Version 1.0, October 2026. 98 constructs in 18 families across 7 eras, with 18 imported theories below. Selecting a cell reveals its family, era, block, tier, and anchor works, each anchoring reference linking to the publisher’s page. Explore the 18 Family Deep Dives for granular sub-tables, or visit Resources to use the four interactive analytical tools.
Each cell: number, influence pips, block code, then symbol, construct, and anchor works
open frontier position
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Detached series · Theories imported from adjacent fields, each set near the families it feeds
Series
T
Imported Theories
28FP
Lu
Lead Users
Family
6. Innovation and New Products (II · Resources and Orientation)
Era
Period 3: Competitive Advantage, 1980s
Block
FP · Formulation, process
Tier
Landmark
Cell card
Description
von Hippel proposed that users who face needs ahead of the market and expect to benefit from solving them, lead users, are a source of novel product concepts and can be identified and enlisted in development.
Managerial Implications
Some customers face needs months or years before the market does, and many build their own solutions. Find them, learn from them, and co-develop with them. Lead users are not necessarily big accounts; they are the ones improvising workarounds. A systematic lead-user program reveals where the market is headed and provides prototypes, often cheaper and faster than internal research.
How to read. Down a column follows one research stream through time. Across a row shows what the field studied in an era. Color marks the strategy domain, after Morgan et al. (2019). Pips give an influence tier. Numbers run by era, then family. Placements, anchors, and tiers are editorial judgments, and anchors are entry points rather than a complete record of any stream. Anyone who uses or adapts this table is responsible for verifying its contents against the original works.
