How do managers time the launch of new technologies? Without actionable frameworks to ensure consumers and other stakeholders are ready, innovation releases remain a risky endeavor. Previous work on legitimacy has focused on stages following a product launch. However, launch timing concerns shared expectations of when actions should occur prior to launch. This conceptual article evaluates the alignment between firm and stakeholder expectations regarding launch timing. It proposes that the market timing of new technology launches is structured by two dimensions: firm-led coordination and stakeholders’ willingness to change. Combining these dimensions, the authors map four types of market timing situations managers can encounter: antagonistic, synergistic, flexible, and inflexible timing. Temporal legitimacy is achieved when a firm and its key stakeholders share timing norms about the ideal moments when activities should occur in a market process. The authors conceptualize proto-markets as prefacing the well-known market legitimacy stages. This article concludes with a detailed managerial decision tree on how to create the optimal technology product launch moment and avenues of future research on market timing beyond technology launches.

中文翻译：

---

EXPRESS：时机合法性：确定在市场上推出技术的最佳时机


管理者如何安排新技术的推出时间？如果没有可行的框架来确保消费者和其他利益相关者做好准备，创新发布仍然是一项冒险的工作。之前关于合法性的工作主要集中在产品发布后的阶段。然而，启动时间涉及到启动前应何时采取行动的共同期望。这篇概念性文章评估了公司和利益相关者对发布时间的期望之间的一致性。它提出新技术发布的市场时机由两个维度构成：公司主导的协调和利益相关者的变革意愿。结合这些维度，作者绘制了管理者可能遇到的四种类型的市场时机选择情况：对抗性时机、协同性时机、灵活时机和不灵活时机。当公司及其主要利益相关者分享关于市场过程中活动应发生的理想时刻的时间规范时，就实现了时间合法性。作者将原始市场概念化为众所周知的市场合法性阶段的序言。本文最后给出了一个详细的管理决策树，涉及如何创建最佳的技术产品发布时刻以及技术发布之外的市场时机的未来研究途径。