Managing interorganizational diffusion of technological innovations

Article Abstract:

Industrial market sales processes are often long and protracted. These processes typically involve a "trial" stage when several competing options may be tested. Then, a smaller set of products may be bought in greater quantities for use. Hence, the central marketing problems in industrial (or business-to-business) markets for technological products are related to obtaining "adoption" (initial trial) and, subsequently, to effecting diffusion of the new product or technology within the buying organization. In the context of technology-based product-markets characterized by compression of technology cycles, it is imperative that vendors of such products develop appropriate strategies to speed-up both trial adoptions and subsequent organization-wide purchases. Unfortunately, most research on diffusion of technological innovations in business organizational settings is devoted to initial adoption. The importance of post-trial sales in business markets underscores the need for research on intraorganizational diffusion of innovations. To this end the authors suggest a framework and research propositions for intraorganizational diffusion of technological products based on five sets of variables: characteristics of buying organizations, buying center dynamics, buying organization's environmental characteristics, product characteristics, and the competitive environment of selling organizations. More effective management and control of these factors contribute to better key account management practices. Consequences of more effective intraorganizational diffusion create advantages for both selling and buying organizations. These advantages, in turn, lead to more profitable long-run buyer-seller relationships. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Interorganizational relations, Diffusion of innovations

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Segmenting the global market by usage rate of industrial products

Article Abstract:

This a priori segmentation-based study aims to segment the world market according to usage rate in terms of forty-three industrial products and determine which group of countries are heavy users of what kind of products. The result needed a multi-attitude interpretation. The initial results showed that it cannot be generalized whether countries in one cluster are heavy, medium, or light users of all kinds of industrial products, because fifty-five countries (Cluster 1) are light users of thirty-six products, twenty-eight countries (Cluster 2) are medium users of twenty-eight products, and seven countries (Cluster 3) are heavy users of twenty-five products. On the other hand twenty-five similar products are heavily used in Cluster 3, used to a medium in Cluster 2, and lightly used in Cluster 1. Another combination of eleven similar products is lightly used in Cluster 1, heavily used in Cluster 2 and used to a medium level in Cluster 3. Finally seven products have scattered differently among the clusters. This necessitates implementing different target market strategies for each product group in any country cluster. Meanwhile, discriminant results indicated that countries in Cluster 3 have largest average export per capita, highest percentage of economically active female population, lowest inflation rate, highest energy consumption, highest air pollution and lowest population density. On the other hand, countries in Cluster 1 showed results opposite to those of Cluster 3, and countries of Cluster 2 were in the middle. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Usage, Marketing, International aspects, International business enterprises, Multinational corporations, Products, Market segmentation, Target marketing

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