Francesc Miralles

INNOVATORS AND EARLY ADOPTERS IN THE DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Despite accounting for a very small percentage of the population that adopts an innovation, the ‘innovators’ and ‘early adopters’ — representing the two earliest groups of individuals to acquire the new product or service — play a crucial role in the dissemination of the innovation to larger market segments. The objective of this paper is to understand the characteristics of these individuals that positively influence their decisions to adopt innovations. We argue that awareness of these traits will enable firms to attain speedier uptake of their offerings while aiding policymakers achieve quicker and wider proliferation of new technologies intended for societal benefit. We undertake a review of the literature studying the diffusion of innovations and show future directions that this framework should take to analyse the adoption lifecycle.

The Role of Perceived Risk in Online Information Search and Pre-purchase Alternative Evaluation of Products with Significant Experiential Attributes

While it has been pointed out that search and prepurchase alternative evaluation phases have changed due to consumers’ use of online media, the factors that determine these changes have not been explained. In addition, although it is accepted that perceived risk leads to further information search; this relationship is not clear in online environments. This research explores the manner in which perceived risk affects information search and alternative evaluation of products with significant experiential attributes when online media is used as a source of information. The findings highlight new insights on the effect of perceived risk in information search and alternative evaluation in online environments.

Social Media engagement as an e-commerce driver, a consumer behavior perspective

This study explores the relationship between Social Media engagement and the activation of the consumers purchase process. Following a consumer behavior perspective we study how the new communication paradigm of the Web 2.0 has change the first stage of the e-commerce purchase process, the problem recognition. We use the case of a smartphone purchase, to explore how differences in Social Media (Facebook) engagement would help describe existent differences between the consumers triggers for problem recognition. The results suggest that theres a relationship between the level of engagement and the consumers state that influences the activation of the problem recognition. Implications for e-commerce and Social Media managers are discussed.

Exploring the use of signals in the venture emergence of new technology-based firms

New technology-based firms have to deal with the technology development and market search challenges at the same time. The venture emergence in technology entrepreneurship symbolizes that the new venture has been able to find the right fit for its technology and becomes an operating business. The complex nature and dynamism of technology markets suggest the need to look beyond the venture resources in order to explain how new ventures overcomes the market uncertainty towards their technological products, and become operational businesses. We use a multiple case study of three new technology-based firms to explore the use of signals as market creation strategies in the context of venture emergence. The results suggest that entrepreneurs rely on market, technology and social capital signaling to reduce the uncertainty and advance towards venture emergence. This research holds implications for researchers interested in further exploring the integration of marketing, signaling and entrepreneurship theories and for entrepreneurs interested in overcoming the market uncertainty towards their technology, products and venture performance.

Do great technological ideas make great business opportunities? Entrepreneur's self-regulatory focus in opportunity building

How do technology-based entrepreneurs transform technological ideas into business opportunities? We explore how individuals self-regulatory focus and institutional forces influence in the opportunity construction process. This research addresses the apparent paradox between the exploration efforts of the entrepreneur to find a use for the technological idea, with the institutional pressure advance to opportunity exploitation. We use an inductive multiple-case study with a sample of three technology-based entrepreneurs to shed some light on the phenomena. The results suggest that there is a two-stage process in the transformation of an idea into an opportunity; entrepreneurs ability to moderate their self-regulatory focus is seen to play an important role in this process. These findings hold several implications for entrepreneurs and stakeholders interested in promoting technology-based entrepreneurship.