Taking Innovative Products to the Market: Development of a Working Model for Adoption in Collaboration with Sony Mobile Communications

Sammanfattning: Background/Problem Description: Creating innovative products and take them to the market is a struggle for many companies around the globe. At the Department of Security & Enterprise at Sony Mobile Communications in Lund it was believed that the innovation process could be enhanced if more focus would be put on pricing, adoption and timing. The belief at the department was that these three factor play an important role when taking innovative products to the market. This was the base assumption for this master thesis project. Purpose: The purpose of the master thesis project was to examine what factors are important for the department of Security & Enterprise at Sony Mobile Communications in Lund when taking innovative products to the market. Furthermore, the master thesis project aimed to analyze how employees at Sony Mobile Communications in Lund could improve their innovation process by working with adoption when developing new products and services. v Research Questions: The research questions were designed to fulfill the purpose of the master thesis. When the research questions were answered the project objectives were met. 1. What factor(s) are important to consider in early phases of developing and taking new products/ services/ features to the market? 2. How can one improve evaluation in comparison to special aspects in their innovation process considering the chosen factor(s)? Delimitations: The master thesis project was delimited to focus on the stage of the innovation process when taking an idea or prototype to market release. It focused on the European market. In early stages the master thesis project was delimited to focus on the three factors pricing, timing and adoption. However, later in the master thesis project the only remaining focus factor was adoption. Methodology: Therewas two literature studies conducted, one to determine which factors that can influence the innovation process and one only focusing on adoption. However through the whole master thesis project academic articles, books and other master thesis projects were read and analyzed. The empirical data was gathered through semi-structured interviews at Sony Mobile Communications. Moreover, seven observation sessions were conducted through out the master thesis project at the companies Sony Mobile Communications, Haldex and Höganäs. The observation sessions were performed for validation of the developed model. Conclusion: This master thesis project has contributed by filling a gap between theoretical models and working models with focus on adoption. The outcome of the master thesis project is the Adoption Canvas, which is a working model for gaining insights about the possibilities and risks regarding adoption of a new product, service or concept by the market. The model has been successfully tested on multiple actors from different companies in different industries.