Web-based customer innovation: a replication with extension
Natalia Ryzhkova
Management Department, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden
Abstract
Acquiring valuable customer knowledge has been recognized as one of the most important elements of companies´ innovation activities. The significant developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) have enabled creation and diffusion of a number of methods and tools for customer involvement into the innovation process. The research has demonstrated the high potential of such ICT-enabled methods and tools on few successful cases. This study reports the investigation of diffusion of web-based tools by exploring the web-sites of 226 companies in five manufacturing and one service industry. The comparison with the five years ago study reveals several new trends in companies´ practices.
Keywords
customer, innovation, web, tools, development process
Article Text
In the current globalized world, knowledge and information are becoming more dispersed and accessible (Chesbrough, 2003). As a result, customers are getting increasingly knowledgeable and proactive. Customer involvement into innovation activities can, thus, be very beneficial for companies. Advancing information and communication technologies continuously offer novel solutions for efficient collaboration between the firm and the customer (Hoffman and Novak, 1996, Dahan and Srinivasan, 2000, Buyukozkan et al., 2007, von Hippel and Katz, 2002, Iansiti and MacCormack, 1997, MacCormack et al., 2001, Dahan and Hauser, 2002). Companies are, however, very different in how fast they recognize the opportunities and adopt new methods created by new technologies (Rai, 1995, Rohrbeck and al, 2010, Jagodic et al., 2009). Despite accumulating evidence on valuable contribution of customer[1] involvement into the innovation process (Kristensson et al., 2004, Dahlsten, 2004, Lettl, 2007, Prahalad, 2004, Ohly et al., 2010) and the high potential of the web and information technologies for customer integration (Hemetsberger and Godula, 2007, Farris et al., 2003, Kaiser and Muller-Seitz, 2008, Franke et al., 2008, Droge et al., 2010, Nambisan, 2002, Jeppesen, 2005, Sawhney et al., 2005), seemingly very few companies manage to master advanced methods of web-based customer innovation[2] (Rohrbeck and al, 2010).
Almost five years ago, Prandelli, Verona and Raccagni (2006) examined to which extent capabilities of the Internet are exploited by companies for collaboration with customers for innovation. Their study 'Diffusion of web-based product innovation' mapped web-based tools that companies integrated into their web-sites to support customer innovation. The findings of the study showed that the actual usage of the web-based tools was still very limited and specific to certain industries and companies' types. Nevertheless, the research on the Internet capabilities supporting customer-firm collaboration for innovation purposes has been multiplying since the time of the article´s publication (e.g. (Füller, 2010, Füller et al., 2010, Verona et al., 2006, Kohler et al., 2009, Fuller et al., 2009, Rohrbeck and al, 2010, Fuller and Matzler, 2007, Nambisan and Nambisan, 2008, Nambisan and Baron, 2007, Nambisan and Baron, 2009, Hemetsberger and Godula, 2007, Fuller, 2006, Nambisan and Baron, 2010). This trend suggests that the phenomenon is considered remarkable by scholars despite the slow pace of its recognition by the bulk of companies reported by Prandelli et al (2006). This study is, hence, motivated by the need to clarify to which extent companies also start realizing the value of the web for collaborating with customers. As the progress of information and communication technologies goes on and opening up innovation processes becomes a common practice, it is sensible to assume that companies get gradually accustomed to implementing diverse and advanced mechanisms for involving users deeper into innovation activities. This assumption deserves investigation by comparing the level of diffusion of web-based customer innovation five years ago and now.
Therefore, the main objective of this study is to find out how the actual usage of web-based tools changed over time using the Pradelli´s and her co-authors´ (Prandelli et al., 2006) study as the benchmark. The fact that the replicated study is the only empirical investigation on diffusion of web-based tools for supporting the innovation process indicates its relevance as the benchmark. In addition, I extend the original study by including a service (telecommunications) industry in the sample. Interaction with customers is crucial for service companies. However, customer involvement in new service development has been mostly considered from the marketing perspective (Alam, 2002). The methods and tools for deeper customer integration into the innovation process have been mainly researched by the innovation management scholars in the context of developing tangible products (e.g.(Franke and Piller, 2003, Franke and Piller, 2004, Piller et al., 2010). Exploring the role of ICT-enabled tools and methods for customer involvement in the innovation processes of service firms would contribute to filling the gap in the literature. Overall, this replication study would be a valuable contribution to the current research as it exposes the evolution of the phenomenon of web-based customer innovation which is a distinctive additional value of the replication study compared to the original investigation. Furthermore, this study offers possible explanations of factors influencing firms´ adoption patterns.
The research method of this study is based on the approach used in the original study by Prandelli et al (2006) in order to ensure comparability of the results of the analyses. The method includes an investigation and a quantitative analysis of the public web-sites of companies in six industries.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. First, the summary of the original study is presented and the reasons for replicating are explained. Then, the research approach and the data collection process are described. After that, analysis of the data is presented. Finally, conclusions are made and implications for research and practice are discussed.
[1] The terms 'user' and 'customer' are used interchangeably in this paper
[2] Web-based customer innovation is defined as the innovation process with the high involvement of customers supported by web-based methods and tools
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