Strategies for improving new product adoption in uncertain environments: A selective review of the literature

The literature on new product development is replete with studies on new product performance and success. But there is not yet a coherent theoretical framework for understanding strategies for increasing new product adoption in uncertain environments. This conceptual paper reviews the findings about new product performance in the literature and conceptualizes a framework and its related propositions for improving new product adoption. The proposed framework integrates the concept of continuous learning to market orientation to enhance upgrading of capabilities for new product development and extensive communications in uncertain environments. It is also suggested that customer commitment offers a new theoretical insight for improving new product adoption from trust in product-user interface and cooperation with internal and external customers in the new product development process. Furthermore, customer commitment provides a long-term perspective for effective targeting of customers that differentiates low and high commitment customers.