Emerging theories of consumer-driven market innovation, adoption, and diffusion: A selective review of consumer-oriented studies

Abstract

In this study, we argue for a redefining of the consumer's role in market innovation and suggest new patterns of consumer adoption and diffusion of market innovations. In studying the consumer-oriented literature, we identify and compare three underlying market innovation logics: (1) the incumbent legitimator logic, where market innovation is about established providers' expansion or creation of new markets through collaboration with external stakeholder groups, (2) the consumer activist logic, where market innovations are created as a result of market activism from consumers, and (3) the market co-creator logic, where markets are expanded or created through institutional change initiated by providers' and consumers' co-creation practices. Through examples from the digitalisation of local food markets, we discuss managerial implications of using each of the three market innovation logics as a perspective-taking lens.