The Effects of Dynamic Ecosystem Variables on the Adoption of New Technology Products - Case Studies on Portable Audio and Infotainment Industries

The adoption of new technologies increases the pace of innovation and at the same time presents new challenges to forecasting demand for new products with an evolving set of decision variables. Engineering managers often face this problem early-on in the new product development process. The successful adoption of technology products is not just contingent on novelty, pricing and marketing but also on the existence of a supporting ecosystem to drive the adoption. In this research we consider one such challenge of forecasting, where, in certain instances, the ecosystem variables necessary for the functionality of the new product are themselves undergoing rapid market adoption. A significant contribution to adoption would originate from customers who are already invested in one or more ecosystem variables. We reviewed several published adoption models to find evidence of such an influence and concluded that developing a new model is appropriate to help capture the contribution of dynamic ecosystem variables toward the overall adoption of a new product. This research contributes to the engineering management body of knowledge by providing a methodology and an adoption model. The applicability of the model is demonstrated using the case studies on portable audio and infotainment systems that have witnessed rapid growth supported by simultaneous growth in dependent factors like wireless adoption, availability of streaming media, and internet-connectedness. Principles of system dynamics were used in model formulation and validation namely the causal loop diagrams and simulation.The methodology and simulation model proposed in our research can be adapted to forecast demand for other systems that are impacted by one or more ecosystem variables. Engineering managers, product designers and policy makers can utilize the methodology and adapt the model presented here to study similar products, particularly in the areas of consumer electronics, home automation and Internet of Things (IoT).

Author

• ANNADATHA, SAIKUMAR

Language

• en

Keyword

• Forecasting
• engineering management
• technology adoption
• systems dynamics
• systems engineering

Date created

• 2018

Type of Work

• Dissertation

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• Engineering Management

Degree

• D.Engr.

Advisor

• Islam, Muhammad F

Committee Member(s)

• Malalla, Ebrahim
• Li, Huiping
• Etemadi, Amirhossein

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/5t34sj93z