Market Participant Study

The market participant study documented in the following chapter addresses the fourth research question, investigating the views that market participants in the field of age-based innovations take on lead markets. While the previous chapters already incorporate some information empirically gathered in personal communication, they do not reflect a broader market participant perspective on lead markets in age-based innovations: Are lead markets in age-based innovations an academic concept only or do market participants also perceive country-specific differences and cross-national diffusion patterns? And if so, which factors do market participants perceive as drivers of this phenomenon? Are there specific countries that are consistently perceived as leaders in adoption and diffusion or do country roles of leader and laggard change? Do common factors drive lead market development for the entire class of age-based innovations or are there noticeable differences between the diverse products and services covered by this term?

To date, lead market research has methodologically been largely relying on two types of investigations – first, the study of longitudinal adoption and diffusion patterns based on sales data and second, the analysis of lead market potentials for individual innovation commercialization projects.