Firms have to constantly develop or innovate in order to stay competitive. Within the fields of marketing, product development and service development studies have examined how the customer can be a resource for development or innovation. Recently, customer value has been examined within the business model concept, which has emerged as a new unit of analysis and has steadily gained interest during the past 20 years. Linked to the concept of business model is the concept of business model development or innovation. Within this field of research there are very few studies on customer involvement. This is the starting point of our study. The few studies that exist regarding customer involvement in business model innovation have mainly focused on the customer as a resource for screening ideas. In our study, we focus on the customer as resource for idea generation. We also go in to detail and examines in what dimensions different customer groups can be a resource for business model innovation. Our theoretical framework consists of ten different studies that examine business model dimensions, from which we identify nine dimensions relevant for our context. We also use theories regarding business model innovation, business model design and customer involvement. We have conducted the study in the context of a small medical instrument firm. Our empirical data consists of fifteen interviews with customers and company representatives. The customers represent different customer groups: patients, nurses, doctors and managers. Our analysis originates from the business model dimensions identified in the theoretical framework. We use the theoretical framework to understand in which dimensions the customer can be a resource for business model innovation. We also use the theoretical framework to look for differences and similarities within and between the customer groups. The study concludes that the customer can be a resource for business model innovation in a number of business model dimensions. Furthermore, the majority of the ideas the customer has is similar or identical to the ideas that the company has. The ideas the customer has seem to be effected by their relationship to the business model. There are also some individuals that have substantially more ideas than others.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-90897 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Ekdahl, Andreas, Sandell, Jonas |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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