Customer Empowerment in New Product Development
Customer Empowerment in New Product Development
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1540-5885.2010.00778.x
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发表时间：
2011-01-01
影响因子：
10.5
通讯作者：
Schreier, Martin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fuchs, Christoph;Schreier, Martin
传统的新产品开发（NPD）模式，即公司专门负责提出新产品创意并决定哪些产品最终应该上市，越来越多地受到创新管理学者和实践者的挑战。特别是，许多人主张通过授权客户更积极地参与企业NPD来实现民主化创新的想法。这已经变得可行，因为互联网现在允许公司建立强大的在线社区，通过这些社区，他们可以倾听和整合来自世界各地的数千名客户。现有的研究提供了强有力的论据表明，客户授权在新产品开发使企业能够开发更好的产品，并在同一时间，以降低成本和风险，如果客户在一个给定的域是愿意和能够提供有价值的投入。然而，客户授权不仅影响公司的内部新产品开发过程，反映在最终销售的产品。相反，它还可能影响市场对公司的看法（观察到公司在新产品开发中促进客户赋权的客户）。本文提供了第一个实证研究，探讨如何从“外围”（即，不参与的群众）感知客户授权策略。新产品开发中的顾客授权是沿着两个基本维度概念化的：（1）顾客授权创造新产品设计（想法）;（2）顾客授权选择要生产的产品设计。因此，客户可以被授权提交新产品（想法）（授权创建）或（2）“投票”哪些产品最终应该销售（授权选择）。在两个实验研究的过程中，使用三种不同的产品类别（T恤，家具和自行车）的两个客户授权维度（以及其相互作用）被发现导致（1）增加感知的客户导向水平，（2）更有利的企业态度，（3）和更强的行为意图。这些发现将是非常有用的研究人员和管理人员有兴趣了解客户授权的持久后果，在新产品开发。最重要的是，研究结果表明，授权策略可能会被用来提高一个公司的企业协会所感知的广大（潜在）客户。特别是，营销人员可能会促进客户赋权，作为增强感知客户导向的有效手段。顾客反过来会提供奖励，因为他们会形成更有利的企业态度，更有可能选择授权的产品，而不是非授权的公司，其他条件不变。因此，客户授权构成了一个有前途的定位战略，管理人员可以追求创造市场竞争优势。
The traditional new product development (NPD) model, in which companies are exclusively responsible for coming up with new product ideas and for deciding which products should ultimately be marketed, is increasingly being challenged by innovation management academics and practitioners alike. In particular, many have advocated the idea of democratizing innovation by empowering customers to take a much more active stake in corporate NPD. This has become feasible because the Internet now allows companies to build strong online communities through which they can listen to and integrate thousands of customers from all over the world. Extant research has provided strong arguments that indicate that customer empowerment in NPD enables firms to develop better products and at the same time to reduce costs and risks if customers in a given domain are willing and able to deliver valuable input. Customer empowerment, however, not only affects the firm's internal NPD processes as reflected in the products that are ultimately marketed. Instead, it might also affect the way companies are perceived in the marketplace (by customers who observe that companies foster customer empowerment in NPD). This paper provides the first empirical study to explore how customers from the "periphery" (i.e., the mass that does not participate) perceive customer empowerment strategies. Customer empowerment in NPD is conceptualized along two basic dimensions: (1) customer empowerment to create (ideas for) new product designs; and (2) customer empowerment to select the product designs to be produced. Therefore, customers may be empowered to submit (ideas for) new products (empowerment to create) or (2) to "vote" on which products should ultimately be marketed (empowerment to select). In the course of two experimental studies using three different product categories (T-shirts, furniture, and bicycles) both customer empowerment dimensions (as well as its interaction) are found to lead to (1) increased levels of perceived customer orientation, (2) more favorable corporate attitudes, (3) and stronger behavioral intentions. These findings will be very useful to researchers and managers interested in understanding the enduring consequences of customer empowerment in NPD. Most importantly, the results suggest that empowerment strategies might be used to improve a firm's corporate associations as perceived by the broad mass of (potential) customers. In particular, marketers might foster customer empowerment as an effective means of enhancing perceived customer orientation. Customers will in turn provide rewards, as they will form more favorable corporate attitudes and will be more likely to choose the products of empowering as opposed to nonempowering companies, ceteris paribus. Customer empowerment thus constitutes a promising positioning strategy that managers can pursue to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace.