Close orientation with the market is essential for innovation success! Although both academics and market research practitioners would generally agree with this statement, alignment with the needs of the customer often results in conservative innovation strategies. Due to their focus on what is...

Kundenorientierung ist entscheidend für den Innovationserfolg!; Obwohl dem Wissenschaftler und Praktiker in der Marktforschung grundsätzlich zustimmen dürften, ist mit der konsequenten Ausrichtung auf die Kundenbedürfnisse gleichzeitig der Nachteil einer konservativen Innovationspolitik...

Die Diskussion Market Pull versus Technology Push hat in der betriebswirtschaftlichen Innovationsforschung bereits eine gewisse Tradition. Die hierzu durchgeführten empirischen Untersuchungen sind insbesondere der Frage nachgegangen, welche der beiden Vorgehens-weisen welchen Einfluss auf den...

Our study focuses on the question, whether users should be intensively involved in the innovation process of radical product innovations or better not - from the manufacturer's perspective. Radical innovations incorporate new technologies, shift market structures, require intensive user learning...

Discussion of market pull versus technology push approaches in the field of busi-ness innovation research has followed a certain trend. The empirical research under-taken until now has been concerned in particular with the question of how each of these approaches differently influence the...

In der einschlägigen Literatur wird in der Regel das Bild stark formalisierter und methodengestützter Innovationsprozesse aufgezeichnet, das primär für große Unternehmen zutreffend erscheint. Inwieweit sich diese Vorstellung auch auf Organisationen geringerer Größe übertragen lässt,...

Manufacturers usually benefit by dividing their innovation processes into distinct phases in order to ensure that the development activities are performed efficiently in an appropriate sequence. Users usually do not apply such structured processes. They follow a more intuition-driven approach....

In this paper we explore how knowledge brokers - specialised design and engineering companies offering services to clients in diverse industries - use analogies for product development. Our research is based on interviews with project leaders of 13 knowledge brokering companies. The interviews...

Analogies can trigger breakthrough ideas in new product development. Numerous examples demonstrate that substantial innovations often result from transferring problem solutions from one industry or domain to another. For instance, the designers of the new running shoe generation of Nike, Nike...

We report on a survey of the innovation activities and characteristics of 153 users of outdoor-related consumer products. We find a high level of innovation by these consumers. Thirty-seven percent report that they have developed ideas for new or improved products, and more than 9% report...