Deciding which new product concepts to develop is an important strategic management decision. One part of it is to decide whether to develop “premium” products, priced above the average product on the market, or “economy” products, priced lower than the average product on the market. We hypothesize that, ceteris paribus, firms and individual decision makers prefer premium over economy innovation projects. Building on implicit attitude and status discrimination theories, we argue that the origin of the bias lies in the implicit decision-making system of the mind, such that decision-makers inherently prefer premium innovations and that this implicit high-end bias affects their explicit preferences. We use the results from one longitudinal set of archival sales data covering 2312 new product introductions and three experimental studies with decision makers, including practicing managers, to provide evidence for the high-end bias. With these findings, we extend status theory as well as discrimination theory from well researched personnel decisions to managerial decisions about inanimate objects such as product concepts. We further augment literature on low-end innovation by identifying an important constraint for managers and researchers who work on inclusive innovation, frugal innovation, social responsibility, and Base of the Pyramid innovation.

决定开发哪些新产品概念是一项重要的战略管理决策。其中一部分是决定是开发价格高于市场平均产品的“优质”产品，还是开发价格低于市场平均产品的“经济”产品。我们假设，在其他条件不变的情况下，企业和个人决策者更喜欢溢价而不是经济创新项目。基于隐性态度和地位歧视理论，我们认为偏见的根源在于心灵的隐性决策系统，使得决策者天生更喜欢高端创新，而这种隐性的高端偏见影响了他们的显性偏好。我们使用一组纵向档案销售数据（涵盖 2312 个新产品介绍）和三项针对决策者（包括执业经理）的实验研究的结果，为高端偏见提供证据。有了这些发现，我们将地位理论和歧视理论从经过深入研究的人事决策扩展到有关产品概念等无生命物体的管理决策。我们通过确定从事包容性创新、节俭创新、社会责任和金字塔底层创新的管理者和研究人员的重要约束，进一步丰富了有关低端创新的文献。