TRIP: The Right Consumer for Integration in New Product Development – An Empirical Investigation into the Effectiveness of Lead Users, Passive Resistors and Emergent Nature Consumers

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Sven Heidenreich
• Subject Area: Management and Marketing
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 469089536

A vast amount of studies shows that the integration of consumers is not only effective in minimizing the risk of failure of new products, but also effective in enhancing financial performance and increasing customer satisfaction. Yet, past research suggests that the effectiveness might depend on the type of consumer integrated. However, empirical evidence on whether the integration of some consumer types is more effective in supporting the development of new products than others is still lacking. Likewise, no prior research investigated whether using different consumer types during new product development, one for concept generation and one for concept adjustment, might be even better and more effective than focusing on only one type. And finally, the effectiveness of different consumer types for new product development integration under different environmental circumstances has not yet been investigated. To address the aforementioned research gaps, the overall objective of this research project is to broaden our understanding of consumer integration as an important instrument for increasing companies’ success when developing and offering new products. Our focus is on the investigation of different consumer types and their effectiveness in developing new products. In order to provide a comprehensive view on this topic, this project is divided into four main research goals, which will be addressed in a series of laboratory and field experiments. The first research goal is to empirically investigate which consumer type (lead user, emergent nature consumer or passive resistor) is basically the right one for the development of new product concepts that have the potential to be successful on the market. Next, based on the insights gained from the first goal, the second research goal is to observe whether the adjustment or further development of concepts developed by a certain consumer type through another consumer type could help to make concepts even more successful. Therefore, we strive to determine the right combination of consumer types for the development of new product concepts that further increase the likelihood of market success. The third research goal aims at identifying potential differences in integration effectiveness depending on consumer type and the time of integration. Thus, the purpose is to discover for each stage (ideation, development, delivery) in the new product development process which consumer type is the most promising one. Lastly, the fourth research goal seeks to observe whether there are differences in the effectiveness of the concepts developed by each consumer type under different environmental conditions. More specifically, we want to investigate which consumer type is particularly appropriate for concept development in technological turbulences and which one in market turbulences.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants