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Apparently, all space probes, but no planets, are subject to a constant quasigravitational force that is equivalent to the force on photons that causes the Hubble red shift. Also, the surface gravity of protons, determined by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, causes a barrier at about 53 astronomical units from the sun. Pioneer 10 generated a “space warp” as it crossed this barrier.

A small group of pioneering founders led the creation and early evolution of the service research field. Decades later, this article shares timeless service wisdom from ten of those pioneering founders.

Bowen and Fisk specified three criteria by which to identify a pioneering founder. In total, 11 founders met the criteria (Bateson, Berry, Bitner, Brown, Chase, Edvardsson, Grönroos, Gummesson, Parasuraman, Schneider and Zeithaml) and were invited to join Bowen and Fisk – founders that also met the criteria as coauthors. Ten founders then answered a set of questions regarding their careers as service scholars and the state of the field.

Insightful reflections were provided by each of the ten pioneering founders. In addition, based on their synthesis of the reflections, Bowen and Fisk developed nine wisdom themes for service researchers to consider and to possibly act upon.

The service research field is in its fifth decade. This article offers a unique way to learn directly from the pioneering founders about the still-relevant history of the field, the founders' lives and contributions as service scholars and the founders' hopes and concerns for the service research field.

An analysis of the relevant literature has demonstrated that many similarities exist between Pioneers (women working or hoping to work in male‐dominated occupations) and Traditionals (women working in or hoping to work in female‐dominated occupations). Clearly background, personality, motivation and attitudes alone are relatively poor predictors of preference for entry into traditionally male occupations. Therefore the typical Pioneer, which earlier research has attempted to identify, does not exist. The ways in which women's personal characteristics influence occupational choice and work entry should be placed within a wider context to include the external, structural and situational factors which inhibit and facilitate women's entry into male‐dominated occupations. A more qualitative approach is needed rather than the standard questionnaire methods.

Given that the majority of firms are followers of pioneering firms into new, related product markets, managers of almost all firms can benefit from benchmarking their competitive responses to pioneering new product introductions. This paper examines the competitive responses of firms not only in terms of the time until their responding new product introduction, but also in terms of the firms’ preceding stages of competitive response: awareness, interest, and evaluation. For example, how long does – and should – it take a follower firm to become aware of a pioneering new product introduction? A general conceptual framework and basic methodology is proposed for firms to evaluate and benchmark their competitive responses. Follower firm responses to pioneering new low‐fat food product introductions in North America are examined and illustrate the opportunity for benchmarking firms’ competitive responses.

This paper seeks to examine how dense and cohesive social networks can lead to pioneering. In this sense, the specific aim of this study is to analyse the mediating role placed by marketing and technological capabilities to explain the link among the structural social capital and the pioneering.

Focusing on a sample of 224 companies from the Spanish footwear industry, the authors used partial least squares (PLS) with PLS‐Graph software to analyse data.

The obtained results show how those firms with a dense and strong social network tend to develop pioneering. In this sense, a positive and significant relationship is found between structural social capital and pioneering. Furthermore, a strong positive relationship is found between structural social capital and marketing and technological capabilities, and of both kinds of capabilities with pioneering. The study also finds that the significant relationship between structural social capital and pioneering disappears under the effect of a firm's capabilities.

This study develops a cross‐sectional and non‐longitudinal approach. In any case, it is clear that the cross‐sectional approach of the study suffices for the proposed aims, having already been put to good use in other studies on entry timing.

It is demonstrated how in mature industries such as the footwear industry, albeit unhampered by strong entry and imitation barriers, marketing and technological capabilities position barriers can be established, which favour a firm's expectations of obtaining FMAs.

This study provides theoretical linkages between concepts of several theoretical approaches, social capital, RBV and the FMAs approach.

This paper aims to examine how pioneering advantage interacts with the compromise effect generated by new product entries. Building on prior work on pioneering advantage and extreme aversion, this research moves toward understanding how the choice share of a pioneer realigns as a consequence of new product entries generating compromise-like scenarios.

The authors run three experiments to test their propositions. The authors present one study which documents the effect. The second study provides process evidence. The third study suggests how brands can neutralize the adverse effect on their share generated by the followers’ entry/positioning.

In three studies, the authors showed that when a pioneering product becomes intermediate in a choice set, its share is more adversely affected than when it becomes extreme. The authors show that this depends on consumers’ propensity to use non-compensatory decision rules in the presence of a pioneering alternative. The authors also document that the relative disadvantage of the intermediate pioneer can be overcome when the reasons for selecting an intermediate alternative based on a compensatory decision rule are restored.

The research provides guidelines for managers wanting to enter product categories where a pioneer already exists. The authors show that opting for an extreme position that renders the pioneer intermediate can be rewarding. In contrast, being the second extreme player in a market where the pioneer becomes extreme reduces the expected share of this last entrant.

The authors’ contribution is in showing that this decision strategy can clash with the rule consumers generally use in a compromise setting and that this clash generates two different effects when the pioneer becomes intermediate or extreme.

Pioneer advantage is derived from two sources: producer‐based advantages and consumer‐based advantages. The latter is relatively under‐researched. This research replicates and extends Alpert and Kamins’ (1995) research, which was the first to directly survey consumers. Since their research occurred only in the USA, cross‐cultural replication is appropriate, (Hubbard and Armstrong, 1994). Key results show that: consumers are able to recall a brand’s pioneering status; pioneer brands generally have higher recall or retrieval than other brands including the market leader; communication of pioneer status may enhance purchase interest, both at the time of the product’s introduction and years after its introduction. These results support the US findings, and are rather more positive. However, British consumers did not agree that, if all other things were equal, they would prefer the pioneer brand. This research also shows for the first time that identification of pioneer status is related to actual purchase of that brand.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the research paradigm focusing on behaviorally-based first-mover advantages (FMA) by applying the widely-accepted Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and offers insights into differences between a mature market (USA) and an emerging market (EM) (India) regarding how intentions to purchase the pioneer are formed.

Utilizing samples of 208 USA and 194 Indian consumers, hypotheses examining the underlying beliefs, attitudes, social norms and purchasing intentions regarding pioneer brands are developed and tested using structural equation modeling.

Insights from the study suggest the TRA provides a means for assessing behaviorally-based FMAs across cultures, even as manifestations of purchase intentions differ significantly. According to the TRA and findings of this study, intentions are a function of overall attitudes and social norms. In the USA, individual attitudes were found to play a more significant role than social norms in formulating purchase intention. In India, social norms played a more dominant role in intention formation.

The study represents one of the first empirical attempts to shed light on the extent of behaviorally-based FMAs in an EM and how manifestations of intention to purchase the pioneer differ from mature markets. The study expands the behavioral paradigm of analysis to include one of the most sought-after EMs today (India) and provides one of the first empirical studies to utilize the TRA in addressing behaviorally-based FMAs.

This paper examines the socio-ecological co-evolution and transformation of organic pioneers and the organic food market from a politically structuring actor perspective. It aims to identify strategies and activities used to contribute to the change of structures in the organic market and how the companies, in turn, reacted to the structural influence of the changing environment to position their company successfully in the market.

This study is based on interviews with four managing directors who were responsible over several decades for the strategic corporate management of the pioneer companies they founded as (or converted to) organic. Content analysis was used to analyse the data.

Strategic challenges regarding building up, maintaining and using resources, shaping actor constellations, and professionalising management are explained. The analysis demonstrates that also small pioneers have the possibilities and scope to influence and change markets and structures.

The results are significant for developing sustainable transformation strategies for markets, considering the interaction of the micro and meso-levels over time and the role of small businesses that might be struggling with growth and loss of values. The study answers recent calls in the literature to empirically investigate sustainability transformations from a practice perspective and gain insights into the roles of corporate actors.

This study aims to examine validity of the first mover advantage theory (FMA) in the context of digital audio player (DAP) market. It explores two research questions: do first‐movers improve their resources and capabilities and thus establish industry leadership? Do firms' initial resources affect the timing of entry?

To overcome the methodological problems of earlier research, the study employs historical analysis of archival sources, capturing the longitudinal nature of the market evolution and competitive dynamics within the industry.

The results show that pioneering entry is significantly inferior to later entry strategy. While the pioneers failed, Apple Computer, a follower, gained dominance. Firm's resources influence timing of entry. The pioneers are small firms while large firms prefer to enter later.

This study analyzed the evolution of a single radical innovation from its inception through growth stage and results may not apply to continuous innovations.

Managers should understand that it is not the first‐in‐market, but the firm that invests in developing its resources and capabilities in marketing, production and continual product improvement that ends up dominating the new market.

The contribution is identified in three areas as the most important for future research of FMA: it considers advantages of both pioneers and followers in an integrative fashion, it looks into how firms' resources and environmental conditions affect performance, and it uses multiple measures of performance.