Fill’er Up or Fries?

Fill’er Up or Fries?

Competitors are sometimes difficult to penetrate. Whether a company seeks to innovate and monopolize (firm specific advantages FSAs) or quickly diffuse its technology throughout a market place depends upon the product’s ability to deliver profitability, growth and sustained survival of the business according to Kolk and Pinkse (2008) who describe the possibility that fast-food outlets might soon provide the first adopter mass market positioning for alternative auto fuels.

Similarly, an e-learning blog that highlights new gadgets from time to time -things that early adopters crave catches the eye. How soon before all of us are nodding in agreement while wearing goggles like EduPOV instead of staring at screens as pragmatic users of this new product (early adopters will have already moved on to something else)?

How many monitor designers would willingly sell or develop EduPOV with potential leveragability undercutting their market share? Maybe Raybans could run with it instead?

Some of the issues relating to a chasm of early foresight in terms of graduate sustainability are described briefly here. Has anyone read Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming? (2007)

Egmonda, Jonkersb and Kok (2006) describe this sustainability chasm in bridging early adoption and pragmatic use consumers and a strategy to address it in respect to developing energy related innovations among householder associations:

1. Identify policy-desirable innovative products.
2. Identify a mainstream niche in the target consumer group.
3. Produce an innovation to satisfy the niche.
4. Commence advertising and marketing.

The question returns,"who designates policies, businesses or democratically elected governments?" Without the fashion of sustainability what innovative progresses really benefit?

Market Creation Logistics Case Study

The last few years my students have been making presentations on "The Blue Ocean Strategy" by W. Chan Kim and Rene Mauborgne which describes the creation of a market share or space where there previously was none. The concept popped up again while researching recommendations for improvements in logistics and food supply chain here in Korea. CJ -Global Logisitics Services (CJ-GLS) has developed a remote EDI/bar code recognition system similar to GPS which innovates through eliminating hand scanning time on individual break bulk freight loads in shipping and receiving through envisioning a method to reduce labour costs and handling time in the overall supply chain. Out of the seven major logistics companies in Korea, it came sixth in market share in 2004 so while it was and is not a market leader it was the first to reduce receiving inspection time from 10 to 3 seconds and shipping inspection time from 600 to 3 seconds on single units of product. This saves energy.

Risky Technologies Often Overinvested

DeMarzoa, Kaniel, & Kremera (2007) “Technological innovation and real investment booms and busts” describe cases of irrational exuberance in terms of new technologies investment in the US giving the example of over development of optical fibre networks with 2-3% utilization rates as of 2003. They consider excessive investment in risky technology is the norm rather than the exception especially in cases of future growth and adoption predictions which provide positive outcomes. Conversely competitors and variables such as jealousy and “keeping up with the Joneses” provokes further investment in risky technologies with lowered returns according to their over investment calculations and formulas.

DeMarzo, P., et al.(2007) “Technological innovation and real investment booms and busts,” Journal of Financial Economics, http://www.faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~rkaniel/webpage/papers/bubbletechnology.pdf [Accessed: May 12, 2009]

Egmonda C., Jonkersb, R. and Kok, G. (2006)“A strategy and protocol to increase diffusion of energy related innovations into the mainstream of housing associations,” Energy Policy, Volume 34, Issue 18, December 2006, Pages 4042-4049.[Accessed: May 12, 2009]

Kim, C, Yang, K & Kim, J. (2006) "A strategy for third-party logistics systems: A case analysis using the blue ocean strategy," Special Issue on Logistics: New Perspectives and Challenges, Omega, Volume 36, Issue 4, August 2008, Pages 522-534.

Kolk, A. and Pinkse, J. (2008) “A perspective on multinational enterprises and climate change: Learning from “an inconvenient truth,” Journal of International Business Studies (2008) 39, 1359–1378, Academy of International Business.[Accessed: May 12, 2009]

"Strategic Advertsing Management" by Larry Percy, John R. Rossiter, and Richard Elliot (numerous useful weblinks relating to the importance of developing successful advertising and marketing) [Accessed: May 12, 2009]