Outperform

Economic downturns are frightening. Consumers curb spending, companies cut costs, and we all wait anxiously for the economy to recover. In such a climate, launching a product—an expensive and uncertain endeavor in the best of times—would seem to make little sense. But a new study finds that products launched during recessions outperform on several important measures. The researchers explored three questions: How do products introduced during recessions perform relative to ones launched during booms? Does the severity of the recession affect performance? And does the timing within the recession matter?