An Empirical Study of the Characteristics of Consumers as Lead Users in a Survey Framework:

: Lead users who recognize advanced needs and expect benefits from solving such needs are attracting attention from various viewpoints, such as new product development, diffusion, and customer development. However, quantitative research on lead users has only been conducted in specific product domains. In this study, we aimed to determine the general characteristics of lead users by conducting quantitative empirical research using a large-scale internet survey. We found that lead userness has a positive impact on innovation likelihood without being limited to the specific product domains. With regard to antecedents, we found that a wide range of information acquisition behaviors, through idea networking with others, can have a positive impact on the trend dimension of lead userness, while they have a negative impact on the dimension of high expected-benefits. By obtaining results that are not limited to the specific product domains, and by capturing the antecedents at the behavioral level, it can be said that the understanding of lead users has approached what is worthy of attention.