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Early stage commercialization strategies: How did Prius family affect Toyota electric vehicle development?
Abstract
Although researches in the eco-friendly innovation studies have contributed much to technological development, a limited contribution has been made to the importance of structural concepts, strategic decisions and early stage marketing in the diffusion of innovation. The uniqueness of this research lies in its effort of exploring Toyota’s commercialization strategies for the first generation of its green vehicles, Prius Hybrid and RAV4 EV. Literature is reviewed from both historical and technological perspectives. The Roger’s Diffusion model was used and on the basis on this review, it has been argued that Toyota’s hybrid vehicle commercialization strategy affected this company’s electric vehicle development at least for a decade. The results fill a gap in the literature, particularly in Green vehicles research, development, and marketing.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.23956/ijarcsse.v8i2.531
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