Why Do Most Innovations Fail? - Jagdish Sheth

Overview

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Even when a new product reaches the market, it often fails — and sometimes the most technically superior innovations fall flat while inferior alternatives succeed. This course draws on decades of research into innovation resistance to explain why markets reject new ideas. Learners will examine six root causes of market failure — three rational (poor performance, lack of relative value, and usage incompatibility) and three emotional (perceived risk, tradition and orthodoxy, and negative image). Through cases including the Iridium satellite phone, Betamax, the Ford Mustang, and Kevlar, learners will discover that most major successes happen by accident, and most failures stem from forces companies can identify and address. The course equips learners with a practical framework for diagnosing whether an innovation needs R&D intervention, marketing intervention, or both.

Syllabus

Why Do Most Innovations Fail?

Even when a new product reaches the market, it often fails — and sometimes the most technically superior innovations fall flat while inferior alternatives succeed. This course draws on decades of research into innovation resistance to explain why markets reject new ideas. Learners will examine six root causes of market failure — three rational (poor performance, lack of relative value, and usage incompatibility) and three emotional (perceived risk, tradition and orthodoxy, and negative image). Through cases including the Iridium satellite phone, Betamax, the Ford Mustang, and Kevlar, learners will discover that most major successes happen by accident, and most failures stem from forces companies can identify and address. The course equips learners with a practical framework for diagnosing whether an innovation needs R&D intervention, marketing intervention, or both.