Virtual Customer Integration in New Product Development in Industrial Markets: The QLL Framework
Titel:
Virtual Customer Integration in New Product Development in Industrial Markets: The QLL Framework
Auteur:
Hemetsberger, Andrea Godula, Georg
Verschenen in:
Journal of business-to-business marketing
Paginering:
Jaargang 14 (2007) nr. 2 pagina's 1-40
Jaar:
2007-03-07
Inhoud:
Purpose. Customer integration in new product development has become a main topic in business-to-business literature. Literature has brought forward a growing body of virtual customer integration methods and tools. Yet, we lack a systematic evaluation of how and when to make use of conventional and virtual methods, and on what grounds. The purpose of this article is to provide a theoretically based classification of customer integration methods and tools, and selection criteria for industrial companies to find those most appropriate for their own innovation purposes. Methodology/Approach. In this article, we propose a new framework of customer integration that is receptive to the explicitness and tacitness of knowledge exchanged throughout the NPD process. We additionally introduce a third, qualitative axis in the QLL framework that encompasses criteria for selecting methods that best serve the knowledge transfer requirements of a particular NPD project. With this framework at hand, companies can find the most appropriate, individual selection of customer integration methods for them. A practical example is provided to illustrate the selection process. Findings. Our classification shows that virtual customer integration methods offer promising new tools for filling information gaps in the most sensitive stages of design and product testing. For complex, tacit knowledge exchange, close and face-to-face cooperation is more appropriate. Virtual methods appear more appropriate when visualization and time is important. Conventional methods outperform virtual ones when a shared understanding is vital. Originality/Value/Contribution of the paper. The contribution of this article is twofold. First, it contains a general classification of conventional and virtual methods for customer integration according to their contribution to the different forms of knowledge required throughout the stages of new product development processes. Second, the article shows how the classification framework can be applied in practice.
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