IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v47y2018i2p498-510.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Customer participation and new product performance: Towards the understanding of the mechanisms and key contingencies

Author

Listed:
  • Morgan, Todd
  • Obal, Michael
  • Anokhin, Sergey

Abstract

In a study of 243 firms of varying sizes across 14 different industries, we investigate the effect of customer participation on new product development performance. We confirm that overall customer participation is positively related to new product development performance and that the effect is mediated by innovativeness. We also demonstrate that these effects are contingent upon absorptive capacity of the firm in question such that firms with high absorptive capacity stand to gain more from engaging their customers in new product development than firms with low absorptive capacity, especially at the later stages of the NPD process. The results are robust to alternative estimation techniques, measures employed to operationalize key concepts, and the industrial makeup of the sample. Post hoc analyses provide non-trivial managerial implications for the decision makers at the firm level.

Suggested Citation

  • Morgan, Todd & Obal, Michael & Anokhin, Sergey, 2018. "Customer participation and new product performance: Towards the understanding of the mechanisms and key contingencies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 498-510.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:47:y:2018:i:2:p:498-510
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2018.01.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733318300052
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.respol.2018.01.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric von Hippel, 1986. "Lead Users: A Source of Novel Product Concepts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(7), pages 791-805, July.
    2. Slater, Stanley F. & Narver, John C., 2000. "The Positive Effect of a Market Orientation on Business Profitability: A Balanced Replication," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 69-73, April.
    3. Bruneel, Johan & D'Este, Pablo & Salter, Ammon, 2010. "Investigating the factors that diminish the barriers to university-industry collaboration," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 858-868, September.
    4. Aaron K. Chatterji & Kira R. Fabrizio, 2014. "Using users: When does external knowledge enhance corporate product innovation?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(10), pages 1427-1445, October.
    5. Nikolaus Franke & Peter Keinz & Katharina Klausberger, 2013. "“Does This Sound Like a Fair Deal?”: Antecedents and Consequences of Fairness Expectations in the Individual’s Decision to Participate in Firm Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(5), pages 1495-1516, October.
    6. Sarah Kaplan & Keyvan Vakili, 2015. "The double-edged sword of recombination in breakthrough innovation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(10), pages 1435-1457, October.
    7. Jiménez-Jiménez, Daniel & Sanz-Valle, Raquel, 2011. "Innovation, organizational learning, and performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 408-417, April.
    8. Wesley M. Cohen & Daniel A. Levinthal, 1994. "Fortune Favors the Prepared Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(2), pages 227-251, February.
    9. Robertson, Paul L. & Casali, G.L. & Jacobson, David, 2012. "Managing open incremental process innovation: Absorptive Capacity and distributed learning," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 822-832.
    10. Avlonitis, George J. & Salavou, Helen E., 2007. "Entrepreneurial orientation of SMEs, product innovativeness, and performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 566-575, May.
    11. Engelen, Andreas & Kube, Harald & Schmidt, Susanne & Flatten, Tessa Christina, 2014. "Entrepreneurial orientation in turbulent environments: The moderating role of absorptive capacity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 1353-1369.
    12. Grazia Cecere & Muge Ozman, 2014. "Innovation, Recombination and Technological Proximity," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 5(3), pages 646-667, September.
    13. Linsu Kim, 1998. "Crisis Construction and Organizational Learning: Capability Building in Catching-up at Hyundai Motor," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 506-521, August.
    14. Kwaku Atuahene-Gima & Anthony Ko, 2001. "An Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Market Orientation and Entrepreneurship Orientation Alignment on Product Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(1), pages 54-74, February.
    15. Fang Huang & John Rice, 2009. "THE ROLE OF ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY IN FACILITATING "OPEN INNOVATION" OUTCOMES: A STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN SMEsIN THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(02), pages 201-220.
    16. Abbie Griffin & John R. Hauser, 1993. "The Voice of the Customer," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(1), pages 1-27.
    17. Talke, Katrin & Salomo, Sören & Rost, Katja, 2010. "How top management team diversity affects innovativeness and performance via the strategic choice to focus on innovation fields," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 907-918, September.
    18. Nicolai J. Foss & Keld Laursen & Torben Pedersen, 2011. "Linking Customer Interaction and Innovation: The Mediating Role of New Organizational Practices," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 980-999, August.
    19. Flatten, Tessa C. & Engelen, Andreas & Zahra, Shaker A. & Brettel, Malte, 2011. "A measure of absorptive capacity: Scale development and validation," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 98-116, April.
    20. Kavusan, Korcan & Noorderhaven, Niels G. & Duysters, Geert M., 2016. "Knowledge acquisition and complementary specialization in alliances: The impact of technological overlap and alliance experience," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 2153-2165.
    21. Ngo, Liem Viet & O'Cass, Aron, 2013. "Innovation and business success: The mediating role of customer participation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1134-1142.
    22. Schulze, Anja & Hoegl, Martin, 2008. "Organizational knowledge creation and the generation of new product ideas: A behavioral approach," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1742-1750, December.
    23. Schemmann, Brita & Herrmann, Andrea M. & Chappin, Maryse M.H. & Heimeriks, Gaston J., 2016. "Crowdsourcing ideas: Involving ordinary users in the ideation phase of new product development," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1145-1154.
    24. Mahr, Dominik & Lievens, Annouk, 2012. "Virtual lead user communities: Drivers of knowledge creation for innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 167-177.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jieun Lee & Hyung-Deok Shin & Saehwa Hong, 2021. "Servitization of Global Manufacturing Business," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 565-584, December.
    2. Granato, Giulia & Fischer, Arnout R.H. & van Trijp, Hans C.M., 2022. "“Misalignments between users and designers as source of inspiration: A novel hybrid method for physical new product development”," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    3. Robson, Karen & Wilson, Matthew & Pitt, Leyland, 2019. "Creating new products from old ones: Consumer motivations for innovating autonomously from firms," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Morgan, Todd & Obal, Michael & Jewell, Robert D., 2021. "Strategic change and innovation reputation: Opening up the innovation process," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 249-259.
    5. Kamble, Sachin & Rana, Nripendra P. & Gupta, Shivam & Belhadi, Amine & Sharma, Rohit & Kulkarni, Praveen, 2023. "An effectuation and causation perspective on the role of design thinking practices and digital capabilities in platform-based ventures," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    6. Mei Han & Bilin Xu, 2021. "Distance with Customers Effects on Green Product Innovation in SMEs: A Way Through Green Value Co-creation," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, December.
    7. Boons, Mark & Stam, Daan, 2019. "Crowdsourcing for innovation: How related and unrelated perspectives interact to increase creative performance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7), pages 1758-1770.
    8. Nguyen Hong Phuoc & Le Nguyen Hau & Pham Ngoc Thuy, 2022. "The dual outcomes of frontliner’s autonomous motivation and deep acting in service co-creation: a dyadic approach," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 16(1), pages 159-186, March.
    9. Najafi-Tavani, Saeed & Zaefarian, Ghasem & Robson, Matthew J. & Naudé, Peter & Abbasi, Faramarz, 2022. "When customer involvement hinders/promotes product innovation performance: The concurrent effect of relationship quality and role ambiguity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 130-143.
    10. Najafi-Tavani, Zhaleh & Mousavi, Sahar & Zaefarian, Ghasem & Naudé, Peter, 2020. "Relationship learning and international customer involvement in new product design: The moderating roles of customer dependence and cultural distance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 42-58.
    11. Yuk, Hyeyeon & Garrett, Tony C., 2023. "Does customer participation moderate the effects of innovation on cost-based financial performance? An examination of different forms of customer participation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    12. Ferreras-Méndez, José Luis & Olmos-Peñuela, Julia & Salas-Vallina, Andrés & Alegre, Joaquín, 2021. "Entrepreneurial orientation and new product development performance in SMEs: The mediating role of business model innovation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    13. Todd Morgan & Sergey Alexander Anokhin & Chanho Song & Natalia Chistyakova, 2019. "The role of customer participation in building new product development speed capabilities in turbulent environments," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 119-133, March.
    14. Anokhin, Sergey Alexander & Spitsin, Vladislav & Akerman, Elena & Morgan, Todd, 2021. "Technological leadership and firm performance in Russian industries during crisis," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    15. Chen, Jiawen & Liu, Linlin, 2020. "Customer participation, and green product innovation in SMEs: The mediating role of opportunity recognition and exploitation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 151-162.
    16. Xiaoyan Pan & Kum-Sik Oh & Mengmeng Wang, 2021. "Strategic Orientation, Digital Capabilities, and New Product Development in Emerging Market Firms: The Moderating Role of Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-16, November.
    17. Kindermann, Bastian & Schmidt, Corinna Vera Hedwig & Burger, Oliver & Flatten, Tessa Christina, 2022. "Why teams matter in customer involvement – The moderating effects of team social cohesion and team autonomy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 70-83.
    18. Ardito, Lorenzo & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio & Dezi, Luca & Castellano, Sylvaine, 2020. "The influence of inbound open innovation on ambidexterity performance: Does it pay to source knowledge from supply chain stakeholders?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 321-329.
    19. Wang, Liwen & Jin, Jason Lu & Zhou, Kevin Zheng & Li, Caroline Bingxin & Yin, Eden, 2020. "Does customer participation hurt new product development performance? Customer role, product newness, and conflict," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 246-259.
    20. Nakata, Cheryl & Hwang, Jiyoung, 2020. "Design thinking for innovation: Composition, consequence, and contingency," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 117-128.
    21. Xie, Xuemei & Wang, Lijun & Zhang, Tao, 2023. "Involving online community customers in product innovation: The double-edged sword effect," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    22. Zhang, Jing A. & O'Kane, Conor & Chen, Guoquan, 2020. "Business ties, political ties, and innovation performance in Chinese industrial firms: The role of entrepreneurial orientation and environmental dynamism," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 254-267.
    23. Morgan, Todd & Anokhin, Sergey Alexander & Wincent, Joakim, 2019. "New service development by manufacturing firms: Effects of customer participation under environmental contingencies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 497-505.
    24. Ho-Taek Yi & Fortune Edem Amenuvor & Henry Boateng, 2021. "The Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation on New Product Creativity, Competitive Advantage and New Product Performance in SMEs: The Moderating Role of Corporate Life Cycle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Mu & Ooi, Yat Ming & Han, Chunjia, 2022. "Lead users as idea supplier in online community platform: How to choose the right ideas to implement?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    2. Yu, Yan & Dong, Xiao-Ying & Shen, Kathy Ning & Khalifa, Mohamed & Hao, Jin-Xing, 2013. "Strategies, technologies, and organizational learning for developing organizational innovativeness in emerging economies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(12), pages 2507-2514.
    3. Cheng, Cheng-Feng & Chang, Man-Ling & Li, Chu-Shiu, 2013. "Configural paths to successful product innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(12), pages 2561-2573.
    4. Mariem Khadhraoui & Michel Plaisent & Lassaad Lakhal & Bernard Prosper, 2019. "The Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation on Spin-Offs’ Performance: A Cross-Cultural Study," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(3), pages 21582440198, July.
    5. Anna S. Cui & Fang Wu, 2016. "Utilizing customer knowledge in innovation: antecedents and impact of customer involvement on new product performance," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 516-538, July.
    6. Morgan, Todd & Anokhin, Sergey Alexander & Wincent, Joakim, 2019. "New service development by manufacturing firms: Effects of customer participation under environmental contingencies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 497-505.
    7. Dev K. Dutta & Vishal K. Gupta & Xiujian Chen, 2016. "A Tale of Three Strategic Orientations: A Moderated-Mediation Framework of the Impact of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Market Orientation, and Learning Orientation on Firm Performance," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(03), pages 313-348, September.
    8. Rachel Bocquet & Sandra Dubouloz, 2020. "Firm Openness and Managerial Innovation: Rebalancing Deliberate Actions and Institutional Pressures," Journal of Innovation Economics, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(2), pages 43-74.
    9. Lewandowska Małgorzata Stefania, 2015. "Capturing Absorptive Capacity: Concepts, Determinants, Measurement Modes and Role in Open Innovation," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 45(1), pages 32-56, March.
    10. Todd Morgan & Sergey Alexander Anokhin & Chanho Song & Natalia Chistyakova, 2019. "The role of customer participation in building new product development speed capabilities in turbulent environments," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 119-133, March.
    11. Schweisfurth, Tim G. & Raasch, Christina, 2018. "Absorptive Capacity for Need Knowledge: Antecedents and Effects for Employee Innovativeness," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 47(4), pages 687-699.
    12. Schweisfurth, Tim G. & Raasch, Christina, 2018. "Absorptive capacity for need knowledge: Antecedents and effects for employee innovativeness," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 687-699.
    13. Li Wang & Yuan Yang & Yishuai Li, 2021. "Extending lead-user theory to a virtual brand community: the roles of flow experience and trust," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(5), pages 618-643, November.
    14. Rodrigo-Alarcón, Job & García-Villaverde, Pedro M. & Ruiz-Ortega, María J. & Parra-Requena, Gloria, 2018. "From social capital to entrepreneurial orientation: The mediating role of dynamic capabilities," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 195-209.
    15. Frank Nagle & Florenta Teodoridis, 2020. "Jack of all trades and master of knowledge: The role of diversification in new distant knowledge integration," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 55-85, January.
    16. Foege, J. Nils & Lauritzen, Ghita Dragsdahl & Tietze, Frank & Salge, Torsten Oliver, 2019. "Reconceptualizing the paradox of openness: How solvers navigate sharing-protecting tensions in crowdsourcing," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 1323-1339.
    17. Olmedilla, M. & Send, H. & Toral, S.L., 2019. "Identification of the unique attributes and topics within Smart Things Open Innovation Communities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 133-147.
    18. Namita Kaushik & R. C. Dangwal, 2023. "Do Entrepreneurial Orientation and Market Orientation Matter for MSMEs Performance? A Systematic Literature Review," Paradigm, , vol. 27(1), pages 78-92, June.
    19. Martinkenaite, Ieva & Breunig, Karl Joachim, 2016. "The emergence of absorptive capacity through micro–macro level interactions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 700-708.
    20. Wang, Xinchun & Dass, Mayukh, 2017. "Building innovation capability: The role of top management innovativeness and relative-exploration orientation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 127-135.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:47:y:2018:i:2:p:498-510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.