A Typology of Customer Co-Creation in the Innovation Process

26 Pages Posted: 30 Dec 2010 Last revised: 23 Jun 2014

See all articles by Frank T. Piller

Frank T. Piller

RWTH Aachen University

Christoph Ihl

RWTH Aachen University, Technology and Innovation Management Group

Alexander Vossen

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: December 29, 2010

Abstract

Customer co-creation denotes an active, creative and social collaboration process between producers (retailers) and customers (users), facilitated by the company. Customers become active participants in an open innovation process of a firm and take part in the development of new products or services. In this paper, we provide a review of the evolution of customer co-creation and related forms of customer participation and suggest a typology of recent methods of co-creation (open innovation with customers).

Our typology is based on three dimensions, addressing (i) the customers’ autonomy in the process, (ii) the nature of the firm-customer collaboration (dyadic versus community based), and (iii) the stage of the innovation process when the customer integration takes place. Along these dimensions, we then present specific methods of customer co-creation. We conclude with a number of suggestions for further research.

Keywords: open innovation, customer co-creation, fuzzy front end, innovation management, need information, user innovation

JEL Classification: M11, M13, M31

Suggested Citation

Piller, Frank T. and Ihl, Christoph and Vossen, Alexander, A Typology of Customer Co-Creation in the Innovation Process (December 29, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1732127 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1732127

Frank T. Piller (Contact Author)

RWTH Aachen University ( email )

TEMPLERGRABEN 64
AACHEN, D-52056
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://time.rwth-aachen.de/piller/

Christoph Ihl

RWTH Aachen University, Technology and Innovation Management Group ( email )

Kackertstr. 15
Aachen, 52072
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.tim.rwth-aachen.de/ihl/

Alexander Vossen

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
5,603
Abstract Views
19,436
Rank
2,735
PlumX Metrics