IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/tkp/tiim13/s4_205-221.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Customer Definition and Representation in Market-Driven Product Development

Author

Listed:
  • Jukka Majava

    (University of Oulu, Finland)

  • Jouko Nuottila

    (University of Oulu, Finland)

  • Harri Haapasalo

    (University of Oulu, Finland)

  • Kris M. Y. Law

    (University of Oulu, Finland)

Abstract

Purpose: Customers are typically considered the most important external stakeholders for companies. This study explores how customers are defined by product management and development managers in market-driven development. In addition, customer representation during development is studied. Design/methodology/approach: The literature review of the study focuses on customer definition and involvement in product development context, while the empirical part explores industry practices at managerial level through case projects in selected organisations. Findings: Company management and strategy outline customer definition. Product management collaborates with various stakeholders including marketing, sales, management, direct customers, and end-users in customer definition. Product management was found to be the most important customer representative for product development. However, other information sources are also utilised. Research limitations/implications: The case projects may not be able to offer a generalised picture of the topic. Future work should extend the study to cover more industry sectors and companies at various tiers and regions. Practical implications: Company management and strategy must provide proper guidance for customer definition, and management must ensure that product management teams are appropriately resourced and competent. Systematic way of working and good collaboration among product management, product development, and other internal stakeholders is needed. While focus on selected customers is important, other customers in the value chain must also be considered. Product management and development professionals should also have some direct contact with external customers to ensure proper customer understanding and to tackle problems related to conflicting internal stakeholder views. Originality/value: Past literature emphasises customer orientation, however, it has not adequately addressed how customers are defined and who represents the customers in market-driven context. The study findings offer a good reference for companies to improve product development focus.

Suggested Citation

  • Jukka Majava & Jouko Nuottila & Harri Haapasalo & Kris M. Y. Law, 2013. "Customer Definition and Representation in Market-Driven Product Development," Diversity, Technology, and Innovation for Operational Competitiveness: Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Technology Innovation and Industrial Management,, ToKnowPress.
  • Handle: RePEc:tkp:tiim13:s4_205-221
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.toknowpress.net/ISBN/978-961-6914-07-9/papers/S4_205-221.pdf
    File Function: full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric von Hippel, 1986. "Lead Users: A Source of Novel Product Concepts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(7), pages 791-805, July.
    2. Wesley M. Cohen & Richard R. Nelson & John P. Walsh, 2003. "Links and Impacts: The Influence of Public Research on Industrial R&D," Chapters, in: Aldo Geuna & Ammon J. Salter & W. Edward Steinmueller (ed.), Science and Innovation, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. V. Krishnan & Karl T. Ulrich, 2001. "Product Development Decisions: A Review of the Literature," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 1-21, January.
    4. Conduit, Jodie & Mavondo, Felix T., 2001. "How critical is internal customer orientation to market orientation?1," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 11-24, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Harkonen, Janne & Haapasalo, Harri & Hanninen, Kai, 2015. "Productisation: A review and research agenda," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 65-82.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bookhagen, Andrea & Sperber, Sonja, 2017. "Kundenintegration in den Entwicklungsprozess von Produktinnovationen durch Crowdsourcing," PraxisWISSEN Marketing: German Journal of Marketing, AfM – Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Marketing, vol. 2(01/2017), pages 21-37.
    2. Youn Kue Na & Sungmin Kang & Hye Yeon Jeong, 2019. "The Effect of Market Orientation on Performance of Sharing Economy Business: Focusing on Marketing Innovation and Sustainable Competitive Advantage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-19, January.
    3. Aschhoff, Birgit & Sofka, Wolfgang, 2009. "Innovation on demand--Can public procurement drive market success of innovations?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1235-1247, October.
    4. Effelsberg, Martin, 2011. "Wissenstransfer in Innovationskooperationen: Ergebnisse einer Literaturstudie zur "Absorptive Capacity"," Arbeitspapiere 107, University of Münster, Institute for Cooperatives.
    5. Berchicci, L. & Tucci, C.L., 2008. "Market Feedback and Team Commitment in Radical Product Innovation Process," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2008-069-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    6. Roberto Fontana & Marco Guerzoni, 2008. "Incentives and uncertainty: an empirical analysis of the impact of demand on innovation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 32(6), pages 927-946, November.
    7. Mahr, Dominik & Lievens, Annouk, 2012. "Virtual lead user communities: Drivers of knowledge creation for innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 167-177.
    8. Arora, Ashish & Cohen, Wesley M. & Walsh, John P., 2016. "The acquisition and commercialization of invention in American manufacturing: Incidence and impact," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1113-1128.
    9. Tang Wang & Vikas A. Aggarwal & Brian Wu, 2020. "Capability interactions and adaptation to demand‐side change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(9), pages 1595-1627, September.
    10. Giovanni. Gavetti & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2004. "50th Anniversay Article: The Strategy Field from the Perspective of Management Science: Divergent Strands and Possible Integration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(10), pages 1309-1318, October.
    11. Hawkins, Richard & Langford, Cooper H. & Saunders, Chad, 2015. "Assessing the practical application of social knowledge: A survey of six leading Canadian Universities," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 83-95.
    12. Scott A. Shane & Karl T. Ulrich, 2004. "50th Anniversary Article: Technological Innovation, Product Development, and Entrepreneurship in Management Science," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(2), pages 133-144, February.
    13. Aaron K. Chatterji & Kira Fabrizio, 2012. "How Do Product Users Influence Corporate Invention?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 971-987, August.
    14. Bianchini, Stefano & Llerena, Patrick & Patsali, Sofia, 2019. "Demand-pull innovation in science: Empirical evidence from a research university’s suppliers," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(S).
    15. Schweisfurth, Tim G., 2017. "Comparing internal and external lead users as sources of innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 238-248.
    16. Wang, Yuandi & Zhou, Zhao, 2013. "The dual role of local sites in assisting firms with developing technological capabilities: Evidence from China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 63-76.
    17. Felin, Teppo & Zenger, Todd R., 2014. "Closed or open innovation? Problem solving and the governance choice," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 914-925.
    18. Idota, Hiroki & Nakaya, Joji & Tsuji, Masatsugu, 2019. "Why Consumers Commit Voluntarily to Collaborative Innovation with Firms by Using Social Media?: Case of Japanese consumers," 30th European Regional ITS Conference, Helsinki 2019 205183, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    19. Kalcheva, Ivalina & McLemore, Ping & Pant, Shagun, 2018. "Innovation: The interplay between demand-side shock and supply-side environment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 440-461.
    20. Aaron K. Chatterji & Kira R. Fabrizio, 2014. "Using users: When does external knowledge enhance corporate product innovation?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(10), pages 1427-1445, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tkp:tiim13:s4_205-221. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Maks Jezovnik (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.toknowpress.net/conferences .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.