Technology Adoption Cycle

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Concepts behind the “technology adoption cycle” (TAC) have proven extremely useful working with entrepreneurial ventures. The TAC was popularized by Geoffrey Moore author of Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers (1991) and describes the sequential pattern of adoption across different segments of a population of decision makers about a valid new idea. 

The new idea can relate to a technology, practice, or even a new, non-consensus outlook for the capital markets that is ultimately widely accepted as valid in the real world. As described by Moore (1991), the sequence of adoption proceeds through segments of the total population of potential adopters called 1) Innovators, 2) Early Adopters, 3) Early Majority, 4) Late Majority, and 5) Laggards. Each segment has its own criteria for deciding to adopt the new idea, and the criteria often relate to the prior segment’s actions. 

Knowledge of the TAC can help an innovation-driven high-tech entrepreneur to remain effective over a wider range of the company’s growth phases. Many entrepreneurs are good at innovation and at selling to Early Adopters. But they stumble later when the business shifts to selling its product beyond that segment.