Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
5111016 Industrial Marketing Management 2017 12 Pages PDF
Abstract
Customers who initiate innovation is a topic frequently discussed in the marketing literature. However, the literature largely ignores non-customers - individuals or firms not using products in the category - as potential initiators of innovation in general and of radical innovation in particular. We argue that non-customers have high knowledge of their own needs, but their knowledge of technology is insufficient to self-generate an innovation. By approaching a potential supplier with a high knowledge of technology but an insufficient knowledge of the need, a unique dyad is created, characterized by a bilateral knowledge gap that stimulates increased learning and co-creation of a potentially radical innovation. We use an historical approach to examine the technological and social antecedents and consequences of three innovations initiated by non-customers: air-conditioning, the pill, and the jeep. We contend that non-customers can initiate innovations that may potentially change industries, create new markets, and have long-term social and economic effects.
Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities Business, Management and Accounting Marketing
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