Bachelorarbeit, 2018
35 Seiten, Note: 2,0
A systematic literature review on customer integration in the new product development process
The present bachelor thesis aimes to make a systematic literature review on customer integration in the new product development process because no similar literature review on this topic has been available thus far. After explaining some theoretical background on innovation and customer engagement as a preamble of customer integration in the marketing theory, the research method was described, and the results were presented. There is also an explanation of reasons why customer integration is useful and rational and nowadays not a rare occurrence anymore. As results of the systematic review, different instruments on customer integration in the new product development were categorized and risks and benefits were mainly discussed. The implications of the thesis were that customer integration is beneficial at all, but a company has to evaluate possible risks and methods painstakingly.
Customer Engagement (CE) is increasingly used in academic marketing literature (Brodie, Hollebeek, Jurić, & Ilić, 2011). It is suggested that within interactive and dynamic business environments, CE represents a strategic imperative for generating enhanced corporate performance, and superior competitive advantage (Voyles, 2007). Engaged customers play an essential role in the new product/service development and also in the co-creating experience and value (Hoyer, Chandy, Dorotic, Krafft, & Singh, 2010; Kothandaraman & Wilson, 2001; Nambisan & Nambisan, 2008; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004).
Furthermore, highly engaged customers can be a crucial source of knowledge, helping firms in a variety of activities ranging from ideas from design and new product development (NPD), suggestions for modifying existing brands, and engaging in a trial of beta products (Van Doorn et al. 2010). Managing product innovations can involve a severe challenge to firms. For instance, in fast-moving industries, for example, nearly two-thirds of product innovations fail after their launch, mainly because companies need to address rapidly evolving customer demands (Sandmeier, 2009). To counteract this, customer integration (CI) is an integral element of an innovation process today (Schaarschmidt & Kilian, 2014). Namely, collaboration with consumers to create value through product development relates to CE and has become a strategic imperative for firms (Verleye, 2015). So, customers are no longer a ‚passive- audience‘, so they can encourage firms like ‚active co-producers‘ regarding the NPD process (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). New product developers need to inject more customer know-how into their product innovation processes and an increasing number of firms invite their customers to be intimately involved in new product decisions (Katona, 2015; Sandmeier, 2009). Users can make improvements in the products or services based on customer suggestions or increase in the knowledge base of current and potential customers resulting from online postings.
These can include changes in the nature of customer-employee interfaced based on customer actions, and even changes in the normal environment in which a firm operates (Van Doorn et al., 2010). The customer-centric marketing theory also emphasizes the importance of analyzing customers‘ active participation and engagement in the creation of marketing value (Kumar et al., 2010). Customer involvement in NPD is not a radically new phenomenon or invention, but since the advent of social media, there has been a recent surge in consumer-controlled product introductions (Katona, 2015).
Customer Engagement
The term engagement has been used in a variety of academic disciplines such as sociology, political science, psychology and organizational behavior in the last decade (Achterberg et al., 2003; Resnick, 2001; Saks, 2006). Derived from its conceptual roots from psychology and organizational behavior the engagement concept has been increasingly used in the marketing literature (Hsieh & Chang, 2016). Higgins and Scholer (2009) define engagement as a state of being involved, occupied, fully absorbed or engrossed in something (i.e., sustained attention), generating the consequences of particular attraction or repulsion force. The more engaged individuals are to approach or repel a target, the more value is added or subtracted from it. However, the driving force between the recent interests in the concept of engagement is that it has been linked to many positive consequences at both individual and organizational levels. It can be seen as a psychological process, which drives customer loyalty (Bowden, 2009).
Brodie et al. (2011) found in their research a comprehensive definition of CE: “CE is a psychological state that occurs by interactive, co-creative customer experiences with a focal agent/object (e.g., a brand) in focal service relationships. It occurs under a specific set of context-dependent conditions generating differing CE levels; and exists as a dynamic, iterative process within service relationships that co-create value. CE plays a central role in a nomological network governing service relationships which other relational concepts (e.g., involvement, loyalty) are antecedents and/or consequences of iterative CE processes. It is a multidimensional concept subject to a context- and/or stakeholder-specific expression of a relevant cognitive, emotional and/or behavioral dimensions” (Brodie et al., 2011, p. 260).
CE behaviors can be seen as a result of motivational drivers including word-of-mouth activity, customer- to-customer interactions and/or blogging activity and they also go beyond transactions and may be defined as behavioral manifestations that have a brand- or form focus, resulting from motivational drivers beyond purchase. CE is also linked to customer/brand experience, emotion, creativity, collaboration, learning and (brand) community interactions (Brodie et al., 2011).
Table 1 presents an overview of more definitions on CE found in the literature. In this literature review, CE is referred to as a proxy measure of the strength of a company’s customer relationships based on the extent to which customers have formed both emotional and rational bonds with a brand. It includes feelings of confidence, integrity, pride, and passion for a brand (McEwen 2004).
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
T able 1: customer engagement – overview of definitions
CE also encompasses customer co-creation (Van Doorn et al., 2010). Co-Creation involves the customer participation in the creation of the core offering itself. It can occur through shared inventiveness, co- design, or shared production of related goods. Thus, co-creation occurs when the customers participate trough spontaneous, discretionary behaviors that uniquely customize the consumer-to-brand experience. Behaviors such as making suggestions to improve the consumption experience, helping and coaching service providers, and helping other customers to consume better are all aspects of co-creation, and hence CE behaviors (Lusch & Vargo, 2006; Van Doorn et al., 2010). In the literature, the terms CE, co- creation, customer participation and customer involvement are often used as a synonym, but some authors also differ between these words. To understand the concept of CE, it is also necessary to distinguish between the idea of participation and the idea of involvement. While involvement is defined as an individual’s level of interest and personal relevance about an object regarding his or her own values, self-concept or goals (Mittal, 1995), participation is the degree to which customers produce as well as deliver services (Bolton & Saxena-Iyer, 2009). The main difference between CE and these two concepts is that involvement and participation do not reflect interactive, co-creative experiences. Mollen and Wilson (2010) highlight that CE goes beyond mere involvement. First, engagement encompasses an interactive relationship with the engaged object; second, the emergence of an individual’s perceived experiential value is required, in addition to the instrumental value is that obtained from specific brand interactions usually associated with involvement (Mollen & Wilson, 2010). Moreover, CE refers to voluntary and discretionary customer behaviours towards a company (Verleye, Gemmel, & Rangarajan, 2013), and these customers driven by their own unique purposes or intentions that can either be beneficial or unbeneficial for a company (Brodie, Ilic, Juric, & Hollebeek, 2013; Jaakkola & Alexander, 2014). It is acknowledged that consumer engagement is the heart of interactive consumer-brand relationships because it is perceived as a vehicle for fostering consumer relationships, which contributes significantly to consumer loyalty (Appelbaum, 2001). Previous studies also have indicated that consumer engagement can be considered as a vehicle that builds and strengthens consumer relationships because it represents the interactive perspective of the consumer brand relationship, which affects consumer loyalty (Brodie et al., 2013).
The internet enhances the ability of firms to engage customers in collaborative innovations in several ways. It allows the company to transform episodic and one-way customer interactions into a persistent dialogue with their consumers. Internet-based virtual environments will enable the firm to engage a much more significant number of customers without significant compromises on the richness of interaction. Virtual environments increase the speed and also the persistence of CE. Customer interactions can even happen in real-time, and with a much higher frequency. The internet allows to engage customers more broadly, more richly, and more speedily (Sawhney, Verona, & Prandelli, 2005). Finally, the web increases the flexibility of customer interactions: customers can vary their level of involvement over time and across sessions. For instance, customers participating in a discussion group or a community can choose their own level of involvement (Hoffman & Novak, 1996; Sawhney et al., 2005). Even without a formal voting process, many brands encourage their customers to participate in shaping the brand’s image and to contribute to new product ideas. Often, a brand’s Facebook fan page is a prestigious venue where consumers can make comments and participate in polls that can relate to the future of the brand. On social media, there is also high transparency, and potentially every single customer is enabled to follow the process (Katona, 2015). Table 2 highlights the fundamental differences between CE in psychical and virtual environments.
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
T able 2: Key differences between customer collaboration in physical and virtual environments (Sawhney et al., 2005)
Innovations
While cooperation with customers can span several business processes, one of the most important ones is CI regarding product innovation (Sawhney et al., 2005). The importance of innovation has recently grown because consumers increasingly demand a variety of products and services (Füller, 2006). Schaarschmidt and Kilian (2014) see the customer also as a source of innovation.
Innovations in the literature can be defined in several ways: Vedin (1980) identified innovation as an “invention brought to its first use and its first introduction into the market” (p. 22). Rickards (1985) found that innovation is a process whereby new ideas are put into practice. In addition to that, Drucker (1998) defined innovation as a specific function of entrepreneurship, whether in an existing business, a public service institution, or a new venture started by a lone individual in the kitchen. Conley (2001) defined innovation as intellectual property. The degree of newness of an innovative product represents a crucial variable, but its measurement is particularly difficult (Brockhoff, 2003). Rogers (2003) sees an innovation as an idea, practice, or object which is perceived as new by an individual or another unit of adoption. Product innovation with a high degree of newness refers to a ‘really new product or service’ that relies on technology never used in a specific industry before, has an impact on or causes significant changes in the whole industry; or is the first of its kind and entirely new to the market. Such product innovations can be referred to as disruptive or as radical innovations. In contrast, innovations of products with relatively low degrees of newness improve existing product or service solutions without introducing an entirely new approach; thus, they have been referred to as incremental innovations (De Propris, 2002; Dewar & Dutton, 1986).
But however, consumers are often resistant to innovations, so there is no adaption possible, and the innovations have high failure rates on the market (Heidenreich, 2012). To prevent this, the innovation literature focuses on customer involvement in the innovation process to design new products for a better market acceptance (Mahr, Lievens, & Blazevic, 2014). The approach of co-innovation has given rise to a model of open innovation (Chesbrough, 2003). Chesbrough, Vanhaverbeke, and West (2006) defined open innovation as “the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively. Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, internal and external ideal paths to market, as they look to advance their technology” (p. 108). It is widely underestimated, that users might be highly innovative themselves and so consumers could be used as a resource regarding the open innovation literature (Lindner, Jarvenpaa, & Davenpoort, 2003). However, the development of radical or discontinuous new products or services may contribute significantly to companies’ growth and profitability (Kleinschmidt & Cooper, 1991; Ozer, 1999).
Method
Asystematic review is an overview of primary studies which contains an explicit statement of materials, objects, and methods and has been conducted according to a precise and reproducible methodology (Greenhalgh, 1997). Starting with a database search using the following databases (see table 1): EBSCO, Emerald, Science Direct, and Wiley. The search included articles available through November 2017. The included search terms (see overview) should occur in the abstract. The focus of this systematic literature review is on CI as a part of CE regarding the NPD process. Therefore the search term included „customer engagement“ and „consumer engagement,“ which are equivalent to each other because of the same meaning. These terms led to a too broad range of literature in many contexts, so to demarcate customer engagement/consumer engagement in case of the NPD process the second search string was „customer engagement“/“consumer engagement“ in combination with „new product“, „new service“ or „innovation“ since engagement in the context of innovations and NPD has been observed.
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
T able 3: Results database: research found in EBSCOhost, Emerald, ScienceDirect, and Wiley (18.11.2017)
To limit the literature search results the abstracts of every source have been analyzed in their topics to find relevant literature. The second step was a manual research of „customer integration“ and „consumer integration“ in the title to find more research on the topic of CI as a part of CE. After these two steps, 37 journals in this specific area of research have been left. The third and final approach in the literature review was a cross-reference search of the articles identified by using the first two search methods. A cross reference search has been performed to scan for any other citations in the selected journals and for citations of the selected authors by other authors in secondary studies. The findings were limited to peer- review work in academic journals ranked between A+ and C on VHB-Jourqual 3 to achieve a high quality of research („Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft e.V. VHB-Jourqual 3“, 2017). After checking the ranking of the literature on VHB-Jourqual 3 and reading the full texts, 21 journals have been left for a systematic review of the literature.
Results
Roles and types of customers in NPD
Customers are not only able to create their own products but also willing to participate in and provide their know-how during the innovation process (Von Hippel & Katz, 2002). Cui and Wu (2016) describe three forms of customer involvement in innovation: customer involvement as an information source, customer involvement as co-developers, and customer involvement as innovators (see table 4).
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
T able 4: Three forms of customer involvement in innovations (Cui & Wu, 2016)
Sandmeier (2009) found in her study some different consumer roles in case of innovation projects which were mentioned in the literature (see table 5).
Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten
[...]
Der GRIN Verlag hat sich seit 1998 auf die Veröffentlichung akademischer eBooks und Bücher spezialisiert. Der GRIN Verlag steht damit als erstes Unternehmen für User Generated Quality Content. Die Verlagsseiten GRIN.com, Hausarbeiten.de und Diplomarbeiten24 bieten für Hochschullehrer, Absolventen und Studenten die ideale Plattform, wissenschaftliche Texte wie Hausarbeiten, Referate, Bachelorarbeiten, Masterarbeiten, Diplomarbeiten, Dissertationen und wissenschaftliche Aufsätze einem breiten Publikum zu präsentieren.
Kostenfreie Veröffentlichung: Hausarbeit, Bachelorarbeit, Diplomarbeit, Dissertation, Masterarbeit, Interpretation oder Referat jetzt veröffentlichen!
Kommentare