for verification.
The guest editors believe that the current special issue of Journal of
Business Research is a first step to reply to the questions discussed above.
This special issue covers a wide spectrum of innovation research, but it
focuses mainly on the critical themes above, thereby contributing to
both academia and industry. Some comments on each paper follow.
3. Successful innovation
Innovation not only has a direct impact on the viability of a firm
but also influences the social and economic change (Sorensen &
Stuart, 2000). Jie Wu investigates the asymmetric roles of business
ties and political ties in the innovation processes. A survey examines
Chinese firms across multiple sectors and draws interesting results on
different impacts by the two types of ties.
Product development and innovation are vital to firm's success
(Yalcinkaya, Calantone, & Griffith, 2007). Innovation is more critical
in the high-tech industries (Kobrin, 1991; Madhok & Osegowitsch,
2000). Ana Lisboa, Dionysis Skarmeas, and Carmen Lages investigate
the role of firm's customers and competitor orientation, in driving
innovative capabilities and the impact of these capabilities on firm's
current and future performance. Findings suggest different relation-
ships to exploitative and/or explorative capabilities.
Various factors may affect innovation at different stages of adoption.
Nicole Vowles, Peter Thirkell, and Ashish Sinha study which factors best
explain business to business adoption of a radical, high-tech innovation
early in the diffusion process. Early lifecycle data provide insights about
the differences in determinants of adoption at different times in the
product diffusion process. The results indicate that differences do exist
among the determinants of early adoption, intent to adopt later, and
unawareness of the innovation.
4. Technology diffusion
Information and communications technology (ICT) impacts the
countries all over the world (Huarng, 2010; Huarng & Yu, 2011). Some
studies examine the ICT adoption at country level (Lee, Shin, & Kim, 2010;
Pohjola, 2003) while some at firm level (Corrocher & Fontana, 2008;
Martins & Oliveira, 2008; Nasco, Toledo, & Mykytyn, 2008). However, the
least squares method only shows the impact of the estimated coefficients
on the mean. Tiffany Hui-Kuang Yu applies quantile regression to
examine the heterogeneous effects of various factors on global ICT
adoption. This study shows that the effects at different quantile levels are
very different from those at their counterpart conditional means. And the
effects at different quantile levels help to explain many situations that are
hard to interpret by the least squares method.
ICT covers a wide range of technologies (World Bank, Global ICT
Department, 2003). How to find effective variables to measure ICT is
always a hot issue (Grigorovici, Constantin, Jayakar, Taylor, & Schement,
2004; Hilbert, López, & Vásquez, 2010). Instead of using many variables
as in relevant studies, Kun-Huang Huarng classifies ICT developments
by economies with a clustering technique and with only two essential
variables: the number of internet subscribers and gross domestic
product. A comparative analysis for 121 economies covering the period
from 1999 to 2007 provides results similar to those in United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development and International Telecommu-
nication Union, and helps to explain different ICT developments in
various economies.
As an innovative technology, Internet Protocol television (IPTV)
provides advanced, customized, and personalized television services with
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interactivity which is different from the traditional media. Juran Kim and
Ki Hoon Lee identify clusters of users on the basis of the motivations of
using IPTV and examine the relationships among the users’ motivations,
actual interactions, perceived interactivity, and attitude toward the
technology.
Technology readiness (TR) refers to people's tendency to adopt and
use new technologies. The measurement of TR is related to the
assessment of consumers' attitudes and beliefs toward technology
(Parasuraman, 2000). However, few studies focus on TR in post-adoption
behavior. Minhee Son and Kyesook Han investigate how TR affects the
consumers’ intention to use new technologies continuously. A survey on
IPTV users in Korea provides managerial implications.
5. Adoption of high-tech products
Internet users generate and exchange a huge number of messages on
products, named online buzz or word-of-mouth every day. These
messages stimulate other users to create other messages or disseminate
them across online consumer review sites, individual blogs, and social
network service sites (Li, Elliot, & Choi, 2010). Jaihak Chung applies a
diffusion model to monthly sales and online buzz data collected from
five countries to investigate the interactive dynamics of online buzz
activities. Jaihak Chung probes on how online buzz activities shapes the
diffusion process of new mobile phones, what encourages online buzz
activities, and how these activities affect each other within a country and
across countries.
In the context of prompt adoption, Sang-Hoon Kim and Hyun Jung
Park investigate the effects of social influence on consumers' innovation
adoption. Sang-Hoon Kim and Hyun Jung Park model the duration of
voluntary adoption as a function of social norms, attractiveness of the
prompter, number of prompters, etc. Prior knowledge serves as a
control variable and as a moderating variable for a few social factors. The
results provide insights for marketing practitioners on how to accelerate
consumers' adoption decisions and therefore the diffusion of innovative
products.
Following Mehrabian and Russell's (1974) Stimulus–organism–
response framework, Seunghyun Lee, Sejin Ha, and Richard Widdows
propose that high-technology product attributes elicit consumers’
cognitive and affective states, contributing to their approach–avoidance
behavior. A survey on high-technology product users shows the
influences of the high-technology product attributes.
Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, Nadine Hennigs, Lars Pankalla, Martin
Kassubek, and Barbara Seegebarth examine risk-related adoption barriers
and their impact upon innovation resistance to sustainable solutions in
the automotive sector. A cluster analysis to private drivers with reference
to the risk dimensions in the context of a possible purchase of a Natural
Gas Vehicle (NGV) shows the resistance reasons. Understanding the
specific reasons for NGV innovation resistance may help marketers to
devise strategies to reduce risk-related adoption barriers.
Manufacturers tend to target consumers' fear of product obsoles-
cence by offering products in a modular form. Many studies focus on the
supply-side perspective, while consumers' response to product strategy
remains relatively unexplored. Seh-Woong Chung, Jin K. Han, and
Yong Seok Sohn explore how consumers weigh the potential benefits
vis-à-vis its likely downside on arriving at product-form preferences.
Meanwhile, few studies examine how motivational factors and
service type influence post adoption behavior. Hun Choi, Youngchan
Kim, and Jinwoo Kim investigate the determinants of post adoption
behavior in the mobile data services (MDS). The findings from a nation-
wide online survey in Korea help to provide guidelines for MDS
providers to select a target market and to devise a strategy accordingly.
6. Technology management
Collaboration between universities and industries can be of great
mutual benefits. The industry–university collaboration (IUC) aims to
1149
close the gap between industry and academia. Wen-Hsiang Lai
conducts a study to analyze the willingness to engage in technology
transfer (TT) in IUCs. Different parties, including universities,
industry, and TT intermediary institutes, show various concerns.
To get the financial aids from the government is critical to assist
small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) to grow. How can an SME
successfully apply the funds to aid its technological development is
always an interesting issue to explore. Domingo Ribeiro Soriano and
Marta Peris-Ortiz examine the database of The Institute for Small and
Medium Industry of the Generalitat Valenciana (IMPIVA), Spain to
find the successful factors to win the government funds.
7. Marketing strategies
A firm's global marketing strategy has a positive effect on its global
market performance (Craig & Douglas, 2000; Kustin, 2010; Zou &
Cavusgil, 2002). Chih-Wen Wu considers the role of global marketing
strategy and its relationship to market orientation, international
experience, and performance in the high tech products context.
Empirical analysis tests the relationships by using mail survey data
from 172 business units of high tech firms. Findings identify key
determinants of organizational performance and their relationships.
Brand equity is a popular topic in practice and in academic research.
The COO effect is a key theoretical and empirical issue related to brand
equity in the international marketing and consumer behavior fields
(Ahmed & d’ Astous, 2006). However, few studies investigate the effects
of COO on international buyers' evaluations of industrial brand equity in
the newly-industrialized economies, such as Taiwan. With the adoption
of advanced technology and equipment, have unique and innovative
fastener products from Taiwan generated the country-of-origin effects
in international B2B buyers' minds? Yi-Min Chen, Yi-Fan Su, and Feng-
Jyh Lin propose a conceptual framework for industrial branding to
investigate and validate the sources of industrial branding.
In Internet era, new types of digital products are for sale by many
online service companies due to community factors. For example, social
network service companies sell customers digital decoration products
for online avatars, etc. While previous studies on customer valuation
focus on some important issues for identifying valuable customers, few
studies target on the effect of products as gifts for another person.
Young-Hyuck Joo, Yunsik Kim, and Suk-Joon Yang verify the effect of
two representative social network properties (tie strength and the
number of ties) on customer value (monetary value) empirically.
Networks facilitate the exchange of innovative digital products as
well as product information among consumers, which have significant
effects on their purchasing behavior (Banerjee, 1992). In particular,
consumer networks play an important role in diffusing not only
information by online word-of-mouth (Goldenberg et al., 2001) but
also innovative products through SNS companies. Young-Hyuck Joo,
Yunsik Kim, and Suk-Joon Yang conduct a survey of 2615 customers of a
South Korean SNS website. A model with more explanatory power
provides suggestions to find valuable customers and improve customer
value.
Customers' willingness to purchase may vary depending on the
product category due to the limitations of virtual shopping. Yoon C. Cho
examines expectations and dissatisfaction of purchasing perishable
grocery goods online based on purchasing experiences of sensory goods
(e.g., clothes, shoes, etc.) from both online and other direct channels.
Surveys and empirical analyses offer suggestions to e-businesses.
Heonsoo Jung develops a stylized signaling game that captures the
essential dynamics of new product preannouncements to study a
market in which two firms compete (entrant preannounces and
incumbent responds) across two periods. From the study, only the
entrant has private information about the true quality of its new
product, and this informational asymmetry provides the entrant with a
preannouncement dilemma. The entrant may have an incentive to bluff
the quality of its new product to keep its customers waiting. However,
1150 S.-H. Kim, K.-H. Huarng / Journal of Business Research 64 (2011) 1147–1150
the quality exaggeration is likely to increase customers' quality
expectations. As a result, the entrant may suffer from a significant
sales penalty if it does not deliver the promised quality. Through the
developed signaling game, Heonsoo Jung derives conditions under
which such a bluff does/does not put the preannouncing firm at risk.
Acknowledgements
Without the help of many independent reviewers, the guest editors
are not able to bring together this special issue. We acknowledge
these following reviewers' precious time and efforts with thanks (in
alphabetical order): Sung-ah Ahn, Chygye University for the Arts; Gary
Castrogiovanni, Florida Atlantic University; Kyoung Cheon Cha, Seoul
School of Integrated Sciences & Technologies; Ja Young Choi, Soongsil
University; Jeonghye Choi, Yonsei University; Sang Lin Han, Hanyang
University; Shueh-Cheng Hu, Providence University; Don Jyh-Fu Jeng,
National Cheng Kung University; Hyun Mo Kang, Kookmin University; Jin
Gyo Kim, Seoul National University; Sang Yong Kim, Korea University;
Jang Hyuk Lee, Korea University; Jieun Lee, Choong-Ang University; Shi-
Woei Lin, Yuan Ze University; Yi-Hsin Lin, Asia University; Chan Su Park,
Korea University; Jeong-Eun Park, Ewha Women's University; Kiwan Park,
Seoul National University; Se-Bum Park, Yonsei University; Yu-Shu Peng,
National Dong Hwa University; Gang Seog Ryu, Korea University; In Seong
Song, Seoul National University; Chan Joo Suh, Sookmyung Women's
University; David Han-Min Wang, Feng Chia University; Su-Hua Wang,
Chung Hua University; Colin C. Williams, University of Sheffield; Feng-
Shang Wu, National ChengChi University; Shi Jin Yoo, Korea University.
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