Call for papers: "Marketing of Innovation under Conditions of Uncertainty"

For a special issue of the International Journal of Technology Marketing.

One of the central issues in management and marketing theories is coping with different types of uncertainty. It is widely accepted that environments simultaneously pose both constraints and opportunities for organisational actions. Introducing new products or services is especially important in environments characterised by high levels of change and uncertainty. Unpredictable environments are likely to provide a richer source of innovation opportunities than stable ones.

In this context, some scholars have attempted to examine the direct effect of environmental uncertainty on firms’ structure, strategy and performance. But most of them have used environmental uncertainty as a moderate variable and have tried to investigate its potential and actual effects indirectly. Rarely is this construct used as mediate variable. Researchers avoid using it as an antecedent or consequence of firms’ strategy or chosen (given) behaviour.

In this call for papers, our approach is driven by two basic ideas. Firstly, we consider uncertainty as one of key variables in explaining organisational behaviour. Secondly, we believe that different types of uncertainty will have different effects on organisation structure, strategy, marketing and innovation activities.

However, a lot of unsolved and ambiguous issues remain with regard to uncertainty, marketing and innovation literature, and more effort is needed to open the black box of these central constructs in the field of strategic management. In such a scenario, this special issue aims to provide a forum for original papers covering marketing of innovation under conditions of uncertainty.

Any researcher who would be interested in this special issue is strongly encouraged to submit an original paper covering one of the topics listed below.

The following research question might be considered:

• How can a lack of information about the potential or actual behaviour of competitors effect a firm's innovative tendency?
• Why do some firms engage in innovative activities in which they are unable to predict the direction, effect and consequence of main event and trend changes in their operating environment, while at the same time, other firms attempt to imitate competitors' products and services and thus somehow avoid experimenting the new ideas and actions?
• Do different types of perceived uncertainties have distinct effects upon an organisation's inclinations to engage in innovative behavior? 

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Firms' innovativeness
• Uncertainty and firms' strategy
• Radical and incremental innovation
• Innovation vs. imitation
• Technological capability and firms' innovative performance
• Technological opportunism and innovation
• Exploration and exploitation in product and service innovation
• Competitive uncertainty and innovation tendency
• Uncertainty as antecedent or consequence of (open) innovation
• Uncertainty and marketing strategies
• Innovation and the economy

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: 15 February, 2015

Notification to authors: 15 June, 2015