Learn in the textbookInnovation Theory and the Three Barriers to Commercialization
DefinitionThe Darwinian Sea (ダーウィンの海) is the barrier between commercialization of a product and industrialization, where it grows into a business large enough to support the company's results.
ExplanationAfter a product reaches the market, other companies enter the same market, and it faces competition over whether customers keep choosing it. The name borrows from the theory of evolution, in which living things are selected through the struggle to survive, hence Darwin.
AnalogyA new product that has finally made it onto store shelves is tested, in an aisle where look-alikes keep appearing, on whether it keeps being chosen; that open ocean is the sea.
Memory hookRiver → valley → sea. The barrier names run in order from a narrow upstream river to the wide sea downstream.