Manufacturer Product Line Decisions In Growing Consumer Technology Markets: A Case of Digital Cameras

<p>The objective of this dissertation is to deepen our understanding of competitive and demand drivers of manufacturer new product introductions in consumer technology markets.</p><p>Researchers in economics and marketing commonly view differentiated products as combinations of "attributes" that are located in multi-attribute space. In first study presented in Chapter 2 of this dissertation, I conform to this common view of products as multi-attribute bundles and, therefore, carefully construct both a multi-attribute product space, as well as, and even more importantly, product clusters within this multi-attribute product space. I focus on the early stages of US Digital Cameras category: 1998-2000). Operationalizing and classifying all existing products in the category, as well as each new product introduction: when it occurs), on a common space of objective product attributes allows us to: 1) explicitly understand whether a given introduction is an incremental innovation or a radical innovation, and: 2) whether it is an introduction in to a cluster where the firm already has a strong presence or not etc. Further, it allows us to understand whether the new product introduction decisions of a firm are influenced by relative cluster characteristics which, in turn, are influenced by competitors' new product introductions in the different clusters etc. In the Chapter 2 of this dissertation I focus on two specific new product introduction decisions of digital camera manufacturers: timing and positioning. Additional insights are obtained from empirically estimating a pricing model using the same product cluster conceptual framework.</p><p>In Chapter 3, I study new product preannouncements, which have become commonplace in manufacturers product strategy in consumer technology markets. Here I undertake a detailed empirical analysis of the demand effects of product preannouncements within the digital cameras category. I estimate a new product adoption model using monthly data on product-level availability, sales and prices across hundreds of digital cameras that were introduced over a period of 4 years. I study the effects of the incidence and timing of a product preannouncement on demand for the preannounced product: i.e., digital camera model), as well as demand for its competitors. In doing this, I implicitly accommodate the impact of product preannouncements for individual products on category-level demand growth. Using a detailed model-based accounting of preannouncement effects, I separate the effects of a preannouncement on: 1) innovation and word-of-mouth components underlying demand for the preannounced product, and: 2) consumer preferences for preannounced product attributes. I demonstrate the managerial implications of the estimated preannouncement effects using a numerical experiment.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Lakishyk, Kyryl

Contributors dc:contributor

• Chakravarthi Narasimhan

• Demand Estimation
• Digital Cameras
• New Product Introductions
• Product Competition
• Product Preannouncements

Language dc:language

English (en)

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7936/K78G8HQ6

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openscholarship.wustl.edu:etd-2011