New Product Preannouncements

Preannouncement: "a formal, deliberate communication before a firm undertakes a particular marketing action such as (..) a product line change" (Eliashberg & Robertson, 1988)

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NPP: Announcement made when there is still uncertainty regarding product specs or well in advance of its launch date.

Prevalent theoretical lens in scholarship research on NPPs: Market Signaling
(Spence 1973)

MULTIPLE AUDIENCES: customers, competitors, shareholders etc.

BENEFITS?

• Stimulate demand (customer delay purchases)
• Deter competition
• Reduce customers' costs of switching to a new product

RISKS?

• Cannibalize existent products
• Competitors may react more strongly
• Credibility may be lost if unnable to fulfill the commitment

Vaporware

NPP Tipology

• Vaporware
• Trueware
• Suddenware
• (Ofex and Turut, 2013)

WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
Many preannounced products are introduced with some delay

Crowdfunded productS

CHECK POINT

• NPPs are commonly investigated as signalling tools
• Extant literature predominantly focuses on firm behavior's determinants and the effect of NPPs on performance.
• Consumer behavior remains under researched as impacted by NPPs
• We know very little about the consequences of a delay on consumer's judgments.

HOW DOES A LAUNCH DELAY AFFECT MULTILEVEL LEGITIMACY FORMATION IN THE PRESENCE OF AN NPP?

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Consumers instead of firms.
Cultural and institutional aspects affected by NPPs.

Legitimacy