Reject! Why innovative managers might choose not to foster affordable innovation – evidence from three countries

Gurtner, Nadine; Gurtner, Sebastian; Schaarschmidt, Mario (7 June 2023). Reject! Why innovative managers might choose not to foster affordable innovation – evidence from three countries In: 30th International Product Development Management Conference. Lecco, Italy. JUNE 7-9, 2023.

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Affordable innovations refer to new products and services that address customers with a low willingness or ability to pay. Although they can provide considerable economic and societal benefits, managers often prefer premium over affordable innovation. To understand the factors that drive managers to support (or reject) affordable innovations, we conduct a cross-country study and test a structural equation model with 319 participants from Germany, USA, and South Africa. The results show that individuals’ innovativeness plays a pivotal, yet contradictory role for managers’ attitudes towards affordable innovation. While general innovativeness leads to favorable attitudes, technological innovativeness drives the rejection of affordable innovation. Individuals’ perceptions of firm-level and product-level factors as well as cross-country differences are relevant, too. Individuals’ affordable innovation rejection attitude, in turn, leads to less investment into affordable innovation projects. With this research, we contribute to innovation management literature by explaining the conditions under which managers reject affordable innovation.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Division/Institute:	Business School > Institute for Innovation and Strategic Entrepreneurship Business School > Institute for Innovation and Strategic Entrepreneurship > Low-end Innovation Business School
Name:	Gurtner, Nadine0000-0002-5624-8860; Gurtner, Sebastian and Schaarschmidt, Mario
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Language:	English
Submitter:	Nadine Gurtner
Date Deposited:	12 Jun 2023 15:03
Last Modified:	12 Jun 2023 21:46
Related URLs:	https://www.eiasm.org/frontoffice/event_...
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Affordable innovation Affordable innovation rejection attitude Premium innovation
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.19355
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/19355