Hmm...What's That? How Categories Can Help Your Company Be a Tempo Mover in Nascent Industries

MIT Sloan Management Review, Forthcoming

Boston U. School of Management Research Paper No. 2523932

16 Pages Posted: 14 Nov 2014

See all articles by Fernando Suarez

Fernando Suarez

Northeastern University, D'Amore-McKim School of Business

Stine Grodal

Northeastern University

Date Written: November 13, 2014

Abstract

What’s in a name? Although Shakespeare claimed that a rose “by any other name would smell as sweet,” over the last five to ten years, significant research on category labels has shown the opposite to be true. This research finds that a company’s labeling strategy can have important performance implications for products in nascent markets. As part of our research in this growing field we followed the more than 200 category labels that smartphone producers used to introduce new products since roughly the beginning of the 21st century. We also studied the labels used in almost a dozen other industries. What we found may surprise you.

Suggested Citation

Suarez, Fernando and Grodal, Stine, Hmm...What's That? How Categories Can Help Your Company Be a Tempo Mover in Nascent Industries (November 13, 2014). MIT Sloan Management Review, Forthcoming, Boston U. School of Management Research Paper No. 2523932, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2523932 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2523932

Fernando Suarez (Contact Author)

Northeastern University, D'Amore-McKim School of Business ( email )

220 B RP
Boston, MA 02115
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.fernandofsuarez.com

Stine Grodal

Northeastern University ( email )

Boston, MA 02115
United States
02115 (Fax)

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