Keith Herndon and Caroline Windham (Grady M.A. student). (Forthcoming 2020, July). Entrepreneurial Leadership: Teaching Product Development Principles Using the Perceived Attributes of Innovation. Paper accepted for the annual conference of the Association of Leadership Educators, Nashville, TN.
Abstract: This innovative practice paper presents a classroom exercise used to demonstrate the importance of product development within the context of entrepreneurial leadership. Students were presented with three smartphone options based on patent filings and were asked to rate them using their training in the perceived attributes of innovation: compatibility, observability, trialability, and complexity. The exercise leads students to think critically about the attributes as they determine if the products would have a relative advantage in the marketplace. The exercise demonstrates how the perceived attributes of innovation can be used by entrepreneurs to assess their product development as it underscores the importance of product viability within the context of entrepreneurial leadership.