CUSTOMER ROLES IN INNOVATIONS

Christina Öberg ()
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Christina Öberg: Linköping University, Department of Management and Engineering, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 2010, vol. 14, issue 06, 989-1011

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to discuss and classify the roles of customers in innovations. In literature on innovations, customers have been increasingly emphasised as a source for innovations and also in how they help develop ideas in their early phases. This paper exemplifies various customer roles in innovations through three case studies. These describe the customer as initiator, as co-producer and as inspiration for business development. Through using role theory to discuss customers in innovations, it becomes explicit how customers may play their traditional roles, add roles or transfer to new roles beyond the scope of being a customer. Furthermore, the paper shows that customer roles change during the innovation process from added or transferred towards more traditional ones.

Keywords: Innovation; customer; role; phase (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1142/S1363919610002970

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