Leading Edge Users have been attracting increasing attention in the study of innovation. Their effect is hypothesised to be threefold: in the development of new product concepts; their role in early adoption and thus cash flows for the firm; and acting as a catalyst for the diffusion process. Urban and von Hippel (1988) demonstrate the first, Morrison, Roberts and Midgley (1998) test the second. In this paper we examine the degree of opinion leadership that Leading Edge Users (LEUs) have so we can estimate their potential to do the third.
This paper shows that Leading Edge Status (LES) is related to opinion leadership as long as the organisation is well connected to the network. We found strong evidence that organisations with high LES were more likely to play a bridging role with organisations outside the industry than were Innovators (measured by Rogers’ time of adoption). This implies that LEUs are extremely useful in bringing information about technology into the industry from outside. When this is added to the Opinion Leadership role of LEUs, it is seen that they can play a positive role in speeding up the diffusion process.
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