An Entrepreneurship Lens on the SDL: Insights from NPD Nicole - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

An Entrepreneurship Lens on the SDL: Insights from NPD

Nicole Coviello Visiting Erskine Fellow, University of Canterbury Richard Joseph IAG New Zealand

What we know about customers in NPD?

 Customer involvement is central to NPD success (Rothwell et al 1974;

Cooper 1979; Cooper and Kleinschmidt 1987)

 Customer orientation can positively influence NPD outcomes (Li

and Calantone 1998; Lukas and Ferrell 2000)

 Customer-driven development influences quality of NPD effort

(Ramaswami, Srivastava and Bhargava 2009)

 Various mechanisms to hear the ‘voice of the customer’ (Griffin

and Hauser 1993; Leonard and Rayport 1997, etc.)

 Role of ‘lead users’ (von Hippel 1986; Lilien et al 2002)

....Customers are the ‘inside track’ to innovation (Penrose 1959)

What we don’t know?

 The NPD literature tends to focus on mechanisms to involve the

customer or the types of customer relevant to NPD or when customers might be involved during NPD

 Inconsistent results  Lack of an integrated account of how, when and which

customers participate in NPD

 Customers (existing or potential) are a market-based asset

(Srivastava, Shervani and Fahey 1998; 1999; Gruner and Homburg 2000; Fang 2008)

 We investigate:  how customers participate in NPD,  when this occurs, and  which customers participate.

Our perspective?

The setting

 Smaller and newer  B2B markets  Really new products (aka major innovation or MI)  Each MI involves non-customized Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) equipment

 ICT experiences uncertainty and rapid change, with new ideas made

possible through technological breakthroughs.

General results

 NPD for MI in smaller and newer firms is stream-lined, fluid  Customers can be defined in a variety of ways; many different

forms of customer might be involved with NPD

 In the same way that customers come in different forms, they

can take different roles through NPD (both proactive and reactive)

 Beyond customers, there are many other types of actors, all in

the firm’s network... all are ‘resource integrators’

Effectuation logic (Sarasvathy 2001)

 Successful firms did ‘development deals’, made on the

basis of affordable loss

 Successful firms leveraged existing and potential customer

relationships in different ways

 Opportunity surfaces as a relatively unformed idea

 Through working with customers, the opportunity is co-created  Risk is shared by both parties

Limitations and implications

 Focus on internal informants (no customers included)  Analysis of selected dyads appropriate for study on (e.g.) co-learning,

co-creation, or the study of how firms manage uncertainty in asymmetric relationships

 Small firms in NZ (and not all the same size)  Basis for study with larger firms and across other institutional contexts  Successes/failures not embedded in same firms  Ideal, but a practical challenge