How Complaining Customers Make Companies Listen and Influence Product Development

HOW COMPLAINING CUSTOMERS MAKE COMPANIES LISTEN AND INFLUENCE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, Christiansen, John K ; Gasparin, Marta ; Varnes, Claus ; Augustin, Ina. International Journal of Innovation Management, January 2016, Vol.20(1) page 1-31

39 Pages Posted: 15 Apr 2019

See all articles by John K. Christiansen

John K. Christiansen

Copenhagen Business School

Marta Gasparin

University of Leicester - School of Management

Claus J. Varnes

Copenhagen Business School

Date Written: December1 19, 2015

Abstract

The analysis in this paper shows how complaining customers can make companies listen to them by spurring the mobilisation of various actors into a hybrid collective strong enough to influence companies’ product development. Customers as sources of innovation have been analysed previously in the literature, whereas the process of how complaining users mobilise support to influence companies has received less attention and is not well understood.

This study uncovers the processes that made it possible for a 17-year-old Norwegian to become pivotal in constructing a problematisation, which emerged to become so strong as to alter the Norwegian Coca-Cola Company’s earlier decision to cease production of a product in a certain size. The analysis uses constructs from actor–network theory (ANT) and shows how a single dissatisfied individual was able to become a spokesperson who, through different processes, mobilised a heterogeneous group of consumers into a loosely connected hybrid collective. The spokesperson acted on behalf of the hybrid collective and put growing pressure on a multinational company, influencing its decision making. In this case, the complaining customer did not exit, nor did he become a lead user, but rather became a hybrid customer who actively tried to mobile others in his desire for a product.

The study reports on a process analysis of the means by which the company was induced to reinstate a discontinued product. The analysis is divided into three episodes, each marking a critical phase for the collective. This opens up the way for an examination of the processes of mobilisation, interessement, enrolment and mobilisation, revealing the margins of manoeuvre and how these are negotiated and delimited in the process.

Keywords: complaints; users; product development; actor–network theory; hybrid collective

Suggested Citation

Christiansen, John K. and Gasparin, Marta and Varnes, Claus J., How Complaining Customers Make Companies Listen and Influence Product Development (December1 19, 2015). HOW COMPLAINING CUSTOMERS MAKE COMPANIES LISTEN AND INFLUENCE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, Christiansen, John K ; Gasparin, Marta ; Varnes, Claus ; Augustin, Ina. International Journal of Innovation Management, January 2016, Vol.20(1) page 1-31, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3355980 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3355980

John K. Christiansen (Contact Author)

Copenhagen Business School ( email )

Solbjerg Plads 3
Frederiksberg, DK - 2000
Denmark
+4527266604 (Phone)

Marta Gasparin

University of Leicester - School of Management ( email )

Leicester
Leicester, AK LE1 4AY
United Kingdom

Claus J. Varnes

Copenhagen Business School ( email )

Solbjerg Plads 3, B.4.11
DK - 2000 Frederiksberg
Denmark
+45 3815 2473 (Phone)
+45 3815 2440 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: www.cbs.dk/staff/claus_varnes

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