Product Language design options in launching a technology breakthrough

The paper analyses how firms explore, in the early phases, the design space triggered by the advent of a new breakthrough technology through the sequential launch of products based on new design solutions. The paper is based on an explorative research realized in the decorative lighting Italian industry when the LED technology was first introduced. Several different patterns adopted by firms to entry the new LED-based design space are identified. Key words: product language trajectories; design strategies; radical innovation