The interaction between product concept and institutional inducement: a new driver of product innovation

The findings of our study clearly suggest that "product concept" drives pro duct innovation. The very term "product concept" itself is often used in a vague, almost philosophical way: though it appears frequently in economic l iterature, the authors of this report feel that its true significance is no t widely recognized. However, based on the enterprises we examined in the c ourse of this study, not only is the notion of "product concept" frequently invoked by managers as an operational objective, but it does actually play an important role in product development. Technological innovation can tak e place at various stages of the process of product innovation, but this do es not mean that it is absolutely the "driving" force behind product innova tion. Rather, our study found that technological innovation occurred in ord er to give a product concept actual "material substance". Moreover, we obse rved that technological innovation plays a vital role as a strategy in crea ting competitive barriers between companies and their competitors. But foll owing Kuhn, who first demonstrated that innovation is the creation of new p aradigms, we found that product innovation occurred in the wake of new conc epts. In other words, technological innovation is pulled along by the advan ce of product concepts. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rig hts reserved.