Publications
Publications
- 2025
- HBS Working Paper Series
New Product Diffusion Within Retailers: The Effect of Managerial Quality on Rollout
By: Tomomichi Amano and Jorge Tamayo
Abstract
Retailers are key intermediaries through which consumers encounter innovation in the form of new products. How are these products rolled out within retailers? We observe significant variation in the availability of new products across stores in a large retail chain in Colombia—even within the same supplier and product category—despite centralized decision-making and standardized processes. This variation is consistent with known rollout frictions, including geographic frictions. We find that managerial quality, which varies significantly across store managers, affects rollout in two ways. First, high-quality managers enhance the performance of products in their stores, with the result that new products initially allocated to high-quality managers reach 28.5 percent more stores within 11 months. Second, high-quality managers seek out new products for their stores, reducing rollout frictions by an amount equivalent to 9.2 percent of geographic frictions. Variation in middle management quality thus significantly influences the diffusion of new products within retail chains.
Keywords
Managerial Quality; Firm Performance; Diffusion Of Innovation; New Product Rollout; Retailing; Distribution Channels; Product Launch; Management Skills; Retail Industry; Colombia
Citation
Amano, Tomomichi, and Jorge Tamayo. "New Product Diffusion Within Retailers: The Effect of Managerial Quality on Rollout." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 25-041, February 2025.