Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

As for developing a framework, the above paper and many others offer inspiration, eg the first one at:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=first+mover+fast+follower&am...

The key question in this field has always been whether there really IS a first mover advantage, or whether it is better to be a fast follower. Early studies demonstrated a huge first mover advantage, but suffered from survivor bias (i.e. the authors focused on known first movers, which are typically the ones that remained the leaders, and forgot about the ones that failed - eg who remembers the first PDA? hint: it was not Palm). Later studies showed that the first mover advantage relates to the company's ability to shape consumer perception as to the desirable features of a new product, and to higher marketing effectiveness. Both of these advantages can be overcome by a clever fast follower. In the end, it all comes down to what your organization is better at: opening up new markets (eg 3M) or securing profits and growth (eg Microsoft).