Managing the Risk of Customer Integration

Abstract

The necessity and the advantages of integrating customers into the innovation process are widely recognized. There are, however, inherent risks to customer integration that can be reduced by comprehensive risk management methods. Based on intensive desk research and in-depth workshops with nine companies, this article provides a detailed description of the various risks and offers advice on how to minimize them. Diverse risk management methods theoretical backgrounds are introduced, while examples from companies that have had vast experience with all aspects of customer integration illustrate their practical applicability.

User-driven innovation: scale development and validation

“…have arisen lately, for instance participatory design, contextual design, emphatic design, design thinking and human/user-oriented/centred design (Kujala, 2003;Veryzer & Borja de Mozota, 2005). Researchers agree on the challenges of involving users in the design process, for instance, decreased cost and time efficiency, the need to educate users about design, a need for intensive communication with users and a lack of suitable tools for involving users (Enkel et al, 2005;Kujala, 2003). Despite the challenges, researchers conclude that design orientation results in a better fit of a new product/service to user needs and interaction preferences (Venkatesh et al, 2012;Veryzer & Borja de Mozota, 2005).…”

“…process may lead to implementation constraints (Kujala, 2003) and result in unrealistic imaginary products/services, which is a common critique of the U.D.I. approach (Enkel et al, 2005).…”

“…U.D.I. improves product quality (Feng, Sun, & Zhang, 2010) and performance (Lau, Tang, & Yam, 2010), contributes to micro innovations (Hyysalo, 2009), reduces the market risk of disruptive innovations (Enkel, Kausch, & Gassmann, 2005), impacts user satisfaction and facilitates a company's innovation capabilities (Ngo & O'Cass, 2013). The U.D.I.…”

Marketing and Innovation – A Relationship Approach

“…Regarding the distribution of RM along the stages of the NPD process, in both the breadth and the degree of involvement, researchers are divided. Traditionally, customer involvement has been suggested to be beneficial firstly in the initialideation -and final stages -testing (Gruner and Homburg, 2000;Enkel et al, 2005;Lagrosen, 2005;Urban and von Hippel, 1988). This invites the possibility that the customers' opinions will be lost or at least diluted during the intermediate stages of the process (Campbell et al, 2007).…”

Risk identification and evaluation of customer collaboration in product development

“…Currently, many researchers devoted their efforts to identifying and analyzing risk factors of CCPD(customer collaborative product development) . Enkel, Kausch and Gassmann (2005) provided a detailed description of the various risks and offered advice on how to minimize them. These risks include loss of know-how, dependence on customers' view, dependence on customers' demands or personality etc.…”