The Surprising Breadth of Harbingers of Failure

@article{Simester2019TheSB,
  title={The Surprising Breadth of Harbingers of Failure},
  author={Duncan Simester and Catherine Tucker and Clair Yang},
  journal={Journal of Marketing Research},
  year={2019},
  volume={56},
  pages={1034 - 1049}
}
Previous research has shown that there exist “harbinger customers” who systematically purchase new products that fail (and are discontinued by retailers). This article extends this result in two ways. First, the findings document the existence of “harbinger zip codes.” If households in these zip codes adopt a new product, this is a signal that the new product will fail. Second, a series of comparisons reveal that households in harbinger zip codes make other decisions that differ from other… 
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