How Competitive Evolutionary Dynamics First Created then Ruined Windsurfing

Abstract

This paper investigates a competitive evolutionary process we call ‘innovation overshooting’ in equipment-based sports, using windsurfing as a case study. New sports, in particular equipment-based lifestyle sports, can experience a rapid rise in popularity but eventually technology-driven competition leads to equipment overshooting the capabilities and financial budgets of most users. This Schumpeterian market process leads to a decline in participation and the eventual collapse of the market for the sport's equipment. Models of endogenous overshooting are established in the study of finance and business cycles, and have recently been extended to the music and design industry. We extend this model to the sports equipment sector finding clear evidence of evolutionary competitive technological and market overshooting.

Keywords: Innovation overshooting, sports, sports equipment, creative instability

JEL Classification: L83