Innovator: An expert system for new product launch decisions

Expert systems have become an increasingly important area of research for marketing academicians and practitioners. This paper describes an expert system called INNOVATOR that screens new product ideas and provides an approve/reject/reevaluate decision. If desired, the system can explain the logical reasoning it used to arrive at the decision. INNOVATOR uses a rule base consisting of regular IF and fuzzy IF rules and a backward chaining strategy to make recommendations. The paper explains the knowledge (expertise) requirements of the system, as well as the knowledge elicitation process and the knowledge representation scheme. The system has been implemented on an IBM 4381 using a shell called Expert System Environment (ESE). INNOVATOR, in its current form, assists consultants in financial service organizations in deciding whether to offer specific product innovations to their customers. The system is operational and has been validated by comparing its decisions with those of experts in the field.