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Is small really beautiful? A review of the concept of niches in innovation

Author

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  • Coles, Anne-Marie
  • Piterou, Athena
  • Sentić, Anton

Abstract

This article reviews the concept of innovation niches through three categories: strategic niche management (SNM), specialised markets and niches formed as a technology declines. In the literature, innovation niches generate interest from both innovation and marketing perspectives. This review focuses predominately on the former from which the niche types have been adopted and analysed. Mostly, contributions since 1980 have been included, representing the period of academic interest in innovative small firms, while both temporal and locational filters were applied to the study. It is noted that SNM has been proposed as a means to protect potentially useful innovations from full market competition, while specialist niches supply technologies to few customers in more stable environments. Incumbent technologies at the stage of decline may also retreat to niches where they can still remain competitive. Finally, it is suggested that further research on innovation niches would extend our understanding of technology dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Coles, Anne-Marie & Piterou, Athena & Sentić, Anton, 2017. "Is small really beautiful? A review of the concept of niches in innovation," Greenwich Papers in Political Economy 18221, University of Greenwich, Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre.
    • Handle: RePEc:gpe:wpaper:18221
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    File URL: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/18221/4/18221%20PITEROU_Is_Small_Really_Beautiful_2017.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. G. Filatrella & N. De Liso, 2019. "Predicting one type of technological motion? A nonlinear map to study the 'sailing-ship' effect," Papers 1912.11250, arXiv.org.

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