Why do people line up for hours or sometimes even camp out for days to be the first to get a new Apple or Microsoft product when in a few weeks it will be cheaper and in a few more weeks an improved version will be available?

This question intrigues Assist. Prof. Sarit Moldovan of the Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management and has spurred her to do extensive research on what is called “early adopters” – those who have to be first to adopt new products or trends and how they influence the main market of consumers.

“Early adopters make up some 16 percent of the market,” explains Moldovan. “They need to be the first to have something; the only one to have it and they must show it off,” she states. However, this presents them with a communication dilemma. “On the one hand, they need to show off and promote the product,” she continues. “But on the other hand, they have to maintain their uniqueness and prevent imitation.”

The solution Moldovan has found is called “share and scare.” “Early adopters, when showing off the product will add a caveat. They cannot badmouth the product because then they are suckers for buying it. But they will add things like – it’s too expensive for you, it’s really too complicated for you, or I bought it abroad and it is not available in Israel.”

“My research is on a hot topic,” she confesses. “Social networking and social interactions are hot in marketing today. The Internet provides a lot of data on this.”

This year, Moldovan served as an advisor for a team of three Technion students who won the Google Online Marketing Challenge – Middle East and Africa Award and Social Impact Award.

Moldovan joined the Technion in 2007 following a post-doc as a visiting scholar at Columbia University. She received her Ph.D. from the Hebrew University in business administration and her MBA from Tel Aviv University in marketing. Both degrees were with honors and both theses received awards for excellence. She also has won several awards, including the Complexity Center Scholarship, the Corson Scholarship and the Richard Sigel Award. In addition, she has served as a consultant for Strauss-Elite.