Assessing the Lead Market Potential of Countries for Innovation Projects

Marian Beise and Thomas Cleff
Additional contact information
Marian Beise: Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB), Kobe University, Japan
Thomas Cleff: Pforzheim University of Applied Scienses, Germany

No 142, Discussion Paper Series from Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University

Abstract: This paper presents an approach to assessing the potential of countries to increase the likelihood that locally preferred innovation designs become successful in other countries, too. The concept suggests that for many innovations lead markets exist that initiate the international diffusion of a specific design of an innovation. Once a specific innovation design has been adopted by users in the lead market chances are that it subsequently becomes adopted by users in other countries as well. Lead markets can be utilised for the development of global innovation designs. By focusing on the design of the innovation which responds to the preferences within the lead market, a company can leverage the success experienced in the lead market for global market launch. In order to follow a lead market strategy of new product development, it is necessary to assess the lead market potential of countries before an innovation is developed and tested in the market. This paper presents an indicator-based methodology that approximates the lead market attributes of countries. This assessment methodology was applied to two innovation projects at the truck division of DaimlerChrysler AG. The method produces information that is of importance for the development phase and the market launch of globally standardised innovations.

Keywords: Innovation; Global Diffusion; Market Entry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2003-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp/academic/ra/dp/English/dp142.pdf First version, 2003 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kob:dpaper:142

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Paper Series from Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University 2-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501 JAPAN. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Office of Promoting Research Collaboration, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University ().