Industrial Buying Behaviour and the Adoption of Innovations

Abstract

Although precise measurement has yet to be achieved, it is generally accepted that technological innovation is a significant contributor to overall economic growth. At the same time, it is clear that a substantial proportion of all new products and processes fail to achieve commercial acceptance and so must be viewed as making a negative contribution to such economic growth. Estimates as to failure rates for new products vary widely from over 90 per cent to less than 10 per cent, largely depending upon one’s definition of ‘new product’ and ‘failure’. However, as I have noted elsewhere[1], a review of the available evidence lends support to Donald Schon’s comment that:

In the absence of any clear criteria of success and failure and of adequate statistics, it is not very useful to attempt a quantitative analysis. It is, at any rate, more accurate to say ‘Almost nothing new works’, than to say, ‘Most new developments succeed’.[2]