Inaugural Lecture: Reverse Diffusion

Join us at the ESCP Berlin Campus for Professor Christian Pescher’s inaugural lecture on Reverse Diffusion, followed by a reception with coffee and cake.

What you'll learn

How innovations spread through the population is a central question in marketing. One key question is who adopts innovations first. Decades of academic research generalize that wealthier consumers typically adopt innovations first, after which they spread to less affluent groups. In contrast, practitioner observations often point to trends—such as rap, blues, or capoeira—that begin in marginalized communities and later become mainstream.

To better understand this pattern, we analyzed more than 200 innovations spanning over 200 years.

Our framework distinguishes between functional innovations (e.g., refrigerators, televisions, antibiotics) and symbolic innovations (e.g., music, fashion, dance) and develops a new theory explaining when innovations diffuse downward versus upward and what drives these patterns.

The results reveal a clear distinction. Functional innovations typically trickle down, as higher-income consumers adopt new technologies first. Symbolic innovations often trickle up, emerging in smaller or less affluent groups before spreading to the mainstream.

The long-standing disagreement in the literature largely reflects differences in focus: academic research tends to study functional innovations, for which better data is available, while practitioner discussions often highlight symbolic trends.

We warmly invite you to stay after the lecture to connect with Professor Christian Pescher and fellow participants over coffee and cake.