The Front End of innovation (FEI) or early innovation presents one of the greatest opportunities for improving an entire innovation process in any firm. The purpose of this thesis is to study how customers can be involved in the early phase of innovation in the IT industry. In this study, we did analyze the customer types, their methods of involvement and key elements within the early innovation process or front end of innovation. In accordance with theoretical concepts, this study shows that all fifteen (15) companies working within the I.T industry in Sweden agreed working with innovation/NPD and, equally involve customers in their front end of innovation (FEI). In the I.T industry, innovation comes mainly from the users (customers) and from within the companies (R&D). To a lesser extend, from technological trends, market and suppliers. Amongst the identified phases (elements) of the front end of innovation, Opportunity Identification was found to be the dominant phase for customer involvement. Normal customers, lead, empathic design customers and virtual customers, proved the most dominant customer types integrated within the front end of innovation in the I.T industry.

Purpose        The overall purpose is to describe how manufacturing companies involve customers in order to develop new innovations that meet customers’ needs, and furthermore illustrate how the customer involvement process can be managed. By investigating companies in similar industries where the degree of technology and pace of innovation is high, we clarify how, when and with who companies can engage activities for customer involvement.  Method In this qualitative study, we use a deductive approach, where individual interviews were conducted in two case companies.  Theoretical framework In the theoretical framework we introduce the DART-model, in which building blocks of the interaction between companies and customers are treated. Connected to this, we discuss problems regarding transferring customer needs and receiving customer input. Furthermore we highlight conflicting methods of customer involvement, different types of customers to involve and different stages in which the interaction should take place.  Empirical study Empirical data were collected through personal interviews with six business managers at the headquarters of Electrolux and Volvo Cars.  Conclusion  In contrary to the overwhelming literary hype of open innovation where companies are suggested to actively co-create value together with the customers, our findings indicate that companies learn proactively from passive customers in the early stages of the NPD-process to acquire unarticulated needs in order to create customer value. These are conscious decisions to avoid opening up the companies to the customers in terms of transparency and access. This subsequently accompanies the further process for how, when and who to involve, as the process goes from proactive towards stepwise more traditional reactive methods of customer involvement for product innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of how choices regarding the combination of type of customer and knowledge acquisition technique influences the characteristics of the knowledge that can be acquired, in the early phase of the innovation process. Method – Data was collected through a single case study, varying the type of customer (lead users and non-lead users) and knowledge acquisition technique (survey, interviews and focus groups) in order to create six different combinations. The data was coded using content analysis, after which the codes were quantified by expert scoring on three different characteristics of knowledge (novelty, relevance and feasibility). Calculations were made, highlighting differences between the combinations, verified by t-Tests. Findings – The findings show that data collected through interviews and focus groups among lead users score significantly higher on all characteristics of knowledge than all non-lead user interactions. Comparing surveys, knowledge from lead users only score significantly higher on relevance and feasibility. Within the two customer types for all knowledge characteristics, varying only the type of customer, interviews and focus groups score significantly higher than surveys. Theoretical implications – This study contributes to the literature by deepening the understanding within the fields of knowledge acquisition and customer involvement. Our findings challenge the unilateral view of customer involvement versus no customer involvement (Christensen and Bower, 1996; Ulwick 2002; Gemser and Perks, 2015) by providing a more nuanced picture, taking the process itself into consideration. Practical implications – This study highlight important factors for effective knowledge acquisition from customers, stating that companies should (1) categorize the customers, and (2) conduct focus groups and interviews with customers categorized as lead users, independent whether incremental or radical innovation is desired.

Syfte och forskningsfrågor Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur resebyråer som har fysisk butik kan utveckla kundens medverkan för att stärka sin verksamhet. För att klargöra syftet har vi tagit fram följande forskningsfrågor:   Vilken roll har kunden utifrån resebyråernas perspektiv? Hur kan resebyråer utveckla sina digitala plattformar för ökad kundmedverkan? Vilka fördelar erbjuder den fysiska resebyrån för kunderna, som de digitala tjänsterna inte kan?   Metod Studien har utgått ifrån en kvalitativ forskningsmetod där vi har varit deduktiva i början av arbetet, därefter utgick vi ifrån en mer induktiv ansats. De teoretiska referensramarna är framtagna utifrån det insamlade empiriska materialet vilket vi fick in genom intervjuer.   Slutsats Digitaliseringen har medfört att fler bokar på egen hand via de digitala plattformarna och inte i butikerna idag. Detta har lett till att flertalet resebyråer har blivit tvungna att stänga ner hela, eller delar av sin verksamhet. Vi har dragit slutsatsen att det fortfarande finns en efterfrågan på det fysiska mötet mellan kund och säljare. Resebyråer använder sig därför av olika metoder för att locka till sig fler kunder till de fysiska butikerna för att stärka sin verksamhet. Genom en högre kundmedverkan i det fysiska servicelandskapet samt de digitala kanalerna, så kan de traditionella butikerna stärkas i kundernas medvetande, förhöjd upplevd kvalitet samt återkommande kunder.   Nyckelord Kundmedverkan, Digitalisering, Servicelandskap, Produktivitet, Upplevelse / Purpose and research questions The aim of this thesis is to examine how travel agencies with physical stores can develop the customer´s involvement to strengthen their business. We have developed following research question in order to clarify our purpose:   What role does the customer have from the travel agencies perspective? How can travel agencies develop their digital platforms to increase customer involvement? What benefits does the physical travel agencies offer to the customers that the digital services can not?   Method The study has been based on a qualitative research method where we had a deductive approach in the beginning thereafter we used a more inductive method. The theoretical reference frames are based on the collected empirical data which we received through interviews.   Conclusion The digitalization has led to more online booking through the digital platforms. As a result most physical travel agencies has shut down, but we can draw the conclusion that there still is a demand for physical meeting between the customer and the salestaff. Travel agencies use different methods to attract more customers to their physical stores in order to strengthen their business. We can conclude that, through a more active involvement in the stores and on digital platforms will lead to higher awareness perceived quality and recurring customers.   Keywords Customer involvement, Digitalization, Servicescape, Productivity, Experience

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur existerande NSD-teori kan bidra till förståelse av kundinvolvering av sällanköpsvaror i säljande organisationer. Metod: Vid genomförandet av denna studie har en kvantitativ forskningsmetod tillämpats med ett deduktivt tillvägagångsätt. Den empiriska undersökningen genomfördes via en webbaserad enkätundersökning som sändes ut till 598 franchisetagare och kontorschefer inom fem av de åtta största fastighetsmäklarföretagen i Sverige. Erhållen data analyserades därefter med hjälp av statistikprogrammet SPSS där en faktoranalys, klusteranalys samt korrelationsanalys genomfördes. Resultat & Analys: Vi kan konstatera att det finns både en positiv och en negativ syn till att arbeta och ta fram tjänster i samspel med kunden. Studiens resultat visar dock på att majoriteten innehar en positiv inställning till detta tillvägagångssätt och att detta skulle generera fördelar för företaget. Resultatet visar på både skillnader och likheter jämfört med tidigare befintliga modeller inom NSD och vi kan konstatera att fastighetsmäklarbranschen inte följer NSDmodellen likande andra tjänsteföretag men att den till viss del är applicerbar även inom denna bransch. Uppsatsens bidrag: Denna uppsats ger ett bidrag till fastighetsmäklarbranschen genom att indikera på betydelsen av att involvera kunden i tjänsten samt i utvecklingen av dessa och visar på att det finns en positiv syn till detta. Resultatet pekar på att kundinvolvering skulle generera fördelar för företag inom denna typ av bransch. Det teoretiska bidraget visar dock på att existerande NSD-modeller bör modifieras för tillämpning inom branscher med sällanköpsvaror i säljande organisationer. I och med att tidigare forskning inom NSD inte visar på skillnader mellan olika branscher med olika kundstruktur pekar detta på att vår studie utgör ett bidrag till forskningsdiskursen. Förslag till vidare forskning: Då vi fann att det finns en positiv syn till kundinvolvering hos chefer inom fastighetsmäklarbranschen skulle det vara intressant att genomföra studien ur ett omvänt perspektiv och då istället undersöka hur kunder ser på att involveras i tjänstens utveckling. Med anledning av att studien berör en bransch med engångskunder skulle det dessutom vara intressant att undersöka om befintliga NSD-modeller överensstämmer i en bransch med en annan kundstruktur. Vi tror att resultatet med sannolikhet skulle bli annorlunda i en sådan studie. Med anledning av att detta är en övergripande studie inom fastighetmäklarbranschen skulle det dessutom vara intressant att genomföra en mer djupgående och detaljerad undersökning

<p>Given today’s industry dynamics, new service development is becoming increasingly important to the competitiveness, growth, and survival of organizations. Unfortunately, new service development has proven to be a complex and difficult task. Numerous reasons are stated in the literature such as the difficulty of understanding and anticipating latent customer needs and insufficient market research techniques. To facilitate proactive learning about the customer, recent findings stress customer involvement in the development process and observations of customers in real action.</p><p>The overall objective of the dissertation is to contribute to an increased knowledge of customer involvement, i.e., the role of customers as contributors and co-creators in new service development. The thesis draws on theory from market and learning orientation in conjunction with a service-centered model, and provides an extensive review of literature on customer involvement in innovation. In five separate studies, this doctor’s thesis addresses the customer’s role in innovation activities in various industries (e.g., Staffing Services, Airline Services, and Mobile Telecommunication services).</p><p>In this thesis it is argued that interaction is not only the focal point of services, but also the essence of customer involvement. A special emphasis is put on supporting techniques as these are the means by which customer information and knowledge are created. In addition, results are provided showing that customer involvement in innovation pays off. Companies that engage in collaborative innovation with customers can expect improved customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profit margin.</p>

Problemformulering: I och med kundens roll i värdeskapandet måste företag få kunskap i hur deras kunder kan involveras, och även utveckla formella processer för det. I och med tjänsternas allt större roll i världen krävs en ständig utveckling av teorier kring området. Forskning kring tjänsteutveckling har vidare mestadels bara har bidragit till det teoretiska området och inte gett något större bidrag till de som faktiskt arbetar med tjänsteutveckling i praktiken i dagsläget. De här aspekterna är några av de faktorer som ledde fram till studiens syfte. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att förstå hur kunder involveras i tjänsteutveckling i praktiken och hur deras roll ser ut i utvecklingsprocessen, samt att undersöka kopplingen mellan tillvägagångssätten i praktiken jämfört med vad som står i teorin. Metod: Studiens metod är av en kvalitativ karaktär med en fallstudiedesign. Tack vare nio stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer med både tjänstedesignbyråer och tjänsteföretag som arbetar med kundinvolvering kunde värdefull data samlas in och ge en förklaring kring ”fallet”. Slutsats: De slutsatser som har kunnat dras utifrån studien är till att börja med att de traditionella tjänsteutvecklingsmodellerna har fasats ut till förmån för designmodeller med iterativa faser. Det visade sig även att en sådan uppdelning av kunder som återfinns i teorin, inte är aktuell i praktiken, utan baseras snarare på behov än egenskaper. Slutligen kunde, förutom de traditionella effekterna av kundinvolvering, en annan typ av effekt identifieras. Nämligen att kundinvolvering kan leda till stora organisationsförändringar på grund av ett nytt kundfokus. / Problem: Given the role of the customer in value creation organizations need knowledge on how their customers can get involved, and develop formal processes to do so. Given services role in today’s world there is a need for continuous research and development in the field. Furthermore, the research surrounding service development has mostly contributed to the theoretical field without much contribution to those who work with service development today. These aspects are part of the reasoning leading up to this studies purpose. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding on how customers are involved in service development in practice and the role of the customer in the development process, as well as examine the practice with the current literature. Method: The study is of a qualitative character with a case study design. Due to nine semi-structured interviews with both service design firms and service businesses both working with customer involvement in their service development processes valuable data could be collected to explain the case. Conclusion: The conclusions that were made from the study is that the traditional service development models have been phased out in favor of design based models with iterative phases. Furthermore, the theoretical classification of a services user is not as widespread in practice, it is more based on the needs of the customer than the customer’s characteristics. Finally, the study could identify that besides the traditional effects of customer involvement, there is an additional effect. Namely, that customer involvement can lead to large organizational changes as a result of a new customer focus.

A visão do produto é uma descrição sucinta, metafórica e desafiadora, que emerge em uma equipe de projeto e que serve como alinhamento frente ao produto obtido no final do desenvolvimento. Há tempos é tida como fator crítico de sucesso em áreas como desenvolvimento de produto, planejamento estratégico e gerenciamento ágil de projetos. Os teóricos dessas áreas propõem definições para visão do produto e métodos para concebê-la. As definições se mostram parciais de cada área e possuem limitações como, por exemplo, alto nível de abstração o que dificulta a operacionalização do conceito. Já os métodos propostos não são capazes de sistematizar o envolvimento do cliente no processo. A pesquisa utilizou uma revisão bibliográfica sistemática na busca de métodos para visão do produto e uma exploratória para as definições de visão. As revisões embasaram a criação de um modelo conceitual de visão de produto com o intuito de definir melhor o conceito e a proposta de método desta tese. Como a definição proposta congrega as características da visão, ela serve também como medida para a avaliação da visão gerada pelo método proposto. Avaliou-se o método com a aplicação em três estudos de caso, cujos dados foram analisados qualitativamente, pelo Índice de Concordância, e pelo Coeficiente de Correlação Intraclasse. Os resultados indicaram que o método proposto foi considerado de fácil aplicação e bem documentado. Os usuários também se mostraram inclinados para reutilizar e recomendar o método e, além disso, concordaram que ele foi útil na sistematização do envolvimento do cliente. Os resultados do Coeficiente de Concordância Intraclasse mostraram que o método conseguiu operacionalizar praticamente todas as propriedades da visão, exceto as propriedades clara, concisa e flexível. Estudos detalhados sobre a influência de uma propriedade na outra e seu real impacto na visão propriamente dita devem ser conduzidos. A contribuição do trabalho não se concentra somente na proposição do método, mas também no modelo conceitual que define melhor o conceito e serve como medida para avaliar visões geradas por métodos com o mesmo intuito do proposto neste trabalho. / The product vision is a concise, metaphorical and challenging description that emerges in a project team and serves as alignment with the product obtained at the end of development. It is seen as a critical succees factor in areas like new poduct development, strategic planning and agile project management. Theorists from these areas propose definitions and methods to conceive it. However partial definitions are shown in each area and have limitations, eg, high level of abstraction which makes difficult to operationalize the concept. Otherwise, the proposed methods are not able to systematize the customer engagement process. Moreover the proposed methods are unable to systematize the customer involvement in the process. This research used a systematic and exploratory literature review to search product vision´s definitions and methods. The reviews based the creation of a conceptual model of product vision in order to better define the concept and the proposed method of this thesis. The proposed definition encompasses the vision characteristics and therefore it also serves as a measure for evaluation of visions generated by the proposed method. It was evaluated by applying the method in three-case studies, that the data were analyzed qualitatively, by Within-Group Interrater Agreement and by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient. The results indicated that the proposed method was considered easy to use and well documented. The users were also inclined to reuse and recommend the method and, moreover, they agreed that it was useful to systematize the customer involvement. The results of the Intraclass Correlation Coefficient showed that the method was able to generate almost all properties of vision, except the properties \"clear\", \"concise\" and \"flexible\". More detailed studies about the influence of a property in another and their real impact on the view itself should be conducted. The contribution of this work focuses not only on the proposition of the method, but also the conceptual model that best defines the concept and serves as a measure to evaluate visions generated by methods like the one proposed in this thesis.

O envolvimento do consumidor é fundamental nas fases iniciais de projetos de produtos inovadores, para a coleta de informações sobre interesses e preferências orientadores do processo de geração de ideias e conceitos de novos produtos. Uma das formas de viabilizar este envolvimento é utilizando ferramentas do tipo Sistema de Engenharia Kansei. Esse tipo de ferramenta permite a tradução de inputs de grande volume de consumidores em configurações de produtos otimizados para auxiliar a equipe de projeto, no Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos. Há duas principais limitações nos Sistemas de Engenharia Kansei propostos na literatura. A primeira é a operacionalização do envolvimento do consumidor na etapa de definição do campo das propriedades, i.e., captação dos dados de entrada dos consumidores. A segunda é a continuidade do envolvimento, com a intenção de fornecer informações atualizadas à equipe de projetos de produtos. Este trabalho propõe e testa procedimento automático para apoiar a definição do campo das propriedades utilizando inputs indiretos de consumidores obtidos em lojas virtuais, empregando e adaptando métodos utilizados em aplicações de Sistemas de Engenharia Kansei e Sistemas de Recomendação Híbridos. O procedimento automático fornece como resultado principal uma lista de produtos e propriedades, obtidos da realidade, representativos do domínio Kansei para utilização nas etapas posteriores de um Sistema de Engenharia Kansei. O teste do procedimento automático demonstrou que a dissimilaridade presente no conjunto inicial de produtos determina o número máximo de produtos representativos do domínio; e, que o grupo de produtos e propriedades representativos do domínio, obtido da aplicação do procedimento automático, pode apresentar disparidade com relação a um grupo referencial obtido utilizando método de planejamento de experimentos, embora atenda aos critérios informados na literatura seminal de Engenharia Kansei. / The customer involvement is critical in the early stages of innovative projects, to collect information about guiding interests and preferences of the process of generating ideas and concepts of new products. One way to facilitate this involvement is using the type system of Kansei Engineering tools. This type of tool allows the translation of large volume of inputs of consumers in products optimized settings to assist the project team, the Product Development Process. There are two main limitations in Kansei Engineering Systems proposed in the literature. The first is the operationalization of consumer involvement in the step of defining the field of properties, i.e., capture the input data consumer. The second is the continued involvement with the intention to provide updated information to the team of product designs. This thesis proposes and tests automatic procedure to support the definition of the properties field using indirect inputs of consumers obtained in virtual stores, using and adapting methods used in applications of Kansei Engineering Systems and Hybrid Recommender Systems. The automatic procedure provides as main result a list of products and properties obtained from reality, representative of Kansei domain for use in the later stages of a Kansei Engineering System. The automatic test procedure showed that the dissimilarity present in the initial product set determines the maximum number of products representative of the field; and that the product group and representative properties of the domain obtained from the application of the automatic procedure can present disparity with respect to a reference group obtained using planning method of experiments, although meets the criteria given in the seminal literature Kansei Engineering.

O envolvimento do consumidor é fundamental nas fases iniciais de projetos de produtos inovadores, para a coleta de informações sobre interesses e preferências orientadores do processo de geração de ideias e conceitos de novos produtos. Uma das formas de viabilizar este envolvimento é utilizando ferramentas do tipo Sistema de Engenharia Kansei. Esse tipo de ferramenta permite a tradução de inputs de grande volume de consumidores em configurações de produtos otimizados para auxiliar a equipe de projeto, no Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos. Há duas principais limitações nos Sistemas de Engenharia Kansei propostos na literatura. A primeira é a operacionalização do envolvimento do consumidor na etapa de definição do campo das propriedades, i.e., captação dos dados de entrada dos consumidores. A segunda é a continuidade do envolvimento, com a intenção de fornecer informações atualizadas à equipe de projetos de produtos. Este trabalho propõe e testa procedimento automático para apoiar a definição do campo das propriedades utilizando inputs indiretos de consumidores obtidos em lojas virtuais, empregando e adaptando métodos utilizados em aplicações de Sistemas de Engenharia Kansei e Sistemas de Recomendação Híbridos. O procedimento automático fornece como resultado principal uma lista de produtos e propriedades, obtidos da realidade, representativos do domínio Kansei para utilização nas etapas posteriores de um Sistema de Engenharia Kansei. O teste do procedimento automático demonstrou que a dissimilaridade presente no conjunto inicial de produtos determina o número máximo de produtos representativos do domínio; e, que o grupo de produtos e propriedades representativos do domínio, obtido da aplicação do procedimento automático, pode apresentar disparidade com relação a um grupo referencial obtido utilizando método de planejamento de experimentos, embora atenda aos critérios informados na literatura seminal de Engenharia Kansei. / The customer involvement is critical in the early stages of innovative projects, to collect information about guiding interests and preferences of the process of generating ideas and concepts of new products. One way to facilitate this involvement is using the type system of Kansei Engineering tools. This type of tool allows the translation of large volume of inputs of consumers in products optimized settings to assist the project team, the Product Development Process. There are two main limitations in Kansei Engineering Systems proposed in the literature. The first is the operationalization of consumer involvement in the step of defining the field of properties, i.e., capture the input data consumer. The second is the continued involvement with the intention to provide updated information to the team of product designs. This thesis proposes and tests automatic procedure to support the definition of the properties field using indirect inputs of consumers obtained in virtual stores, using and adapting methods used in applications of Kansei Engineering Systems and Hybrid Recommender Systems. The automatic procedure provides as main result a list of products and properties obtained from reality, representative of Kansei domain for use in the later stages of a Kansei Engineering System. The automatic test procedure showed that the dissimilarity present in the initial product set determines the maximum number of products representative of the field; and that the product group and representative properties of the domain obtained from the application of the automatic procedure can present disparity with respect to a reference group obtained using planning method of experiments, although meets the criteria given in the seminal literature Kansei Engineering.