Sales takeoff is vitally important for the management of new products. Limited prior research on this phenomenon covers only the United States. This study addresses the following questions about takeoff in Europe: 1) Does takeoff occur as distinctly in other countries, as it does in the United States? 2) Do different categories and countries have consistently different times-to-takeoff? 3) What economic and cultural factors explain the intercountry differences? 4) Should managers use a sprinkler or waterfall strategy for the introduction of new products across countries? We gathered data on 137 new products across 10 categories and 16 European countries. We adapted the threshold rule for identifying takeoff (Golder and Tellis 1997) to this multinational context. We specify a parametric hazard model to answer the questions above. The major results are as follows: 1) Sales of most new products display a distinct takeoff in various European countries, at an average of six years after introduction. 2) The time-to-takeoff varies substantially across countries and categories. It is four times shorter for entertainment products than for kitchen and laundry appliances. It is almost half as long in Scandinavian countries as in Mediterranean countries. 3) While culture partially explains intercountry differences in time-to-takeoff, economic factors are neither strong nor robust explanatory factors. 4) These results suggest distinct advantages to a waterfall strategy for introducing products in international markets.International New Product Growth, New Product Takeoff, New Product Growth, International Diffusion, Diffusion of Innovations

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A growing recognition of the importance of disruptive innovation has led researchers to examine the question of how disruptive innovation comes about and to what extent it reflects "discovery" versus "creation" of opportunities. Earlier research has focused on the organisational preconditions for disruptive innovation to arise. Much less attention has been paid to the role of innovation processes, including their goals and design, in promoting disruptive innovation. In this paper we aim to begin to fill this gap by better understanding how new innovation processes can act as antecedents for disruptive innovation.We adopt an inductive theory-building methodology using a set of case studies of Chinese firms to develop propositions about how novel R&D and production processes can foster disruptive innovation. We find that in the case of China the adoption of new innovation processes that re-define the focus of innovation and re-engineer traditional R&D processes in ways that allow the novel deployment of Chinese cost advantages can create offerings that incorporate the key elements of disruptive innovation in the sense that they challenge incumbents' established business models. Realising disruptive innovation opportunities requires proactive initiatives. We conclude by discussing the managerial implications and possible responses as well as directions for future research.

Despite extensive research on consumer innovativeness, the literature does not contain a parsimonious construct that has been validated for use across countries, demographics, and categories. This study attempts to fill this gap by studying consumer innovativeness across 15 major world economies. Significantly, the authors find that four negatively valenced items constitute a construct of innovativeness that seems reasonably applicable across most countries. Although this construct of innovativeness varies systematically from country to country, common demographic antecedents emerge across countries. Within these commonalities, a measure of innovativeness shows some distinct category × demographics and category × country differences.