Despite the fact that most firms are late entrants in any product market, research on how to achieve a late-mover advantage is limited and lags behind the theoretical work on first-mover advantage. The strategic choice a late mover can utilize to compete against the pioneer is largely underdeveloped. Further, extant studies provide contradictory arguments and predictions regarding the efficacy of two basic late entry strategies: an enhancing strategy (providing a late entrant with enhanced features along existing product attributes) and a distinctive strategy (adding new or unique features to a late entrant' offering). The goal of this dissertation is to better understand the underlying behavioral mechanisms that enable a late entrant to compete with a successful pioneer and thereby address this inconsistency in the literature. Taking a category-based learning perspective, it is proposed that new brands are learned through a comparison process with existing brands. In the process, common features are evaluated in a category-based mode while unique features are processed in a piecemeal fashion. Two behavioral mechanisms are identified — discrepancy effects (i.e., perceived differentiation) which add to the late entrant's visibility and attractiveness, and ambiguity effects (comparison difficulty and perceived performance risk) that lessen the late entrant's attractiveness. Product category familiarity is proposed as the key moderator that affects the salience of each behavioral mechanism and hence the effectiveness of late entry strategies. Three experiments were designed to test the proposed perspective. It was found that common features are the focus of comparison in unfamiliar product classes and unique features receive particular attention in familiar product classes. Accordingly, ambiguity effects become more salient in unfamiliar product categories while differentiation effects are more prominent in familiar product cases. Further, a distinctive strategy is both more differentiated and more ambiguous than an enhancing strategy. Thus, a distinctive strategy is more effective in a familiar product class due to its attention-grabbing nature. An enhancing strategy is more successful in a novel or unfamiliar product class because of low levels of ambiguity. These findings provide important implications for product entry and positioning strategies as well as for further research. / Ph. D.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate which product attributes lead consumers to prefer startups’ products over established companies’ products in the specialty product category. The research object is the electric vehicle market in Germany and the product attributes that are researched are alignable attributes, non-alignable attributes and the price. Design/Methodology/Approach – Quantitative data was collected via an internet questionnaire by means of the non-probability sampling techniques convenience and snowball sampling. The data of 408 members of the German Generation Y (age 17 – 38) was used to test six hypotheses by applying ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis. Findings – It was found that established companies possess a pioneer advantage in comparison to startups for the specialty product ‘electric vehicle’. This advantage can be overcome when startups differentiate their electric vehicles by implementing superior alignable attributes, a valuable non-alignable attribute or a lower price. Superior alignable attributes had the strongest positive influence on consumers’ preferences towards the startup’s electric vehicle, followed by the lower price and a valuable non-alignable attribute. Limitations/Implications – This study is limited to investigating consumers’ preferences without focusing on the reasons behind the preferences. Further, the category of specialty products is represented by only one example, namely the electric vehicle industry. Practical Implications – Startups can benefit from the results by adopting differentiation strategies that were found to be successful in overcoming pioneer advantage. Originality/Value – This study contributes to pioneer advantage literature by researching how startups can successfully overcome pioneer advantage in the specialty product category.