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Lead users and the adoption and diffusion of new products: Insights from two extreme sports communities

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Abstract

Lead users are proposed as a valuable resource for marketers in terms of the (1) development, (2) adoption, and (3) diffusion of new products. We present the first consumer study to provide evidence that the latter two suggestions are justified. First, we find that lead users demonstrate stronger domain-specific innovativeness than more “ordinary” users. Second, lead users perceive new technologies as less “complex” and might therefore be better prepared to adopt them. Third, we find that lead users demonstrate stronger opinion leadership and weaker opinion seeking tendencies. Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the marketing of new products.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Michael Biach for his significant help in realizing this project, Jürgen Huber for his programming effort, as well as Didi Raditsch and Lukas Steinböck for contributing their expertise in kite surfing. In addition, the paper benefited greatly from comments provided by Christoph Hienerth and Karim Lakhani. We are also grateful to the editor as well as the two anonymous reviewers for their significant insights and suggestions for improvement. Finally, we would also like to acknowledge financial support from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (WU Wien).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (www.e-and-i.org) and Vienna User Innovation Research Initiative (www.userinnovation.at), Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, Nordbergstrasse 15, A-1090, Vienna, Austria

    Martin Schreier, Stefan Oberhauser & Reinhard Prügl

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  1. Martin Schreier
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  2. Stefan Oberhauser
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  3. Reinhard Prügl
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Correspondence to Martin Schreier.

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Schreier, M., Oberhauser, S. & Prügl, R. Lead users and the adoption and diffusion of new products: Insights from two extreme sports communities. Market Lett 18, 15–30 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-006-9009-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-006-9009-3

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