The process of user-innovation: a case study in a consumer goods setting

Robert Tietz, Pamela D. Morrison, Christian Luthje and Cornelius Herstatt

International Journal of Product Development, 2005, vol. 2, issue 4, 321-338

Abstract: Manufacturers benefit by dividing their innovation processes into distinct phases in order to ensure that development activities are performed efficiently. Users are expected to follow a more intuition-driven approach. In this paper, we analyse the way users improve or develop novel products. The field of our research is a new and rapidly evolving consumer market, the sport of kite surfing. We identified a sequence that underlies the approaches of user inventors. This sequence consists of two major stages, (1) idea generation and (2) idea realisation, each stage is further subdivided. We propose that a manufacturer can significantly profit from more closely observing such user activities.

Keywords: user innovation; lead user; innovation process; consumer markets; consumer goods; novel products; product development; kite surfing; idea generation; idea realisation; user inventors; product design; product innovation; end users. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijpdev:v:2:y:2005:i:4:p:321-338

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