Customer Involvement through Online Communities

Author(s):  
Olga Sasinovskaya ◽  
Helén Anderson

New online collaborative technologies provide businesses with new opportunities to interact with customers and get them involved more actively in product or service development processes. Different types of online communities provide access to global customers: their ideas and opinions. This chapter presents a review of three types of online communities which might be valuable for businesses, namely marketing activities and new product development. Online communities can assist companies in benefitting from the “wisdom of crowds”, creating customer-oriented image, boosting product portfolio with new ideas and handling negative online publicity. While some types of communities are more effective for solving sharply defined tasks, others can help with creative views due to members’ ability to think “outside of the box”.

Marketing ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-282
Author(s):  
Mirjana Gligorijević ◽  
Jovan Rusić

Modern companies are facing much tougher competition than before. In the past, companies were competing, mostly with other companies locally. Now companies can offer their products to customers beyond the local market. Globalization presents a huge chance for companies to grow by an increase in the market size, but as the market size grows, the same happens with the competition. If a company wants to endure, a company is under pressure to innovate, and including customers can affect new product development. The goal of this paper is to determine if including consumers in new product development can affect faster and better quality new product development processes and increase new product value for the company. This analysis should provide us with an answer to the question, should we include consumers, and if we should, when? The results of this paper could act as a guide for managers in developing new products.


Author(s):  
Lina J. Lundquist ◽  
Franz Eberle ◽  
Mikael B. Mohlin ◽  
Rainer Sponsel

In a world of constant development and where competition grows stronger for every minute, there is a need to work smart to stay on the market. Product development in the automotive business is not an exception. It is though not enough to adapt new technology and new ideas, one has to apply it to the organization in the smartest way to be able to achieve one of the most wanted goals; shortened lead-time in combination with improved product quality. As well known, virtual prototyping is a mean to achieve the above stated goal. This paper describes how this method has been the basis for a new product development approach in the clutch system area in an automotive company. The new virtual development approach is enabled by creation of the Virtual Clutch Development Model (VCDM). The main benefit of the simulation model is that several clutch performance phenomena can easily be investigated at once to get an overview of the performance of the clutch system, this in an early phase of the development process. This will facilitate trade off decisions and avoid suboptimization and thus shorten lead-times and improve product quality.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mishelle Doorasamy

Abstract The aim of this article is to provide reader with a comprehensive insight on the theories, empirical findings and models of Product Portfolio Management (PPM) during new product development. This article will allow for an in-depth theoretical approach on PPM and demonstrate to managers the importance of adopting PPM as business strategy during decision making. The objective of this paper is to present a literature review of models, theories, approaches and findings on the relationship between Product Portfolio Management and new product development. Relevant statistical trends, historical developments, published opinion of major writers in this field will be presented to provide concrete evidence of the problem being discussed.


2012 ◽  
pp. 211-222
Author(s):  
Satu Miettinen

Service design is establishing itself as a method for developing services and service business. Service needs, new ideas and ways to utilise technology are encountered when the customer and the end user participate in the design process. This chapter focuses on service design methods and the process of how service design can help in innovating customer-orientated service concepts for e-tourism. Service design connects the areas of cultural, social and human interaction. Use of design methods acts as a link between the different views in the service design process. Service design is an emerging field where the terminology and methods are still developing. Mager (2009) has pointed out that the need for service design is evident, as economic development has changed dramatically during the last four decades from manufacturing to provision of information and services. Service design looks at service development from the designer’s point of view. Design thinking has the ability to create concepts, solutions and future service experiences for users.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-33
Author(s):  
Rebecca Liu ◽  
Aysegul Eda Kop

This paper intends to understand whether social media helps new product success in the context of customer involvement. The authors present a debate about the opportunities and challenges of using social media in new product development (NPD). Through a critical literature review, a conceptual model with a moderation effect is presented. The review is mainly derived from 286 relevant papers published in top-ranked journals between 2005 and 2014. The results suggest that while social media provides an effective and efficient method for collecting information and knowledge about customers' expectations and experiences, it does not necessarily always lead to NPD success. The study shows that hidden customer needs, an advanced evaluation tool, the huge amount of information and a firm's absorptive capacity challenge the use of social media.


Author(s):  
Lea Hennala ◽  
Helinä Melkas ◽  
Satu Pekkarinen

This study investigates aging customers as innovators in senior service markets by their innovation potential and characteristics as innovators in development of well-being services. The study focuses on an initiative to develop the service concept of a foundation providing homes for aging people in Finland. The participants generated ideas on housing and rehabilitation services. Organizations would benefit from engaging users in the improvement of their services. This study provides an example of how that could be put in to practice. The study complements the managerial discussion concerning customer involvement and combines research on user-driven innovation as well as business and service development. It is of interest to managers and other actors in various organizations’ service innovation activities, innovation researchers, and researchers in service science and various aspects of aging.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Di Rong ◽  
Xu Ming ◽  
Jutamart Limsupanark

<p>The industry of service has been progressing rapidly in recent years. In face of the financial crisis, innovation is becoming one of the most important factors along with the development of service innovation. It is important to fully consider characteristics both from theoretical and empirical perspective when identifying service innovation. This article conducts a systematic review of literature on research process of service innovation. In this paper, the research status on concept and typology of service innovation are demonstrated and classified in the second and third section, and three stages are discussed in the following, In addition, the development process is highlighted from four aspects: The customer, new service development and new product development, theoretical and empirical. At last, a recommended list of measures is provided for future theoretical study and empirical research. </p>


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