Technological interweavement: a means of achieving innovation success

Gemünden, Heydebreck and Herden's (1992) survey of 4564 firms in the Lake Constance region examined interactions between firms, customers, suppliers and university interactions.

“This point is supported by Gemünden, Heydebreck and Herden's (1992) survey of 4564 firms in the Lake Constance region (on the border between Austria, Germany and Switzerland).”

Customer involvement reduces the risks of innovation.

“Customer involvement reduces the risks of innovation (Gemünden et al. 1992;Ragatz et al. 1997).”

Nearly 50% of companies identified customer engagement as a precondition for innovation success.

“In Gemünden et al's (1992) study, for example, 75% of companies engaged customers in the innovation process and nearly 50% identified it as a precondition for innovation success.”

In Gemünden et al's (1992) study, 75% of companies engaged customers in the innovation process.

“In Gemünden et al's (1992) study, for example, 75% of companies engaged customers in the innovation process and nearly 50% identified it as a precondition for innovation success.”

The innovator learns from the customer the likely market potential of the product idea.

“The innovator learns from the customer the likely market potential of the product idea (Gemünden et al. 1992).”

Customer involvement tends to be useful at the beginning in terms of idea generation but is less so during the developmental process where the manufacturer tends to lead.

“Despite this evidence of the value of business customers in the innovation process, more detailed empirical study has shown that customer involvement tends to be useful at the beginning in terms of idea generation but is less so during the developmental process where the manufacturer tends to lead (Biemans, 1989;Bruce and Rodgus, 1991;Gemünden et al's 1992, Conway, 1995).”