PROACTIVE INVOLVEMENT OF CONSUMERS IN INNOVATION: SELECTING APPROPRIATE TECHNIQUES

Abstract

There are many techniques for the involvement of consumers to support the development of innovations, but knowledge is lacking in the appropriateness of different techniques in various situations. This is, especially, true for consumer involvement in radical innovation. This paper presents the requirements of consumer involvement in different situations, covering the two main phases of the development process, and specified for three types of radical product innovation. Based on a review of literature, we identified four characteristics of consumers-involvement techniques and developed a mix of differentiating characteristics for six situations in the new product development, which form the basis of a model to select the appropriate techniques. We then evaluated this model by using a historical comparative case-study approach. This paper contributes to the understanding of the appropriateness of different techniques for the proactive involvement of consumers to support the development of radical product innovations.