Customer Involvement in New Service Development

Abstract: Services are distinguished by interaction, where customers play an interesting and multifaceted role not only in receiving and consuming the service, but also in serving as participants in production and delivery. Accordingly, value is defined by and co-created with the consumer and determined by the user on the basis of value-in-use rather than embedded in predefined output. It is theoretically assumed that companies should involve customers in the innovation process in order to understand what they value and need.



The objective of this dissertation was to examine customers as contributors in new service development. Customer involvement is an unexploited area; therefore, the research was explorative and guided by the basic question of whether or not customers are a source of innovative services, particularly in technology-based services where consumers lack experience.



To answer the research question, an experimental method was chosen. In the CuDIT (Customer Driven Information Technology) project, 86 participants representing four customer groups with different characteristics and treatment, and one control group of professional service developers from Telia Mobile, were given the task of creating new service ideas. Participants had access to a special subscription for mobile phones and a platform for mobile Internet that enabled them to experiment with their own environment and use their imagination. The outcome of 429 ideas was evaluated using independent judges. Several analyses are presented in papers 1-4. The experiments showed users to be highly innovative in comparison to company experts. In addition, technology readiness was measured as a background variable in the experiment. Paper 5 presents results from the SNTRS (Swedish National Technology Readiness Survey) and then, as a second study, analyzes data from the experiment. Technology ready people have an innovative attitude and act like early adopters in terms of new technology, but interestingly these users created more innovative service ideas than those with a low TR score.



The findings of the dissertation enhance our understanding of how to develop new services that meet customer needs. The research also contributes to service theory by supporting the service-centered model, i.e., the practice of market and learning orientation manifested in customer involvement and resulting in innovative services.