ABSTRACT
In this paper, we work to systematise the kinds of uncertainty inherent in the marketing of a new-technology product. Our frame is based on the idea that uncertainty can be categorised along dimensions such as the uncertainty about the product, requiring to develop the product as an exchange good, and the uncertainty related to the environment, requiring to develop the product as a product-service complex and relationship. The paper identifies measures and strategies concerning why and how the enterprise and the client ought to manage their relationship, specifying distinctions between environments that are low and high in uncertainty.
INTRODUCTION
Strategic uncertainty about the viability of the next generations of new-technology products looms as a dark cloud over the heads of many managers of new-technology enterprises. The recurring leaps of technology, the shortened product life cycles, and the intensified pressures to innovate that have characterised the recent decades of industrial competition have led to the appearance of new kinds of product-related challenges in many enterprises. The managers of industrial enterprises are now more likely than earlier to launch on the market completely new (revolutionary) innovative products before their level of confidence about the feasibility of such a move is high (Yadav et al., 2006). In enterprises where such moments of technological uncertainty are a recurring experience but one that they have learned to manage, the management of the uncertainty can be said to have emerged as a core competence (Tschirky et al., 2000; Luggen and Koruna, 2004). However, in every enterprise where the competence is based on a system of beliefs of what has worked in the past, rather than a system based on deep reflection or on rigorous analysis of the routines used, doubts remain about the sustainability of the core competence. This paper is an effort to systematise and analyse knowledge about how to market a new-technology product.
Dietmar Roessl et al.
Int. J. Technology Intelligence and Planning, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2008
