This paper presents an innovation race model involving an incumbent and an entrant, where firms make product introduction decisions in a setting with private research outcomes and uncertain market profitability. Our findings reveal that when firms’ exploration technologies differ significantly, the incumbent deliberately delays product introduction to discourage entry by undermining the competitor’s belief about market profitability. On the other hand, when firms’ technologies are similar, the incumbent introduces the product immediately to prevent the potential entrant from overtaking. Hence, technology adoption may eliminate inefficient delays in product introduction. Additionally, we discuss the implications of making research outcomes public and their effects on market outcomes.