The Product-Cycle Model

A Critique

Bibliographic Data

ID4138613
AuthorsM Taylor (0000-0001-5943-9796), Michael J Taylor (0000-0003-3763-7251, Australian National University, corresponding author), Michael A Taylor (0000-0001-5667-3659, Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, GPO Box 4, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia)
Year1986
Volume18
Issue6
Pages751-761
Publication date1986-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/a180751
OpenAlexW2024202564
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited18

The product-cycle model is an important explanatory device that has been used extensively in geography. However, it is also a model with significant limiting assumptions that have not been adequately taken into account when it has been used. In this paper the problems and limitations imposed on the model by the assumptions it contains are outlined. Six broad aspects of the model are addressed: the ambiguity of the enterprise context implied in the model; its treatment of the processes of invention and innovation; its simplification of the nature of products; assumptions about scale, labour, and relocation to less developed countries; location-specific advantages; and the relationship of the model to other cycles operating within the business environment. The limitations of the product-cycle model, as it is used in geography, are attributed to the inadequate conceptualisation of the firm, that still persists in the discipline

Ambiguity · Business · Business cycle · Economics · Geography · Limiting · Macroeconomics · Management · Management science · New product development · Product lifecycle · Relocation · Computer Science · Engineering · Innovation and Knowledge Management · International Business and FDI · Mathematics · Regional Economics and Spatial Analysis

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