Synopses & Reviews
Every year, about 25,000 new products are introduced in the United States. Most of these products failand#151;at considerable expense to the companies that produce them. Such failures are typically thought to result from consumersand#8217; resistance to innovation, but marketers have tended to focus instead on consumers who show little resistance, despite these and#147;early adoptersand#8221; comprising only 20 percent of the consumer population.
Shaul Oreg and Jacob Goldenberg bring the insights of marketing and organizational behavior to bear on the attitudes and behaviors of the remaining 80 percent who resist innovation. The authors identify two competing definitions of resistance: In marketing, resistance denotes a reluctance to adopt a worthy new product, or one that offers a clear benefit and carries little or no risk. In the field of organizational behavior, employees are defined as resistant if they are unwilling to implement changes regardless of the reasons behind their reluctance. Seeking to clarify the act of rejecting a new product from the reasonsand#151;rational or notand#151;consumers may have for doing so, Oreg and Goldenberg propose a more coherent definition of resistance less encumbered by subjective, context-specific factors and personality traits. The application of this tighter definition makes it possible to disentangle resistance from its sources and ultimately offers a richer understanding of consumersand#8217; underlying motivations. This important research is made clear through the use of many real-life examples.
Review
andquot;Just creating blockbuster ideas is not enough. Innovators today have to harness, manage, and overcome the inevitable resistance that stems from new ideas. Oreg and Goldenberg show in this fascinating and revealing book what really holds innovation back.andquot;
Review
andldquo;Fascinating read. Oreg and Goldenbergandrsquo;s choice of well-known examples (e.g., the history of search engines and Apple) provides a compelling case for viewing the majority of consumers not as lacking innovativeness, but instead as possessing varying degrees of resistance. The real-world examples are supported by a review of a diverse range of scientific research, making this an interesting and useful read for entrepreneurs, product managers, researchers, and people who are generally interested in understanding the behavior of the majority of consumers.andrdquo;
Synopsis
The business world is transforming. Stories of layoffs, bankruptcy, mergers, and restructuring appear in the news every day. When these changes hit the workplace, the actual situational shifts are often not as difficult for employees and managers to work through as the psychological components that accompany them. Indeed, organizational transitions affect
people; it is always
people who have to embrace a new situation and carry out the corresponding change.
The job of managing workplace change can be difficult; managed poorly, the result can be disastrous to the morale and stability of the staff. As veteran business consultant William Bridges explains, successful organizational change takes place when employees have a clear purpose, a plan for, and a part to play in their changing surroundings. Directed at managers on all rungs of the proverbial corporate ladder, this expanded edition of the classic bestseller provides practical, step-by-step strategies for minimizing the disruptions caused by workplace change. It is an invaluable managerial tool for navigating these tumultuous, uncertain times.
Synopsis
From the most trusted voice on transition, a new edition of the classic guide to dealing with the human side of organizational change
About the Author
Shaul Oreg is associate professor of organizational behavior at the School of Business Administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a coeditor of The Psychology of Organizational Change.Jacob Goldenberg is professor of marketing at the Arison School of Business at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, visiting professor at Columbia Business School, and the author or coauthor of several books, including Inside the Box.
Table of Contents
Introductionand#160;
Part I: Sources of Resistance
Chapter 1. Itandrsquo;s Not the Innovation, Itandrsquo;s the Adopter: Why Some People Are More Likely Than Others to Resistand#160;
Chapter 2. Whatandrsquo;s in It for Me, and What Do I Have to Lose? Practical Reasons for Resisting Innovationand#160;
Chapter 3. Itandrsquo;s Not What You Introduce, Itandrsquo;s How You Do It: The Process of Innovation Introductionand#160;
Chapter 4. Where and When Is the Innovation Introduced? The Role of Innovation Context in the Emergence of Resistanceand#160;
Part II: Resistance Manifestations
Chapter 5. Laggingandmdash;Innovation in Disguiseand#160;
Chapter 6. Resistance and the Dangers of Negative Word of Mouthand#160;
Chapter 7. The Dual Market Effectand#160;
Epilogueand#160;
Index