How to Reduce New Product Development: Customer Integration in the e-Fashion Market

Author(s):  
Frank T. Piller ◽  
Evalotte Lindgens
2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (06) ◽  
pp. 1240010 ◽  
Author(s):  
FIONA SCHWEITZER ◽  
IRIS GABRIEL

In recent years, the front end of innovation has drawn a great deal of attention as an important driver of new product development (NPD) success. In this study, we analyze the impact of knowledge gathering, project planning, interfunctional collaboration and formalization on the ability to reduce technical and market uncertainties, creativity, and the efficiency of the early stages. 352 Austrian B2B-companies from technology-intensive sectors participated in the study. The results indicate that collaboration quality, formalization of the different phases of the front end and identification of customer-needs are fundamental for front-end performance, while collaboration quantity is less important. Moreover, planning was found to be central for efficiency and did not have a negative impact on creativity. Managerial recommendations from the study include scrutinizing the way in which interfunctional collaboration takes place, increasing customer integration and formalizing the early phases.


2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 488-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Elvers ◽  
Chie Hoon Song

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to gain knowledge on the impact of customer integration on the new product development of chemical companies in growing markets. The literature affirms the value of customer integration in the new product development, but it is relatively silent on the integration of value-adding partners, who are located further down the value chain. Considerable research has shown that organizations are more successful, when they integrate customers and suppliers into the product development and design process. The research described herein juxtaposes two modes of current theory on customer integration and refines and expands the existing theoretical framework. Hence, the purpose is to build theories from cases to provide an answer to the question of how an organization adopts customer integration by refining the understanding of the different roles of value-adding partners in the innovation process. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses an extended case method, including the resource-based view, literature related to the customer integration and four cases as a basis for establishing theoretical framework. Several in-depth interviews were conducted to gather information on the managerial practice to strengthen the grounding of theory. Findings An explorative study provides a value chain-oriented theory for chemical companies to improve the efficiency of the product development process. Therefore, it differentiates between the integration of direct and indirect customers. Each party can bring in complementary resources, which are not available internally. The findings show that integration of indirect customers contributes to more accurate anticipation of market needs. This allows companies to increase their success rate for new product development (NPD) activities. Research limitations/implications The results of this explorative study cannot be generalized, as theory building from case studies stands on its own analytic unit. Therefore, scholars are encouraged to test the proposed propositions using quantitative data and to apply them in other industrial sectors. Practical implications The paper includes implications for the development of a more efficient research and development, as well as launch, process of radical innovation of chemical companies. Originality/value This is one of the first studies using a value chain-oriented approach for customer integration during new product development.


2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 1031-1046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bartl ◽  
Johann Füller ◽  
Hans Mühlbacher ◽  
Holger Ernst

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 1850032 ◽  
Author(s):  
MONIKA C. SCHUHMACHER ◽  
SABINE KUESTER ◽  
ANNA-LENA HANKER

This cross-sectional study specifically examines the antecedents and performance consequences of customer integration intensity for B2C industries. In line with this focus, we extend the notion of market-oriented management by explicitly considering the role of customers and retailers as two distinct facets of the market intelligence perspective. Moreover, for new product development in B2C industries, research says little about when customers should be integrated during the new product development process. First, data from 205 firms and evidence from a validation study of 175 firms indicate that customer integration intensity in new goods development positively affects overall new product success. Further, the results show that companies can foster the intensity of customer integration by emphasising both retailer and customer orientation and by establishing an incentive system that comprises new product development-specific components. Second, additional cross-sectional data from 171 firms show that managers need to integrate customers intensively in the development and launch stage and less in the ideation stage for the successful development of new goods.


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