Product Cycle

One of the more influential theories in economic geography in the mid 20th century was the product cycle, which integrated the supply and demand dimensions of corporate behavior and locations as they changed systematically over time. This view posits an idealized sequence in which goods move from being newly introduced innovations to becoming more widely accepted, until they finally reach a “mature” status. Different stages in the product cycle are associated with different market conditions, varying organization of production, and changes in geographic locations.

Drawing on the perspectives of innovation adoption widely used in marketing, this view begins with the changing nature of demand for a firm's product over time, which is typically a bell-shaped curve, with new innovations adopted by a small group of risk ...