Customer Understanding in the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation
Helistö, Linda (2017)
Helistö, Linda
2017
Kauppatieteiden tutkinto-ohjelma - Degree Programme in Business Studies
Johtamiskorkeakoulu - Faculty of Management
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2017-06-09
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201706121944
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201706121944
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of the study is to understand how organizations can connect with their customers already in the early phases of innovation. Understanding latent customer needs is important for organizational success. Customer understanding is organizational knowledge about the customers, their needs and wants, as well as an understanding about what the organization can do for the customers (Nordlund 2009). Customer understanding is constructed in the early and chaotic stage of new product development, in the fuzzy front end. As the phase shapes the overall direction of the innovation process, the key for successful new product development is understanding latent customer needs already in the fuzzy front end. (Koen et al. 2001; Kim & Wilemon, 2002.)
This study is a case study that offers a snapshot on the values and rationalities behind an organization's customer understanding in the fuzzy front end. By understanding the similarities and differences in values and rationalities shaping both latent customer needs as well as customer understanding, we can better understand how to connect the two. The theoretical frame of this study builds on several discussions in the fields of innovation research, marketing research, organizational studies and sociology. It combines a practice-based view to knowledge with the theoretical discussions about values and rationalities. Combining these lines of thought offers an opportunity to examine organizational customer knowledge from viewpoints not widely addressed in the current literature.
The data was collected by using empathic research method, and the underlying values and rationalities were being interpreted by using an interpretational framework. According to the instrumental case study, the case itself is secondary, and facilitates of the study of something else. In this study, the instrumental case refers to the differences between two bodies of knowledge, the customer understanding and the latent customer needs.
The results of this study imply that connecting with the customers in the fuzzy front end is more than sharing the same values and rationalities. In this study, the organization's customer understanding in the fuzzy front end is mainly based on norms. However, the customers base their everyday practices, and thus latent customer needs, equally on values, rationalities, as well as norms. Emphasizing practice-based collaboration between organizations and the customers is important in the fuzzy front end, so that the nature of customer understanding can be built equally on values and rationalities, together with norms.
This study is a case study that offers a snapshot on the values and rationalities behind an organization's customer understanding in the fuzzy front end. By understanding the similarities and differences in values and rationalities shaping both latent customer needs as well as customer understanding, we can better understand how to connect the two. The theoretical frame of this study builds on several discussions in the fields of innovation research, marketing research, organizational studies and sociology. It combines a practice-based view to knowledge with the theoretical discussions about values and rationalities. Combining these lines of thought offers an opportunity to examine organizational customer knowledge from viewpoints not widely addressed in the current literature.
The data was collected by using empathic research method, and the underlying values and rationalities were being interpreted by using an interpretational framework. According to the instrumental case study, the case itself is secondary, and facilitates of the study of something else. In this study, the instrumental case refers to the differences between two bodies of knowledge, the customer understanding and the latent customer needs.
The results of this study imply that connecting with the customers in the fuzzy front end is more than sharing the same values and rationalities. In this study, the organization's customer understanding in the fuzzy front end is mainly based on norms. However, the customers base their everyday practices, and thus latent customer needs, equally on values, rationalities, as well as norms. Emphasizing practice-based collaboration between organizations and the customers is important in the fuzzy front end, so that the nature of customer understanding can be built equally on values and rationalities, together with norms.