The nature of lead users and measurement of leading edge status

Lead users are defined as being at the leading edge of markets, and as having a high incentive to innovate. Empirical research has shown the value of lead user need and solution data to new product development processes. However, the nature of the lead user construct itself has not been studied to date. In this paper we fill this significant gap by proposing and evaluating a continuous analog to the lead user construct, which we call leading edge status (LES). We establish the validity and reliability of LES and examine the characteristics of users having high levels of this variable. We also offer a first exploration of how LES is related to traditional measures in diffusion theory such as dispositional innovativeness and time of adoption (TOA). We find a strong relationship and explain how users with high LES can offer a contribution to both predicting and accelerating early product adoption. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.