Lead Users Research Articles

Market Testing Procedures for B2C and B2B in Perspective of Radical Innovation

The new market testing procedure has been divided into two types- one type focuses on the general consumers (B2C) and the other on the expert consumers (B2B) who have established strong relationship with the new radically innovated products. This feature will add value to the business to segment their market testing procedures on the basis of targeted consumers. Along with strong literature based on Open Innovation, Lead User method and Delphi Technique; three major case studies have been used to develop the dynamic and flexible market testing procedures. The new procedure sheds light on the complexity of understanding consumer needs and technological innovation. The businesses can use this procedure to effectively generate useful feedback before commercializing their radically innovated products from their target customers. The developed procedures will provide authentic and reliable data for further development of the businesses product or services.

Creating consumer values in the process of developing product innovation

The article examines the building of consumer values in the process of developing product innovations at various stages. Values are created in cooperation with the consumer in the process described. Customers may be included in two ways: first, it can be an interpretation of thoughts and a way of action being an expression of hidden needs that is the voice of the consumer, or, second, it can be through the concept of the lead user – which consists in consumers sharing their own suggestions and ideas during the development process. In both cases, including consumers in the innovation development process at its every stage increases the degree of acceptance of the finished product and the chance to satisfy the buyer, which in turn creates value for both the customer and the company.

Co-designing the next generation of home energy management systems with lead-users

Home energy management systems are widely promoted as essential components of future low carbon economies. It is argued in this paper that assumptions surrounding their deployment, and the methods used to design them, emerge from discredited models of people and energy. This offers an explanation for why their field trial performance is so inconsistent. A first of a kind field trial is reported. Three eco communities took part in a comprehensive participatory design exercise as lead users. The challenge was to help users synchronise their energy use behaviours with the availability of locally generated renewable energy sources. To meet this aim, a set of highly novel Home Energy Management interfaces were co-designed and tested. Not only were the designs radically different to the norm, but they also yielded sustained user engagement over a six-month follow-up period. It is argued that user-centred design holds the key to unlocking the energy saving potential of new domestic technologies, and this study represents a bold step in that direction.

Comparing internal and external lead users as sources of innovation

External lead users’ ideas are valuable to firms but difficult to access due to their location outside organizational boundaries. A potential solution to this problem is to employ lead users within organizations, i.e. to use internal/embedded lead users. Due to their ability to link knowledge about needs and solutions, internal lead users can be expected to produce better ideas compared to external lead users or ordinary employees. We test this conjecture in the home appliances industry using a sample of 864 employees (283 ideas) and 239 users (66 ideas). We find that internal lead users’ ideas are of higher quality than those of ordinary employees and users, but – unexpectedly – are of lower quality than the ideas of external lead users. These findings contribute to research on internal/embedded users by showing how their ideas differ from ideas from other relevant sources of innovation. Our findings contribute also to research on external users’ compared to employees’ ideas as inputs to new product development and the literature on individual knowledge recombination for innovation.

Semantic Learning-Based Innovation Framework for Social Media

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) typically face resource and capability constraints that inhibit their innovation activities. One way SMEs can overcome these constraints is by complementing internal resources and capabilities with external knowledge, referred to as open innovation. With the proliferation of the Internet, SMEs have added social media to their traditional marketing activities. However, they rarely embrace social media's analytical capabilities for innovation. The authors propose the semantic-learning-based innovation framework (SLBIF) to guide SMEs in using social media's analytical capabilities to innovate their products or services. Their framework includes three consecutive stages innovators should follow--idea selection, idea refinement, and idea diffusion--that explain how to analyze customer preferences through semantic analysis of customer posts and identify lead users and opinion leaders using user-directed social network analysis.

Advanced users and the adoption of high speed broadband: Results of a living lab study in the Netherlands

In linking the literature on the adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with the lead user theory, the paper presents the results of a living lab study on the adoption of high speed broadband and advanced ICT services in the Netherlands. The paper proposes that advanced users are able to shape ICT technologies based on their status, their needs and their ability to propose new solutions. In order to examine the role of advanced users, we use data from an on-line survey conducted in a living lab called “Kenniswijk” (Knowledge District) in the Netherlands carried out among 2994 residential users in July 2009. In a first step, the paper examines the leading-edge status of advanced users. Afterwards it studies the extent to which the choice of these users to adopt high speed broadband is related to their decision to adopt advanced ICT services. Finally, the paper utilizes an experimental choice design in order to examine the role of advanced users in defining new product and service characteristics of advanced ICT services. Our research shows that an advanced group of users expected to benefit from using a variety of advanced ICT services in areas such as e-surveillance and local television. In addition, they can contribute to the product and service generation phase within a living lab environment.

Using Do-It-Yourself Practitioners as Lead Users: A Case Study on the Hair Care Industry

Lead users play an integral part in helping engineers to identify latent needs of customers, and this approach has been used in a variety of ways within the design community. However, despite their close resemblance to lead users, do-it-yourself (DIY) practitioners have not been directly examined by the design community. A seven-step framework is presented where the first four steps resemble a typical design process and the remaining steps are relevant for the approach of identifying DIY practitioners as lead users. A case study from the hair care industry is presented to illustrate this framework. This paper establishes a connection between these two groups of customers and demonstrates how the insights of DIY practitioners, which manifest as latent needs for knowledge, can inspire research for the development of new technologies.

Automated feature extraction from social media for systematic lead user identification

ABSTRACTManufacturers strive to rapidly develop novel products and offer solutions that meet the emerging customer needs. The Lead User Method, emerging from studies on sources of innovation by the scientific community, offers a validated approach to identify users with innovation ideas to support rapid and successful new product development process. The approach has been more recently applied on online communities, where collection and analysis of rich user data are performed by expert practitioners. In this paper, feature extraction techniques are outlined, that enable automated classification and identification of lead users that are present in online communities. The authors describe two case studies to construct a classification model that is then used to identify online lead users for confectionery products, and to evaluate the outlined feature extraction techniques. The presented research points to opportunities in automated identification within the lead user approach that further reduce the resource and time costs.

A Lead User Approach to Universal Design - Involving Older Adults in the Design Process.

The concept of Universal Design has received increasing appreciation over the past two decades. Yet, there are very few existing designs that cater to the needs of extraordinary users who experience some form of physical challenge. Previous work has shown promising results on involving users with physical challenges as lead users - users who have the potential to identify needs that could be latent among the general population. It has also been shown that older adults can act as such lead users. They can help design universal product ideas that satisfy both older adults and the general population. In this paper we build on this and examine if involving older adults in the design phase can result in universal products, products preferred by both older adults and the general population over a current option. Eighty-nine older adult participants and thirty-four general population participants took part in the study. Products were redesigned and prototyped based on the needs of older adults and tested among both populations. Results show that, although older adults and the general population did share certain needs and demands, the majority of older adults had needs and demands that were different from those of the general population. However, even though the needs differed between the populations, on average 89% of the general population participants preferred products designed based on design needs expressed by older adults over the current option. This provides further evidence supporting the use of older adults in designing products for all.

INNOVATIVE BRAND COMMUNITY MEMBERS AND THEIR WILLINGNESS TO SHARE IDEAS WITH COMPANIES

With the aim of contributing to the existing knowledge of brand community members and their willingness to share ideas, we investigate whether and how brand community innovators’ (i) lead user characteristics, (ii) brand community identification, (iii) brand knowledge, (iv) brand loyalty and (v) preferences regarding the brand owner’s interference in community activities influence their willingness to share their ideas with the company. In contrast to earlier studies, which inquired into brand community members’ intentions to share their ideas [see Füller, J, K Matzler and M Hoppe (2008). Brand community members as a source of innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 25, 608–619], we studied members who had already innovated and were actively involved in innovation processes. Using a survey of the Adult Fans of Lego (AFOL) community, we found that brand community members’ willingness to share their ideas is positively related to the ahead of the trend (AT) dimension of lead user characteristics, brand community identification and brand loyalty. Interference by the company in community activities also plays a role. Surprisingly, the brand community innovators perceive this role oppositely to what prior research on firm-hosted and open-source communities suggests. This study extends our knowledge of brand communities by demonstrating how brand community innovators’ interpersonal contexts, personal traits and brand perceptions may promote or demote willingness to share.

The art museum as lab to re-calibrate values towards sustainable development

Innovation and change have become major issues on the agenda of commercial, not-for-profit, government and local public organisations alike and are considered to be essential for our future. More recently companies have begun to recognize that current business models based on an abundance of natural resources are no longer sustainable and as yet unplanned but fundamental social system change is required. The implementation of such radical change requires combined efforts across a range of disciplines and fields of knowledge, including interpretative and expressive forms of cultural communication such as art. Indeed, culture is at the heart of system change because it directly influences individual behaviour. Museums, concert halls, opera houses and others present art as ways to explore how to stay meaningful in a world as both individuals and members of collectives or groups. Given the highly dynamic ICT driven environment and an increasing pluralistic culture at a global level, these institutions have the potential to play a crucial role in preparing for change, introducing new social desires and managing fear. At the same time as this growing recognition of the need for system change, the financial pressures on publicly funded cultural institutions are increasing due to stressed public budgets. A way needs to be found in which private companies and cultural institutions can develop mutually beneficial systems of support in order to promote sustainable social change across the board. This paper introduces a case study of a public cultural institution exploring its possible role inspiring and facilitating culture change towards sustainable development. It focuses on how an art museum can find ways to productively complement business innovation and sustainability agendas.Since 2004 the Van Abbemuseum, a publicly funded museum for contemporary art in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has performed a broad variety of experiments in artistic programming and public mediation aiming to deepen and renew its purpose and meaning. The focus of this case study will be on a business model innovation project that was executed in 2014, developing the idea of “art as tool – museum as lab” facilitating sustainable social innovation. It had four steps: (1) Value Proposition, (2) Value Creation, (3) Value Capture and (4) Lead User test. This business approach was deliberately chosen to create a “learning by doing” environment. The Van Abbemuseum staff aimed to develop a new value creation approach, to learn the language and understand the thinking logic to effectively engage with the new target audience: (business) leaders, decision makers and change facilitators.

MNE subsidiary evolution from sales to innovation: Looking inside the black box

Whereas the innovation-related evolution of multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries has been extensively studied, the numerous sales subsidiaries in MNE networks have received little attention in this context. This study examines the evolution process of a sales subsidiary towards acquiring innovation-related capabilities and actively supporting innovation activities of a MNE. The evolution is explained in terms of technical information flow in an in-depth case study of a semiconductor MNEs’ sales subsidiary in South Korea. We find that the evolution of the sales subsidiary to innovation support has been enabled by a combination of subsidiary-related, lead market-related and event-related factors. We contribute to the literature on MNE subsidiary evolution by studying the unexplored evolution of a sales subsidiary. We combine the general framework of subsidiary evolution with the lead user perspective and suggest directions for potential theory extensions on MNE subsidiary evolution.

Perspective: Understanding the Nature and Measurement of the Lead User Construct

The lead user concept has attracted a lot of attention from scholars and practitioners alike. However, different studies apply different conceptualizations and measures of the lead user construct. Such variation in measurement of the construct make it almost impossible to consolidate findings from prior lead user research, which in turn hampers the accumulation of insights on the concept itself. This is also a challenge with respect to managerial practice: due to different interpretations of the concept, managers and R&D staff find it difficult to identify lead users for workshops and cooperation, and companies are often unable to transfer results from lead user projects to new product and business development. As a result, they only rarely repeat their work with lead users. The aim of this article is therefore to provide some thoughts and guidance on the conceptualization and measurement of the lead user construct.

Extending lead user theory to users’ innovation-related knowledge sharing in the online user community: The mediating roles of social capital and perceived behavioral control

The research on users as a source of innovation has been coming into blossom and the studies about the effect of users’ lead userness on their innovation-related activities are drawing more and more attention from both academic and business circles. However, there have been few empirical studies exploring the relationship between users’ lead userness and their innovation-related knowledge sharing behavior in the context of online user community and the mediating effects of users’ social capital and their perceived behavioral control on this relationship. By empirically analyzing the 140 data collected from an online user community that is used as an important source of innovation for a company with the structural equation modeling analysis through the partial least squares method, this study reveals that users’ lead userness has a positive relationship with their innovation-related knowledge sharing in the online user community and users’ social capital and perceived behavioral control jointly and fully mediate this positive relationship. Based on the new findings, this study is expected to provide useful implications which can contribute to widening and deepening the research stream about the effect of users’ lead userness on their innovation-related knowledge sharing in the online user community.

Can Chinese IT Firms Develop Innovative Capabilities within Global Knowledge Networks?

China’s opportunities to build innovative capabilities in the IT industry differ from those faced earlier by Japan and East Asian newly industrializing economies (NIEs). China has a unique combination of advantages in a booming market for electronics products and services, the world’s largest pool of low-cost and easily trainable knowledge workers, the emergence of sophisticated lead users and test-bed markets, and policy efforts to strengthen China’s innovation system. As a later latecomer, China can learn from the achievements and mistakes of earlier latecomers.The international environment is also dramatically different. Most important is the expansion of global knowledge networks, which have extended beyond markets for goods and finance into markets for technology and knowledge workers. Taking into account these important differences, this chapter addresses two questions: Does integration into global knowledge networks facilitate the efforts of Chinese IT firms to develop innovative capabilities? If yes, precisely what type of capabilities are they developing?The findings of this chapter can be summarized as follows:• Integration into global knowledge networks exposes Chinese IT firms to leading-edge technology, “best-practice” management, and sources of knowledge. • Knowledge about its own markets and production sites helps Chinese IT firms to exploit these opportunities.• Successful Chinese firms have not attempted to compete head-on with global leaders through radical innovations. Instead, they have focused on incremental and architectural innovations that support technology diversification strategies.• Integration into global networks needs to be supported by a strong domestic innovation system.These findings contradict a pessimistic literature that appraises China’s innovative capabilities as weak. They also contradict fears, sometimes played up for political purposes, that Chinese firms could make radical innovations that would challenge U.S. technology leadership. A central proposition here is that Chinese IT firms make the most progress in areas that escape the attention of both pessimists and proponents of an emerging technology threat.

User consultation during the fuzzy front end: evaluating student’s design outcomes

In this paper we evaluate the involvement of a partially blind user as lead user in the early stages of a product redesign during an undergraduate product design-engineering course. Throughout the early stages of product design, or fuzzy front end, there is a high level of uncertainty. End users, with their increased contextual knowledge can play an important role in this process, improving decision-making. Yet limited research has thus far been done on user types for involvement and concept generation efficiency. To study whether end user involvement will impact results, a group of students were given consults from a partially blind end user. Using a panel of four judges, we evaluate the results. We find no significant differences in the feasibility, user value or originality of the concepts created by students who received a user consult. We discuss these findings within the context of user involvement in design engineering education.

Collaboration with Suppliers and Lead Users in New Product Development and Open Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Jordanian Companies

<p>This study aims to investigate the effects of collaboration with suppliers and lead users in new product development on open innovation in Jordanian manufacturing companies. Data was collected from 132 companies in two industries; machinery and electronics, and hierarchical regression analysis used to test the study hypotheses, with control variables of company age, company size, and length of relationship applied to avoid their potential bias. The results show that supplier collaboration in new product development does not significantly affect open innovation, while collaboration with lead users positively and significantly affects open innovation.</p>

A textile platform for non-lead radiation shielding apparel

As interventional radiology procedures become more sophisticated, so must the radiation shielding apparel protecting the patients and medical personnel. Conventional radiation shielding apparel is constructed from lead impregnated sheet material which has issues with lead toxicity and user discomfort. This research constructed a more sophisticated material consisting of a textile platform with a bi-layer, non-lead coating with the objective of achieving a 90% attenuation percentage. If radiation shielding material can be produced on a common textile substrate rather than on unyielding sheet material, then it has the potential to be optimised through integration into a textile manufacturing environment. The material was constructed using a solvent casting technique which coated Barium Sulphate (BaSO4) or Sodium Tungstate (Na2WO4) or Bismuth Oxide (Bi2O3) onto a textile substrate. The results showed that the difference in attenuation between the samples produced and the lead equivalent material ranged from 0.76 to 2.1%. Future research can optimise these results by applying textile engineering processes to the coating techniques and also the textile platform itself. This would mean that radiation shielding apparel would not be a simple adaptation of barrier material but be created for ergonomic fit and comfort from the material design stage.

Investigating the Effect of External Alliances on Innovation Behavior in the European Union Industrial Sector

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of collaboration with suppliers and lead users in new product development (NPD) on innovation behavior. Such collaborations are regarded as advanced forms of external alliances. Survey data from two hundred and fifty-two manufacturing companies were collected from the European Union. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that both suppliers’ and lead users’ collaboration in NPD significantly affected innovation behavior. Lead users’ collaboration showed higher impact on innovation behavior compared with suppliers’ collaboration.

Bringing agile project management into lead user projects

The lead user method symbolises a technique of integrating advanced users into the New Product Development (NPD) to cope with firm's increasing necessity of successfully innovating. Implementing this method, companies often face challenges typically linked to barriers in project management. We analyse these drawbacks conducting an exploratory study among 249 companies in the German-speaking countries. To strengthen our results, we conduct six in-depth interviews to collect best practices in project management-related aspects. The outcome is a model based on agile project management and the stage-gate process that compensates identified weaknesses and provides an efficient, flexible implementation of lead users into practice.