【公开学术报告】Experimentation Meets S-curve:

Experimentation Meets S-curve:

Product Innovation in the Drone Industry around Precision Agriculture

Guest Speaker:    Dian YU (Carnegie Mellon University) 

Date & Time: 9:30-11:00 (Beijing Time), Fri. 11th, Nov. 2022

Zoom Meeting: 881 328 48618（Password: 664527）

Click the Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88132848618 

ABSTRACT

How does product innovation evolve? Innovation theories take a “convergence” perspective, whereby the focus is on how a single standard becomes accepted. However, institutional theories suggest the possibility of a “divergence” perspective, whereby the focus is on how other standards can be legitimated and accepted. To make inroads into this question and theoretical tension, this paper examines how formal standards (regulative institutional factors), industry consortia (normative institutional factors), and knowledge providers (cognitive institutional factors) interact to differentially impact observed firm product features. The drone industry around precision agriculture is a heavily regulated yet nascent market that serves as a useful context to explore the product innovation process. I test the proposed model of product innovation using panel data on new introductions of 464 UAS platforms targeted at precision agriculture sector released between 2000 to 2021. While regulatory standards do lead to product innovation converge, local institutional carriers play a key role in either enhancing or acting against such convergence. Firms located near industry consortia tend to experiment less and align with the emerging standard whereas firms located near knowledge providers tend to experiment more and diverge from the emerging standard. This piece presents a new more holistic perspective on the evolution of product innovation that combines our preexisting perspectives on innovation with emerging ones from institutional theory, namely that around entrepreneurship. This also has managerial implications. While accounting for regulations is crucial, managers may find looking at how local institutional carriers respond to standards trends important in how they modulate product design choices.