Why do you think your paper is highly cited?

For over 40 years, research on innovation and product development has been one of the fundamental challenges in marketing science. Innovation is critical to success in many areas of business and in economies around the world. Marketing researchers are interested in the phenomena of innovation, in methods to identify new opportunities for innovations, and in methods to develop successful products.

Does it describe a new discovery, methodology, or synthesis of knowledge?

The paper synthesizes research on innovation from the perspective of marketing science. The synthesis identifies unsolved problems and recommends areas of productive inquiry.

Would you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

There are five basic research challenges in studying innovation (from a marketing science perspective):

1. Consumer response to innovation, including measures of consumer innovativeness, models to project new product growth, and the impact of buzz.

2. Organizations to address the complexity of innovation with methods that are effective but demanding.

3. Market entry strategies; including technology revolution, strategic entry, and portfolio management.

4. Product development processes to address global pressures, increasingly accurate customer input, and web-based communication for dispersed and global product design, complexity over time and across product lines.

5. Defending against market entry and capturing the rewards of innovating.

How did you become involved in this research, and were there any problems along the way?

The Marketing Science Institute, a partnership of industry and academia, highlighted innovation as one of their most important challenges. We were invited to pull together research on the topic, so that we synthesize research streams with the goal of encouraging rigorous and relevant research.

Where do you see your research leading in the future?

We have been involved in research on innovation for most of our careers. The topic remains important to both the science and the application of marketing. There are many new challenges which are linked to both business practices and our increased understanding of the consumer. We hope to continue in this exciting arena.

Do you foresee any social or political implications for your research?

There is no doubt that innovation is one of the engines that drives economic success and improvement in the quality of life. Those firms and those countries which are most adept at innovation are likely to be the firms and countries that lead us out of difficult economic times and help cement our future.

John R. Hauser
Kirin Professor of Marketing
MIT Sloan School of Management
Web

Gerhard J. Tellis
Professor of Marketing
Neely Chair of American Enterprise
and Director of the Center for Global Innovation
Marshall School of Business
University of SC
Web

Abbie Griffin
Royal L. Garff Presidential Chair in Marketing
Department of Marketing
David Eccles School of Business
University of Utah
Web

KEYWORDS: PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SUCCESS; RESEARCH-AND-DEVELOPMENT; FUZZY FRONT-END; NETWORK EXTERNALITIES; RADICAL INNOVATION; DIFFUSION-MODELS; CONJOINT-ANALYSIS; CONSUMER INNOVATIVENESS; CHOICE MODEL; EMPIRICAL GENERALIZATIONS.