Managers are well aware of the importance of product innovativeness and speed to market, and more of them are bringing OEM customers (original equipment manufacturer) into the NPD process (new product development) to achieve these objectives. However, the involvement of OEM customers in the NPD processes may not always lead to desirable outcomes. In certain situations, customer participation can even impede new product innovativeness and/or speed to market. If downstream retailers and distributors are so highly connected that they all know one another and communicate regularly, bringing the OEM customer into the development process is likely to speed it up because the OEM customer can access market information more quickly. However, managers need to be wary of the type of information transferred into the NPD process in this scenario because that information may be redundant and fail to reflect the diverse nature of market needs and preferences. This type of information input even may limit the innovativeness of the developed component. In addition, the decision to include OEM customers in a significant portion of the development tasks carries certain benefit-risk trade-offs. Specifically, if the nature of the development requires a high level of interaction and coordination across different stages, a significant OEM customer role is likely to lead to product innovativeness but delay the development process because of its high coordination burdens.
Customer participation and the trade-off between new product innovativeness and speed to market
Journal of Marketing ; 72 , 4 ; 90-104
2008
15 Seiten, 2 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 83 Quellen
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Englisch
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