TRIP: The Right Consumer for Integration in New Product Development – An Empirical Investigation into the Effectiveness of Lead Users, Passive Resistors and Emergent Nature Consumers

大量的研究表明，消费者的整合不仅可以有效地降低新产品的失败风险，而且可以有效地提高财务绩效和提高客户满意度。然而，过去的研究表明，有效性可能取决于整合的消费者类型。然而，一些消费者类型的整合是否比其他消费者类型更有效地支持新产品的开发，仍然缺乏经验证据。同样，之前没有研究调查在新产品开发过程中使用不同的消费者类型，一个用于概念生成，一个用于概念调整，可能比只关注一种类型更好，更有效。最后，不同消费者类型在不同环境下对新产品开发整合的有效性尚未得到研究。 为了解决上述研究空白，本研究项目的总体目标是扩大我们对消费者整合的理解，这是在开发和提供新产品时增加公司成功的重要工具。我们的重点是调查不同的消费者类型及其在开发新产品方面的有效性。为了提供一个全面的观点，这个项目分为四个主要的研究目标，这将是解决在一系列的实验室和现场实验。第一个研究目标是实证调查哪种消费者类型（主要用户，新兴自然消费者或被动电阻器）基本上是开发新产品概念的正确类型，这些新产品概念有可能在市场上取得成功。接下来，基于从第一个目标中获得的见解，第二个研究目标是观察某个消费者类型通过另一个消费者类型对概念进行调整或进一步发展是否有助于使概念更加成功。因此，我们努力确定消费者类型的正确组合，以开发新产品概念，进一步增加市场成功的可能性。第三个研究目标旨在确定整合效果的潜在差异取决于消费者类型和整合的时间。因此，目的是发现新产品开发过程中的每个阶段（构思，开发，交付），哪种消费者类型是最有前途的。最后，第四个研究目的是观察在不同的环境条件下，每种消费者类型所形成的概念的有效性是否存在差异。更具体地说，我们要调查哪种消费者类型是特别适合的概念开发的技术创新，哪一个在市场创新。

A vast amount of studies shows that the integration of consumers is not only effective in minimizing the risk of failure of new products, but also effective in enhancing financial performance and increasing customer satisfaction. Yet, past research suggests that the effectiveness might depend on the type of consumer integrated. However, empirical evidence on whether the integration of some consumer types is more effective in supporting the development of new products than others is still lacking. Likewise, no prior research investigated whether using different consumer types during new product development, one for concept generation and one for concept adjustment, might be even better and more effective than focusing on only one type. And finally, the effectiveness of different consumer types for new product development integration under different environmental circumstances has not yet been investigated. To address the aforementioned research gaps, the overall objective of this research project is to broaden our understanding of consumer integration as an important instrument for increasing companies’ success when developing and offering new products. Our focus is on the investigation of different consumer types and their effectiveness in developing new products. In order to provide a comprehensive view on this topic, this project is divided into four main research goals, which will be addressed in a series of laboratory and field experiments. The first research goal is to empirically investigate which consumer type (lead user, emergent nature consumer or passive resistor) is basically the right one for the development of new product concepts that have the potential to be successful on the market. Next, based on the insights gained from the first goal, the second research goal is to observe whether the adjustment or further development of concepts developed by a certain consumer type through another consumer type could help to make concepts even more successful. Therefore, we strive to determine the right combination of consumer types for the development of new product concepts that further increase the likelihood of market success. The third research goal aims at identifying potential differences in integration effectiveness depending on consumer type and the time of integration. Thus, the purpose is to discover for each stage (ideation, development, delivery) in the new product development process which consumer type is the most promising one. Lastly, the fourth research goal seeks to observe whether there are differences in the effectiveness of the concepts developed by each consumer type under different environmental conditions. More specifically, we want to investigate which consumer type is particularly appropriate for concept development in technological turbulences and which one in market turbulences.