Research Plan on Customer Service Innovation
Running head: CUSTOMER INVOLVEMENT IN SERVICE INNOVATION
Customer Involvement in Service Innovation
Francisco Espinosa
University of Phoenix
Customer Involvement in Service Innovation
New product and service development is an extremely unsafe process for large and small firms. Rates of failure in launching products and services are superior to 50%, and close to 90% in some types of products, services and markets (Kotler & Keller, 2009). Launching of new products and services may fail for different reasons, but one of the most important is the deficient involvement of customers in during the innovation process. Companies could prevent expensive failures just by integrating customers into the process of innovation (Ogawa & Piller, 2006). Some companies and leaders consider so normal to have high rates of failure that they even compel their people to fail (Kotler & Keller, 2009), but the price of failures is finally transferred to the customers through the successful products and services, and billions of dollars are lost by the inefficiencies. Customer involvement in service innovation has been strongly recommended for several years (Christensen, 1997; Edvardsson, Magnusson, Gustafsson, & Kristensson, 2006); yet, despite firms are convinced of its high benefits, they do not pay the costs; most of times for lack of managers’ ability to work together with the customers, and to obtain their cooperation (Edvardsson et al., 2006).
This study attempts to contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon of customer involvement in the service innovation process. It will focus on customer involvement in business-to-business service companies, which—although small—is an important section of the entire phenomenon, as is demonstrated by the interest that the Marketing Science Institute has shown on the subject. This research study plan, which will investigate the degree of association
Customer Involvement in Service Innovation
Francisco Espinosa
University of Phoenix
Customer Involvement in Service Innovation
New product and service development is an extremely unsafe process for large and small firms. Rates of failure in launching products and services are superior to 50%, and close to 90% in some types of products, services and markets (Kotler & Keller, 2009). Launching of new products and services may fail for different reasons, but one of the most important is the deficient involvement of customers in during the innovation process. Companies could prevent expensive failures just by integrating customers into the process of innovation (Ogawa & Piller, 2006). Some companies and leaders consider so normal to have high rates of failure that they even compel their people to fail (Kotler & Keller, 2009), but the price of failures is finally transferred to the customers through the successful products and services, and billions of dollars are lost by the inefficiencies. Customer involvement in service innovation has been strongly recommended for several years (Christensen, 1997; Edvardsson, Magnusson, Gustafsson, & Kristensson, 2006); yet, despite firms are convinced of its high benefits, they do not pay the costs; most of times for lack of managers’ ability to work together with the customers, and to obtain their cooperation (Edvardsson et al., 2006).
This study attempts to contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon of customer involvement in the service innovation process. It will focus on customer involvement in business-to-business service companies, which—although small—is an important section of the entire phenomenon, as is demonstrated by the interest that the Marketing Science Institute has shown on the subject. This research study plan, which will investigate the degree of association
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