ABSTRACT
‘Change is the only constant’ is a slogan in its own right, but one that sums up a large part of what characterizes technological innovation (Shanklin and Ryans 1984). Turbulence and uncertainty are the daily bread of the adventurers of technology who gobble up each year $20 billion in products that are doomed to failure (Clugston 1995). That three-quarters of these failures are attributable to marketing weakness encourages us to think seriously about how the marketing of high-tech business is tackled. The best high-tech businesses do not get it wrong. Companies such as Compaq consider that in bringing high technologies to the market, there is a greater need for innovation in marketing than in the technology. Marketing is often the missing link in high-tech firms (Canion 1989).
