Stategy Migration
In my opinion the statement “Being a first mover in new product and market areas” as Miles and Snow describe a Prospector had changed it’s meaning after the Dot Com Crash. Most likely, the companies add a product to their portfolio in the easy and less painful way – acquiring small companies, usually start-ups. One of the reasons is that by doing the purchase they would spend less money on training and R&D during the initial development stage of the product. Now comes the question when did they buy the start-ups - before and after the crash and at what stage was the purchased company at the time in terms of the Technology Adoption Life Cycle. In most cases before the crash the start-up’s first round of financing and few trial runs of the product was a good proof that the materialized technological idea will extend the buyer’s market share which makes that company a firm Prospector.