Strategies of Innovation and Imitation of Product Languages
Strategies of Innovation and Imitation of Product Languages
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产品语言的创新与模仿策略
DOI：
10.1111/j.1540-5885.2007.00273.x
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发表时间：
2007
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
R. Verganti
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
C. Dell’Era;R. Verganti
如今，设计被认为是一种战略资源。顾客越来越关注产品的美学、象征和情感价值，这种价值是通过设计语言传达的，即赋予产品意义的标志（如形式、颜色、材料）的组合。因此，公司正投入越来越多的努力，为其产品的设计语言定义一个适当的策略。对意大利家具行业的产品语言策略进行了实证分析；本文特别探讨了创新与产品语言多样性之间的关系。公司通常面临两大战略决策。第一个问题与产品语言的创新有关：公司应该在多大程度上主动提出新的设计语言，或者更确切地说，应该采取一种被动的策略，在市场上出现新的语言时迅速采用它们？第二个决定是关于他们产品范围内语言的多样性和异质性。公司应该提出一种单一的产品语言来传达准确的身份，还是应该探索不同的产品语言？当然，创新和产品语言多样性这两个战略决策是紧密相连的。本文分析了210家公司推出的2000多种产品，探讨了创新者和模仿者在战略中如何处理产品语言的多样性。实证结果表明，产品标志和语言的创新性与异质性呈反比关系。与预期相反，创新者的产品语言异质性较低。他们往往非常积极主动，限制市场上新语言的实验。相反，模仿者——由于他们只投资于在市场上被证明是成功的语言，因此预计他们的产品种类较少——倾向于拥有更多的产品种类。最终，由于对社会文化模式趋势研究的投入较少，他们错过了解读市场中产品标志和语言复杂演变的能力。因此，关于创新和产品语言多样性的战略决策是相互关联的；与直觉相反的是，公司应该共同仔细分析这些决策。
Nowadays, design is recognized as a strategic resource. Customers are increasingly paying attention to the aesthetic, symbolic, and emotional value of products, a value that is conveyed by the design language—that is, the combination of signs (e.g., form, colors, materials) that gives meaning to a product. As a consequence firms are devoting increasing efforts to define a proper strategy for the design language of their products. An empirical analysis was conducted on the product language strategies in the Italian furniture industry; in particular, the present article explores the relationship between innovation and variety of product languages. Companies are usually faced by two major strategic decisions. The first one concerns the innovation of product languages: To what extent should a firm proactively propose new design languages or, rather, should adopt a reactive strategy by rapidly adopting new languages as they emerge in the market? The second decision concerns the variety and heterogeneity of languages in their product range. Should a firm propose a single product language to communicate a precise identity, or should it explore different product languages? Of course, the two strategic decisions—innovativeness and variety of product languages—are closed connected. Analyzing more than 2.000 products launched by 210 firms, the present article explores how the variety of product languages is approached in the strategy of innovators and imitators. The empirical results illustrate an inverse relationship between innovativeness and heterogeneity of product signs and languages. Contrary to what is expected, innovators have lower heterogeneity of product languages. They tend to be strongly proactive and limit experimentations of new languages in the market. Imitators, instead—which would be expected to have low variety since they can invest only in languages that have been proven successful in the market—tend on the contrary to have higher product variety. Eventually, by having lower investments in research on trends of sociocultural models, they miss the capability to interpret the complex evolution of products signs and languages in the market. Strategic decisions on innovativeness and variety of product languages are therefore interrelated; counterintuitively companies should carefully analyze these decisions jointly.