[原始] 12.15 放狗

Activists who challenge thestatus quo play a critical but often overlooked role in both promoting andimpeding radical business innovation. Their importance stemsfrom the very nature of innovation, which frequently challenges existinginterests, norms, values, social practices, and relationships. As a result, thejoined hands of market rebels—activists and their recruits—have with surprisingfrequency exerted significant influence on market acceptance of breakthroughproducts and services.

For example, nearly all of the technical aspectsassociated with personal computing were available by 1972, but the PC didn’ttake off until a few years later when hobbyists, rebelling against centralizedcomputing, organized groups such as the Homebrew Computer Club. These clubs werespawning grounds for actors—such as inventors, founders of companies likeApple, and developers of programs and games—who collectively established themarket for personal computers and eventually stimulated the entry of largercompanies. Similarly, the hybrid car succeeded partly because market rebels inthe environmental movement paved the way by arousingcollective enthusiasm for “green” causes among consumers and regulators.

The car, a radical inventionthat promised to transform the experience of transportation, was an extremelyhot cause. In 1895, when the automobileindustry was just beginning, thegasoline-powered car was poorly understood, notoriously unreliable, and reviledby vigilante antispeeding organizations.这里有一句说通过什么，把价格降低到general xxx。Ford didn’t need to, because asocial movement powered by automobile clubs comprising car enthusiastsplayed a central role in legitimating the automobile and presenting it as amodern solution to the problem of transportation. These enthusiasts (primarilydoctors and other professionals) were rebels who flouted convention, abandonedthe horse-drawn carriage for the automobile, and sought to popularize its use. Neithersponsored nor financed by car manufacturers, the clubs were both social innature and focused on improving quality, shielding car owners from legalharassment, and promoting the construction of good roads. Club involvementenabled members to construct an identity built around a new consumer role. Inaddition to working with state governments to draft laws licensing cars andmandating speed limits, automobile clubs organized reliability contests that pitted carsagainst one another in endurance, hill climbing, and fuel-economy runs. Eachcontest—a cool mobilization if there ever was one—was widely viewed as a testthat proved to audiences that the automobile was reliable. The firstreliability contest was in 1895; by 1912 the contests were discontinued becauseorganizers recognized that the automobile had become a social fact.