The impact of customer participation on NPD performance: the mediating role of inter‐organisation relationship

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Customer participation has been recognised as a critical factor in successful new product development (NPD). However, there is scant empirical evidence on how customer participation affects NPD performance. This research attempts to provide a framework to interpret how interorganisational relationships mediate the impact of customer participation on NPD performance based on marketing, innovation management and social networks literature. Design/methodology/approach -An empirical study of 179 high-tech firms in Taiwan is analysed by structural equation modelling. Findings -The results indicate that the impacts of customer participation as an information resource and customer participation as a co-developer on NPD performance are mediated by inter-organisational relationships. Practical implications -The results offer a guideline for high-tech firms that decide to involve customers in NPD activities. In order to improve efficiency and effectiveness, this research suggests that firms build inter-organisational relationships with customers to foster knowledge sharing, cooperation, and problem solving. However, firms should be aware that product innovativeness may be hindered by such close collaborative relationships. Originality/value -The research demonstrates that the contributions of customer participation may not be regarded as inevitable. The authors confirm that research for investigating the linkage between customer participation and NPD performance should consider the mediating roles of interorganisational relationships, which may help resolve the conflicting results obtained by researchers on the contributions of customer participation. In addition, the results show that the establishment of close customer-supplier relationships during NPD cooperation is a key success factor for both efficiency and effectiveness, but has the opposite effect on product innovativeness.

Dialogic co-creation and service innovation performance in high-tech companies

“…Because customers' tacit knowledge is a crucial resource for innovation (Lin and Huang, 2013), the study provides a factor from the resource-based view to measure the valuation of customers' input (Pérez-Nordtvedt et al, 2008). The findings confirm that co-creation activities can enhance informational resources, which are valuable knowledge, thereby improving service innovation.…”

Empirical Study on the Effect of Customer Participation on Innovation Performance

“…Early researchers on customer participation more concentrated in the service field. Scholars found that the customers can not only provide all kinds of information, but also take part in the process of product design, development and manufacturing, especially in the manufacturing industry and high-tech industry afterwards (Lin and Huang, 2012).…”

Knowledge integration with customers in collaborative product development projects

“…Furthermore, intense discussions have centred on the advantages related to the cost and innovativeness of a collaborative relationship, as well as the challenges of managing such a relationship effectively (Johnsen, 2009;Rosell and Lakemond, 2012). Another body of literature has emphasized the importance of input by the customer, henceforth referred to as the customer's knowledge as this study is performed in the context of collaborative customer-supplier relationships (Day, 2000;Campbell, 2003;Lin and Huang, 2013). Firms that proactively use this knowledge in order to foster and enhance long-term relationships can create a significant competitive advantage (Campbell, 2003;Jayachandran et al, 2005;Salojärvi et al, 2013).…”