Involving Lead Users in Innovation: A Structured Summary of Research on the Lead User Method

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 1850022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Brem ◽  
Volker Bilgram ◽  
Adele Gutstein

Research on the lead user method has been conducted for more than thirty years and has shown that the method is more likely to generate breakthrough innovation than traditional market research tools. Based on a systematic literature review, this paper shows a detailed view on the broad variety of research on lead user characteristics, lead user processes, lead user identification and application, and success factors. The main challenge of the lead user method as identified in literature is the resource issue regarding time, manpower, and costs. Also, internal acceptance and the processing of the method have been spotted in literature, as well as the intellectual property protection issue. From the starting point of the initial lead user method process introduced by Lüthje and Herstatt (2004), results are integrated into a revisited view on the lead user method process. In addition, concrete suggestions for corporate realization options are given. The article closes with limitations and future research suggestions.

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq Masood ◽  
Johannes Egger

Industry 4.0 (or 4<sup>th</sup> industrial revolution) facilitates horizontal and vertical digital information flow along value chains up to the end-customer and is highly relevant in a broad variety of industries. Augmented reality (AR) is a key technology in Industry 4.0, which connects the virtual and real-world environments using such digital information flows. In doing so, the technology relies upon the systems that includes hardware and software components. Particularly, optics and photonics are of much importance in the display and processing of information in these systems. However, a particular challenge is that the AR-based systems have not been adopted in the industry as much as other technologies even after several decades of their existence. Based on review of academic literature, an industrial survey and experiments conducted in the industry, this article aims to identify success factors and challenges of AR systems and metrics of photonic components that can form the basis of an AR* framework for photonics-based system design for future research. @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}


Author(s):  
Robert Glenn Richey ◽  
Tyler R. Morgan ◽  
Kristina Lindsey-Hall ◽  
Frank G. Adams

Purpose Journals in business logistics, operations management, supply chain management, and business strategy have initiated ongoing calls for Big Data research and its impact on research and practice. Currently, no extant research has defined the concept fully. The purpose of this paper is to develop an industry grounded definition of Big Data by canvassing supply chain managers across six nations. The supply chain setting defines Big Data as inclusive of four dimensions: volume, velocity, variety, and veracity. The study further extracts multiple concepts that are important to the future of supply chain relationship strategy and performance. These outcomes provide a starting point and extend a call for theoretically grounded and paradigm-breaking research on managing business-to-business relationships in the age of Big Data. Design/methodology/approach A native categories qualitative method commonly employed in sociology allows each executive respondent to provide rich, specific data. This approach reduces interviewer bias while examining 27 companies across six industrialized and industrializing nations. This is the first study in supply chain management and logistics (SCMLs) to use the native category approach. Findings This study defines Big Data by developing four supporting dimensions that inform and ground future SCMLs research; details ten key success factors/issues; and discusses extensive opportunities for future research. Research limitations/implications This study provides a central grounding of the term, dimensions, and issues related to Big Data in supply chain research. Practical implications Supply chain managers are provided with a peer-specific definition and unified dimensions of Big Data. The authors detail key success factors for strategic consideration. Finally, this study notes differences in relational priorities concerning these success factors across different markets, and points to future complexity in managing supply chain and logistics relationships. Originality/value There is currently no central grounding of the term, dimensions, and issues related to Big Data in supply chain research. For the first time, the authors address subjects related to how supply chain partners employ Big Data across the supply chain, uncover Big Data’s potential to influence supply chain performance, and detail the obstacles to developing Big Data’s potential. In addition, the study introduces the native category qualitative interview approach to SCMLs researchers.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq Masood ◽  
Johannes Egger

Industry 4.0 (or 4<sup>th</sup> industrial revolution) facilitates horizontal and vertical digital information flow along value chains up to the end-customer and is highly relevant in a broad variety of industries. Augmented reality (AR) is a key technology in Industry 4.0, which connects the virtual and real-world environments using such digital information flows. In doing so, the technology relies upon the systems that includes hardware and software components. Particularly, optics and photonics are of much importance in the display and processing of information in these systems. However, a particular challenge is that the AR-based systems have not been adopted in the industry as much as other technologies even after several decades of their existence. Based on review of academic literature, an industrial survey and experiments conducted in the industry, this article aims to identify success factors and challenges of AR systems and metrics of photonic components that can form the basis of an AR* framework for photonics-based system design for future research. @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-language:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}


1988 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 569-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glen L. Urban ◽  
Eric von Hippel

Recently, a “lead user” concept has been proposed for new product development in fields subject to rapid change (von Hippel [von Hippel, E. 1986. Lead users: A source of novel product concepts. Management Sci. 32 791–805.]). In this paper we integrate market research within this lead user methodology and report a test of it in the rapidly evolving field of computer-aided systems for the design of printed circuit boards (PC-CAD). In the test, lead users were successfully identified and proved to have unique and useful data regarding both new product needs and solutions responsive to those needs. New product concepts generated on the basis of lead user data were found to be strongly preferred by a representative sample of PC-CAD users. We discuss strengths and weaknesses of this first empirical test of the lead user methodology, and suggest directions for future research.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veeraraghavan Jagannathan ◽  
Senthilarasu Balasubramanian ◽  
Thamaraiselvan Natarajan

Modern day bankers are in immense pressure to stay in the ever-changing online business. So as to stay in the competition, they have to enhance and foresee what their client needs. There is a dearth of studies in a developing country like India, for finding the success factors of Internet Banking (IB) from the perspective of the expectations of the IB customer. This study intends to fill that void with the proposed framework by modelling user expectations in terms of the quality dimensions of the Information Systems (IS) Success model, along with security dimension. Data collected from 312 IB experienced students of a premier educational Institution in India. Structural Equation Modeling has been employed to test the hypotheses of the proposed framework. The results showed that the quality dimensions alongside security, strongly influences the confirmation of user expectations from using the IB website. The study provided a starting point to model IB user expectations. Some managerial implications and future research directions are proposed, based on the results of the study.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 1550007 ◽  
Author(s):  
SAMPSA HYYSALO ◽  
PIA HELMINEN ◽  
SAMULI MÄKINEN ◽  
MIKAEL JOHNSON ◽  
JOUNI K. JUNTUNEN ◽  
...  

Users play an increasingly important role in product and service innovation. Finding the right users can require substantial search effort. Network searches are increasingly popular in searching for rare lead users. In these searches, implicit and inexact referrals have been found to comprise a substantial number of network referrals; numbers as high as 70% of the most important referrals to sought people have been reported. To aid handling such referrals during network searches, we explicate their status as intermediate referral types, and how these referral types relate to known search methods. The constraints set by intermediate referrals could potentially be overcome and their potential be capitalized through more extensive method combination in network searches than has been trialed to date. We proceed to offer a proof of concept for such searches through documenting how we ran them in four realworld searches and chart future research avenues.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 1850015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele Gutstein ◽  
Alexander Brem

Earlier research on the lead user method is focused on individual case studies and how the method was applied in a specific context. In this paper, we take a broader approach, analyzing a sample of 24 lead user projects, which included working with 188 lead users. These projects were analyzed regarding their specific processes, resources, challenges, and success factors, using the data of an open innovation intermediary. The key finding is that a refinement and elaboration phase and the integration of designers are crucial success factors which, to date, have not been included in the literature. Moreover, crowdsourcing contests and netnography proved to be of significant value for the need, trend, and lead user identification phases. This paper concludes by discussing theoretical and practical implications, the limitations of this study, and recommendations for future studies.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Parvin

Abstract While many companies have embarked on their digital transformation journeys implementing different forms of "Digital Twins" to cover specific business processes and challenges, their main challenge has been integrating these disparate Digital Twin projects into one single combined view to create significant new value and competitive advantage for the business. To be effective, the Digital Twin needs to be capable of supporting the entire asset lifecycle from the early phases of a capital project to operations and maintenance up to asset retirement, leveraging the same data in a platform able to support the end-to-end process. This paper looks at several approaches, which large owner operators at different levels of organizational information management maturity have used to build their Enterprise Scale Digital Twin strategies. It uses the lessons learned to highlight the successes and failures of these strategies and recommended approaches going forward. The results observed, identify that whilst there is a reasonably standard roadmap for approaching the development of Digital Twins most customers begin at different points along that journey. It also highlights that the end goal may not be the same across an Enterprise and that by taking the development of a Digital Twin as a series of incremental steps, independent of the starting point, serves to accelerate the journey by driving an increase in the organizational maturity in terms of People, Process and Technology and an improvement in data quality. One of the key components in any strategy was the ability to manage the information standard for the Digital Twin at an Enterprise level, for both greenfield and brownfield organizations and assets. The paper concludes the benefits of technical and commercial scalability and the requirements to get a solid manageable and trustworthy core of information should be at the heart of any Enterprise-wide Digital Twin strategy. This is contrary to the common approach of building a single detailed Proof of Concept (PoC) addressing as many use cases as possible and then templatizing that as an approach to repeat around the Enterprise, which often leads to failure on additional deployments where the maturity and challenges are different.


10.29007/jlq6 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thabang Mofokeng

The technology devices introduced in recent years are not only vulnerable to Internet risks but are also unable to elevate the growth of B2C e-commerce. These concerns are particularly relevant today, as the world transitions into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To date, existing research has largely focused on obstacles to customer loyalty. Studies have tested e-commerce models guided by the establishment of trusting, satisfied and loyal consumers in various international contexts. In South Africa, however, as an emerging market, there has been limited research on the success factors of online shopping.This study examines the influence of security and privacy on trust, seen as a moderator of customer satisfaction, which in turn, has an effect on loyalty towards websites. Based on an exhaustive review of literature, a conceptual model is proposed on the relationships between security and privacy on the one hand, and customer trust, satisfaction and loyalty on the other. A total of 250 structured, self-administered questionnaires was distributed to a purposively selected sample of respondents using face-to-face surveys in Johannesburg, South Africa. A multivariate data analysis technique was used to draw inferences from the data. With an 80.1% response rate, the findings showed that privacy and security do influence customer trust; security strongly influences customer trust and weakly influences satisfaction. In South Africa, customer loyalty towards websites is strongly determined by satisfaction and weakly determined by trust. Trust significantly moderates the effect of customer satisfaction on loyalty. The study implications and limitations are presented and future research directions are suggested.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Tino Herden

Purpose: Analytics research is increasingly divided by the domains Analytics is applied to. Literature offers little understanding whether aspects such as success factors, barriers and management of Analytics must be investigated domain-specific, while the execution of Analytics initiatives is similar across domains and similar issues occur. This article investigates characteristics of the execution of Analytics initiatives that are distinct in domains and can guide future research collaboration and focus. The research was conducted on the example of Logistics and Supply Chain Management and the respective domain-specific Analytics subfield of Supply Chain Analytics. The field of Logistics and Supply Chain Management has been recognized as early adopter of Analytics but has retracted to a midfield position comparing different domains.Design/methodology/approach: This research uses Grounded Theory based on 12 semi-structured Interviews creating a map of domain characteristics based of the paradigm scheme of Strauss and Corbin.Findings: A total of 34 characteristics of Analytics initiatives that distinguish domains in the execution of initiatives were identified, which are mapped and explained. As a blueprint for further research, the domain-specifics of Logistics and Supply Chain Management are presented and discussed.Originality/value: The results of this research stimulates cross domain research on Analytics issues and prompt research on the identified characteristics with broader understanding of the impact on Analytics initiatives. The also describe the status-quo of Analytics. Further, results help managers control the environment of initiatives and design more successful initiatives.


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