World's Most Innovative Nations: Where New Technologies And Products Take Off

The study, which evaluates 31 countries based on the time it takes for new products to take off, is among the most comprehensive research of its kind. Wherever applicable, researchers analyzed 16 different product categories over a time span of 50 years.

The report was co-authored by Deepa Chandrasekaran, assistant professor of marketing at Lehigh University, and Gerard J. Tellis, director of the Center for Global Innovation and professor of marketing at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business.

"The changing dynamics of the global marketplace are redefining the concept of innovativeness," says Chandrasekaran. "More products are being introduced at a quick rate, and the ability of a nation to embrace those changes is a true indicator of how innovative it has become."

New products take off faster in Japan (5.4 years) than any other nation, closely followed by Norway and its north European neighbors of Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark. The United States (6.2 years), Switzerland and Austria ranked high, as well.

The results also revealed that newly developed or developing countries, like South Korea and Venezuela, saw faster product take off times than more established Mediterranean nations with longer histories of industrialization.

The authors find that take off is driven by culture and wealth, in addition to product class, product vintage and prior take offs. More importantly, "time-to-take off" is shortening over time and converging across developed countries.

"What we're learning is that culture plays a significant role in influencing how quickly a country is willing to embrace new products and technology, but it's not an exclusive indicator," says Tellis. "Differences in wealth are also contributing factors. Taken together, we can get a pretty clear snapshot of a nation's innovativeness and its ability to adapt to the changing environment."

Chandrasekaran and Tellis examined products split between two categories: those that were fun, used for information or entertainment, and those that were used only for work. Fun products included such technologies as cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, broadband and internet use. Work products—essentially household appliances—were microwave ovens, dishwashers, freezers, tumble dryers and washing machines.

The study indicated that take off was significantly shorter for fun products (seven years) than work products (12 years) across-the-board—a discrepancy that merits different product launch strategies, according to the co-authors. They argue that fun products like gadgets could be introduced simultaneously across nations (a "sprinkler" strategy), while the introduction of appliances and other work-related technologies should be staggered ("waterfall") for maximum impact.