Cost-benefit model for multi-generational high-technology products to compare sequential innovation strategy with quality strategy

PLoS One. 2021 Apr 7;16(4):e0249124. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0249124. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

In the rapidly changing high-tech industry, firms that produce multi-generational products struggle to consistently introduce new products that are superior in innovativeness. However, developing innovative products in a short time sequence period is likely to cause quality problems. Therefore, considering time and resource constraints, two kinds of strategies are commonly employed: sequential innovation strategy, sequentially introducing a new generation of technology product at every launch interval, ensuring timely innovativeness but with relatively uncertain quality, or quality strategy, intermittently introducing a new generation of products, together with a derivative model between generations to enhance the quality. In this study, we propose a framework for a cost-benefit analysis that compares these two strategies by considering competition between firms within a generation as well as that within a firm across multiple generations (i.e., cannibalization) throughout the launch cycle of high-tech products. We apply our proposed framework to the smartphone market and conduct a sensitivity analysis. The results are expected to contribute to strategic decision-making related to the introduction of multi-generational technology products.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cost-Benefit Analysis*
  • Inventions / economics*
  • Inventions / standards
  • Inventions / trends

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (2020R1A2C2005026).