Launch Decisions and the Early Market Survival of Innovations: An Empirical Analysis of the Italian Mobile Value‐Added Services (VAS) Industry

There is a surprisingly high number of new products and services that fail to produce enough return on the firm's investments in development and launch activities. Literature has shown that these failures can be due to a poorly planned and executed launch. Although a vast stream of research has studied how strategic and tactical launch decisions affect the performance of new products and services, some issues still need theoretical and empirical investigation. This paper aims to extend new product launch research in two ways. First, it studies how tactical launch decisions (i.e., investments in advertising and involvement of external organizations in the launch process) interact with an important strategic choice (i.e., the degree of radicalness of the new product or service) to affect new product performance. Second, it focuses on a particular dimension of performance, that is, early market survival, which has been overlooked in launch strategy and tactics research so far. Using a data set comprising more than 9300 new mobile value‐added services launched in Italy between 2003 and 2006, the paper finds that launch tactics interact with the radicalness of the innovation to affect early market survival. In particular, communicating the distinctive characteristics of the new product or service and partnering with external organizations during the launch process are tactics that work particularly well with radical innovations. This is possibly due to the fact that they help reduce customers’ uncertainty regarding expected benefits and transaction costs, and hence contribute to win their resistance to adopt the innovation soon after launch. Investments in corporate advertising lead instead to a tangible improvement of the probability of early market survival for both radical and incremental innovations. In other words, the positive impact on the probability of early survival of increasing investments in corporate advertising appears to be relevant for both radically and incrementally new services. One possible explanation is that this tactic helps increase the number of potential customers who come to know about the existence of the innovating firms and its offering soon after launch, but this is likely to be equally important to stimulate early diffusion of both incremental and radical innovations.     

Technology diffusion theory revisited: a regulation,environment, strategy,technology model for technology activation analysis of mobile ICT

Theory on the diffusion of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) is mainly focused on technology diffusion, while prerequisites to such diffusion are largely disregarded or taken for granted. Moreover, few constructs for the assessment of technology diffusion take into account the inherent link between technology and strategy analysis. This study proposes that analysing what comes prior to diffusion and use of technology – here defined as ‘technology activation’ – is equally important, so as to identify external, not user-related determinants that enable or hinder a value proposition based on the new technology. To fill the existing gap and extend technology diffusion theory upstream, the limitations of the technology–organisation–environment model and of other technology diffusion models are reviewed, together with external strategy analysis models, and an original model is proposed to address four macro-determinants that affect technology activation: Regulation, environment, strategy, technology (REST). The REST model is then applied to the Italian mobile location-based services market, to qualitatively validate its comprehensiveness. Conclusions are drawn on the opportunities to extend the mobile technology diffusion analysis process upstream, and to integrate technology analysis with existing research on strategy analysis, thus providing new momentum to mainstream research on innovation diffusion.     

A Resource-Based Approach to Strategy Analysis in Small-Medium Sized Enterprises

Few articles have been published that specifically deal with how to support strategic analysis and management in small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs). In the last decade, however, literature on strategic management has paid considerable attention to the resource-based theory, which seems to fit well the needs of owners and executives of SMEs. The objective of this article is twofold: (i) to present a resource-based view of an SME's sustainable competitive advantage; (ii) to propose an approach to strategy analysis based on such a view.     

eBusiness applications in SMEs of Italian industrial districts: the textile and wood/furniture cases

The paper presents the results of a study dealing with the adoption of eBusiness applications in two Italian industrial districts: the textile district in Como and the wood/furniture district in the area of Brianza. These two districts are part of important “made in Italy” industries, with a high volume of worldwide exports. The goal of the paper is to show how Internet technology is changing the behavior of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in these two local (but with worldwide relevance) districts and to understand how the potential benefits and constraints for SMEs pointed out in several literature contributions are really acting in these districts.

On the Applicability of Analytical Techniques for the Selection of AMTs in Small-Medium Sized Firms

The appraisal and selection of investments in advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) have received a considerable attention in the literature over the last decade. In particular, many articles, after highlighting the major shortcomings of traditional financial techniques when applied to the analysis of AMTs, have proposed alternative approaches, such as modified discounted cash flow techniques, strategic approaches and multi-attribute decision making methods. However, little attention has so far been paid to the applicability of such "non-conventional" approaches to small-medium sized firms (SMFs). This omission is particular critical for two reasons. First, in most SMFs the decision to adopt a given AMT is usually not supported by any technique, but is based rather on an "act of faith" in a new technology on the part of the entrepreneur. Second, there are some non-conventional techniques that seem particularly suitable for SMFs, in that they do not require major financial and strategic competencies or complex information and planning systems. This article seeks to increase the awareness of major non-conventional approaches among the owners and managers of SMFs and analyse critically the applicability of such approaches.     

Making sense of the sharing economy: a business model innovation perspective

ABSTRACT

The emergence of a sharing revolution is leading to a new societal system of collaboration enabled by digital technologies. Although sharing-based initiatives are re-shaping established organisational practices and innovating traditional business models (BMs), existing research fails in grasping the phenomenon's multiple facets. This study aims at making sense of the Sharing Economy (SE) by shedding light on how startups embed the social trend of sharing and leverage digital technologies to develop innovative BMs. We attempt to solve the current theory-practice misalignment by proposing an original framework, definition, and classification of SE startups. The study presents a cluster analysis on 196 SE startups. We argue that SE startups group into five clusters: (i) pseudo-sharing; (ii) gig economy; (iii) crowd-based economy; (iv) pooling economy; and (v) P2P rental. This study contributes to positioning the SE from both a conceptual and an empirical perspective, interpreting the SE phenomenon from the theoretical lenses of BM Innovation, and classifying it through the unit of analysis of startups, intended as empirical vehicles and manifestation of the phenomenon.