Building theory on customer integration into product innovation

Abstract

The single case studies in chapter 4 demonstrated how customer integration takes place in the practices of four industrial product developers: two development contractors and two in-house developing companies. During the iterative process of data collection and single case analysis, tentative constructs and relationships that determine customer integration into innovation projects began to emerge. The following cross-case analysis captures and refines these constructs and relationships to extend existing theory on customer integration into product innovation by building some new theory.