Customer Acceptance: The Key to Successful Introductions of Innovations

Of the three ingredients required for a commercially successful innovation to occur – the technological feasibility, the entrepreneur, and the customer need/want – the most important is customer need. The notion of customer acceptance of a technological innovation prior to its diffusion has largely been neglected in research on marketing. However, marketing personnel and the entire business community need to understand the reasons behind customer acceptance or rejection in order to become more efficient in research and development and to contribute to the competitiveness and profitability of the firm. Examines the determinants of diffusion; those factors which determine whether or not an innovation is accepted, with special note of determinants of customer acceptance of an innovation.