Lead user innovation - Geoffrey Otieno 2020

Demystifying lead user innovators and showing their importance has been a subject of many arguments. In many cases, the discussions have focused on the firm level of innovation and rarely on the innovator as an individual. Lead users have been recognised for bringing about commercially attractive user innovations and as sources of innovation for new products and services. According to lead user theory, these users are defined as being ahead of an important market trend and experiencing high benefits from innovating. This mixed method study extends lead user theory by exploring the antecedents and consequences of lead user innovation based on 321 quantitative survey responses and 36 interviews. Additionally, five interviews were conducted with regulators. The quantitative survey responses consisted of 298 male and 23 female lead users; the 36 qualitative interviewees were six female and thirty male lead users; the five regulator interviewees were from the Communications Authority of Kenya, Central Bank of Kenya, Insurance Regulatory Authority, Kenya Industrial Property Institute, and SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority. Regarding antecedents, the study uncovered that user characteristic variables (gender, age, marital status, occupation, work experience, education level, and trend leadership), as well as motivation (benefits expected, religion, and incentives) and process of innovation variables (time, number of partners and locus of control) help explain an individual's lead user outcomes. These variables might therefore be used as a proxy to identify the lead users.
Concerning the outcomes, the study focused on lead users’ success or failure, employment capability from the innovation, the ability to raise funds for the innovation and the type of innovation produced. The study found that for the lead user characteristics, the age, and the leadership in emerging trends were significant determinants of outcomes of innovation. Marital status was only significant when interacted with age. For the motivation, benefits expected, and incentives were significant determinants of the outcomes of innovation, while regulatory authorities were moderators of innovation; For the process, none of the variables were significant on their own unless interacted with the characteristics’ variables. The study recommends a shift of focus from products and organizational processes that focus on individual constructs to frameworks that show an integrated approach to lead user innovation. When the focus shifts from process to framework, businesses can detach themselves from business as usual and find integrated ways of ensuring the success of innovations.