Innovation in Consumer Markets: French and American Bicycles, 1860s-1920s

摘要

Most scholars specialize in specific aspects of innovation: in industry, among users, between producers and consumers and within market trajectories. I synthesize many such approaches into a conceptual framework to study innovation in consumer markets. I argue that consumers can work with producers to foster product innovation, subject to market conditions. These conditions include product and technological life cycles, social landscapes and market regimes and segment structure. I illustrate this framework by analyzing the French and American bicycle markets from the 1860s to the 1920s. In eras of ferment, consumers in specific segments constructed technological innovation systems with producers to shape product innovation. In other periods, markets turned to normal business and process innovation. Inter-segment relations also influenced innovation systems and national market trajectories. I conclude by developing further propositions for research.