LAUSR

Previous entry timing studies have reinforced the timing wisdom by primarily focusing on new markets. This inductive study investigates how firms make decisions about the entry speed of new product features to a well-developed market using a classification of two dimensions of entry speed, namely internal and external. The analysis uses empirical data from 565 new product entry events by followers (not first movers) in the Chinese auto industry from 2011 to 2013 to explore the impacts of the follower’s product line breadth and product pre-entry experience on its internal and external feature-entry speed. We find that both product line breadth and product pre-entry experience can accelerate the speed of internal entry while only the firm product line breadth deters the external entry. Additionally, market-specific uncertainty moderates the relationship between breadth, experience and entry speed decisions. Greater market uncertainty tends to boost the internal and external entry speed than that of lower uncertainty.