A risk-benefit perspective on early customer integration

Customer integration in the early innovation phase has been considered the method of choice in theory and practice. Growing experience with the concept has shown unexpected side effects that may even outweigh its recognized advantages. Therefore, management needs to be able to assess in advance whether the involvement of customers will add overall value to each particular innovation project. To support but not to replace the final managerial decision, a mathematical formula is developed. It can be applied to all kinds of process structures, takes into account the risks and benefits contingent on a company's situation as well as risk-reducing and benefit-increasing measures and translates them into numerical values. The resulting figure indicates the prospective value of customer integration in a specific project.

Prof. Dr. Oliver GassmannProf. Dr. Tom Sommerlatte

Foreword	p. V
Foreword	p. VII
Acknowledgements	p. XI
1 Introduction	p. 1
1.1 Relevance of the topic	p. 1
1.1.1 Relevance of customer integration	p. 1
1.1.2 Relevance of the early innovation phase	p. 2
1.1.3 Relevance of a risk-benefit perspective	p. 3
1.2 Shortcomings of existing research	p. 5
1.2.1 Conceptual research gap	p. 5
1.2.2 Empirical research gap	p. 6
1.3 Research concept	p. 8
1.3.1 Research question	p. 8
1.3.2 Research approach	p. 9
1.3.3 Research methodology	p. 10
1.3.4 Research design	p. 12
1.3.5 Thesis outline	p. 14
2 Literature review of key issues	p. 17
2.1 Innovation	p. 17
2.2 Early innovation phase	p. 18
2.2.1 Temporal delimitation and character	p. 18
2.2.2 Various structure models	p. 19
2.3 Customer integration	p. 26
2.3.1 Customers	p. 26
2.3.2 Integration	p. 29
2.4 Benefits and risks	p. 49
2.4.1 Benefits	p. 49
2.4.2 Risks	p. 51
2.4.3 Risk-benefit balance	p. 55
2.5 Knowledge creation	p. 59
2.5.1 Definition of knowledge	p. 59
2.5.2 Knowledge creation	p. 60
2.5.3 Absorptive capacity	p. 61
2.6 Summary	p. 65
3 Development of an analysis model for a risk-benefit balance	p. 67
3.1 General outlook on the analysis model	p. 67
3.2 Tasks	p. 71
3.2.1 Task description	p. 71
3.2.2 Potential customer contribution	p. 80
3.3 Assets	p. 87
3.3.1 Benefits in the various tasks	p. 87
3.3.2 Benefit-increasing factors	p. 91
3.4 Liabilities	p. 94
3.4.1 Risks in the various tasks	p. 94
3.4.2 Risk-reducing measures	p. 98
3.5 Propositions summary	p. 99
4 Case studies on early customer integration	p. 101
4.1 Selection and structure	p. 101
4.2 Customer integration at Gallus	p. 103
4.2.1 Company profile	p. 103
4.2.2 Innovation process at Gallus	p. 106
4.2.3 Innovation project: Concept for industrializing narrow-web printing	p. 107
4.2.4 Company assessment of the innovation project	p. 111
4.2.5 Company assessment of customer integration	p. 112
4.3 Customer integration at Schindler	p. 113
4.3.1 Company profile	p. 113
4.3.2 Innovation process at Schindler	p. 114
4.3.3 Innovation project: European trends in the elevator branch	p. 119
4.3.4 Company assessment of the innovation project	p. 121
4.3.5 Company assessment of customer integration	p. 122
4.4 Customer integration at Schurter	p. 123
4.4.1 Company profile	p. 123
4.4.2 Innovation process at Schurter	p. 125
4.4.3 Innovation project: Identification via Customer Application Talks	p. 128
4.4.4 Company assessment of the innovation project	p. 132
4.4.5 Company assessment of customer integration	p. 133
4.5 Customer integration at Zimmer	p. 134
4.5.1 Company profile	p. 134
4.5.2 Innovation process at Zimmer	p. 135
4.5.3 Innovation project: Opportunities for the "female empowered patient"	p. 139
4.5.4 Company assessment of the innovation project	p. 144
4.5.5 Company assessment of customer integration	p. 145
5 Characteristics of successful early customer integration	p. 147
5.1 Cross-case analysis	p. 147
5.1.1 General advisability of customer integration	p. 148
5.1.2 Tasks	p. 151
5.1.3 Benefit-increasing factors	p. 155
5.1.4 Risk-reducing measures	p. 158
5.2 Determinants for successful customer integration	p. 159
5.2.1 Size of the integrating company	p. 160
5.2.2 Identical selection criteria as determinants	p. 161
5.2.3 Contingency factor of dependence on customers	p. 162
5.3 Conceptualization of advisable customer integration	p. 166
5.3.1 Overview of the Resource Dependence Theory	p. 166
5.3.2 Linking Resource Dependence Theory with customer integration	p. 168
5.3.3 Conceptual model of successful customer integration	p. 171
6 Managerial recommendations for advisable envisaged customer integration	p. 175
6.1 Innovation task and potential customer contribution	p. 175
6.2 Benefits and risks of the envisaged customer integration	p. 177
6.2.1 Benefits for the concrete project	p. 177
6.2.2 Risks for the concrete project	p. 178
6.3 Modification of benefits and risks	p. 179
6.3.1 Benefit-increasing factors	p. 179
6.3.2 Risk-reducing measures	p. 180
6.4 Quantification of benefits, risks, and their modifications	p. 188
6.4.1 Basic considerations	p. 189
6.4.2 Quantifying benefits and risks	p. 190
6.4.3 Quantifying benefit-increasing factors and risk-reducing measures	p. 192
6.5 Towards a formal decision model	p. 196
7 Conclusion	p. 201
7.1 Results	p. 201
7.1.1 Is customer integration in the early innovation phase advisable?	p. 201
7.1.2 Can customer integration be investigated irrespective of different individual process structures?	p. 202
7.1.3 Which possible effects of customer integration have to be taken into account?	p. 203
7.1.4 Can the potential success of customer integration be predicted?	p. 205
7.1.5 Summary of hypotheses	p. 206
7.2 Implications for management practice	p. 207
7.3 Implications for management theory	p. 209
7.4 Suggestions for further research	p. 213
8 Appendix	p. 215
A Special innovation tools	p. 215
B List of abbreviations	p. 219
References	p. 221

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