Title
Innovation And Imitation Effects' Dynamics In Technology Adoption
Abstract
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate longitudinal patterns of ICT and non-ICT products' adoption over life cycles.Design/methodology/approach - The Bass diffusion model is used to discern distinctive changes in users' adoption behavior due to the innovation and the imitation effects.Findings - The innovation effect is more influential for innovators and opinion leaders than it is for all adopters. However, it diminishes as time passes. Conversely, the imitation effect becomes a more powerful factor for the early majority, late majority and laggards. The imitation effect in the ICT industry is greater than that in the non-ICT industry, revealing the high network effect in ICT diffusion.Research limitations/implications - Mobile phones are not the representative of all ICTs as the automobiles also do not represent all utility products. More ICT and conventional products need to be included and compared for greater generalization of the results from different countries.Practical implications - By identifying the strong innovation effect of a new product at the early stage of its adoption, and the social network effect in the acceleration of the adoption speed through massive numbers of imitating consumers, this research reveals the ever shrinking product life cycle and therefore the importance of continuous disruptive innovation as a competitive strategy for organizations.Originality/value - The paper provides new theoretical insights into the technology adoption research by using a mathematical modeling methodology using real data. The study provides new insights into the strategic implications of innovation and imitation effects for technology service providers.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1108/IMDS-02-2013-0065
INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT & DATA SYSTEMS
Keywords
Field
DocType
Technology diffusion, ICT adoption, Innovation, Imitation, Network effect, Product life cycle, Bass model
ICTS,Network effect,Bass diffusion model,Imitation,Information and Communications Technology,Engineering,Opinion leadership,Product lifecycle,Marketing
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
113
6
0263-5577
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
11
0.81
23
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Sang-Gun Lee124714.15
Silvana Trimi242425.68
Chang-soo Kim310114.01