Management and Marketing - Theses
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ItemCustomer co-production and its impact on new product success across strategic types( 2015)The active participation of customers in a firm’s new product development (NPD) processes has long been discussed as a way to increase the alignment between the firm’s market offerings and its customers’ needs and preferences, and is ultimately suggested to create a competitive advantage for the firm. Yet, suggestions for when and how to engage in co-production activities are largely based on theoretical considerations and case-based research that tends to focus on individual methods for customer participation (e.g., focus groups, the lead user method, idea contests), and the according findings are ambiguous at best. This thesis represents one of the first studies to investigate how firms utilize co-production approaches on a larger scale—across different methods, across stages of the NPD process, across different firms, and taking into account internal resources relevant to customer co-production projects. Particularly, the thesis seeks to explain the mixed results found in prior literature by considering the firm’s overarching business strategy (represented by Miles & Snow’s strategic types) as a contingency factor. This dissertation substantially contributes to research on customer participation in NPD processes by integrating a business strategic perspective for the configuration and application of co-production approaches. In two empirical studies, we first investigate the existence of persistent archetypes of co-production approaches (Paper 1, Part A) and the performance implications of utilizing these approaches contingent on the firm’s strategic orientation (Paper 1, Part B). The second study (Paper 2) seeks to consolidate contradicting views on the benefits and impediments of utilizing customer co-production prevalent in prior research. Specifically, we propose that co-production constitutes a form of external (or market-based) slack, which, in combination with internal slack resources can either benefit or diminish the success for NPD projects. Further, we investigate the notion that the modifying influence of internal slack varies for firms following different strategic orientations. We find, in Paper 1, that the success implications of co-production are indeed largely contingent on the firm’s strategic stance. That is, firms that strive for innovative leadership tend to benefit more from utilizing approaches that involve customers in more extensive ways, while less progressive firms tend to benefit more from less extensive co-production approaches. The results of Paper 2 show that co-production is beneficial under low slack conditions but can hamper NPD efficiency and project discipline when internal slack is high—to a point where the negative effects of slack outweigh the positive effects of customer co-production. Consistent with the findings of Paper 1, this effect appears to be more pronounced for firms aiming for innovation leadership and less pronounced given defensive business strategy. Theoretical and practical implications as well as directions for future research are discussed.
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ItemFrontline service employee improvisation( 2014)Customer participation in professional services is growing in popularity due to proclaimed benefits for customers and firms such as increased customer satisfaction and firm profitability. With the co-creation of value being touted as the ‘next frontier’ in competitive advantage (Bendapudi and Leone 2003) many firms are indeed encouraging the trend towards customer participation. What has been overlooked for the most part thus far however is that the frontline service employee who interacts directly with customers may in fact experience an increase in their role stress due to the inherent uncertainty that accompanies customer participation. In this study, the concept of service employee improvisation is proposed as a coping strategy both to augment the favorable effects of customer participation for the customer and the firm while at the same time offsetting the potential negative effect on the employee. The concept of improvisation is first explored conceptually in paper I, in order to identify the construct and component parts and locate it within a nomological network of antecedents and outcomes. This is then followed up with two empirical studies in the context of professional health services in paper II. Paper II empirically examines the hypothesized positive relationships between both customer participation, customer satisfaction and employee role stress respectively, as well the moderating effect of service employee improvisation on these relationships. Although the moderating effect of improvisation on the relationship between customer participation and customer satisfaction was not found to be significant, the effect of improvisation on the relationship between customer participation and role stress was significant, with service employees reporting higher levels of improvisation experiencing a reduction in role stress as customer participation increased, as well as lower overall role stress at higher levels of customer participation. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are also discussed.