Following Successfully: Followership and Technology Adoption

Most firms in most countries find themselves taking up new technology in the wake of pioneers or first-movers. A central question is how (and whether) such firms can make a success of being followers--in the time-related sense of adopting subsequently. We take a novel approach to this question by drawing on the literature of leadership and followership within organisations. This literature employs characteristics in two dimensions to build a taxonomy of types of follower--in the hierarchical sense of working for and with an organisational superior. Using this approach, we generate hypotheses about the sorts of firms which are likely to prove more or less successful as early and later technology adopters. From the analysis, we are also able to identify ways in which the emerging followership literature requires strengthening.