Customer Involvement in Product Development: Learning from a Bearing Manufacturer

Many studies have pinpointed the significance of collaboration with other firms in product development. By taking the starting point in a case study of a bearing manufacturer and its R&D activities, this paper focuses on the particular situation of involving customers. With basis in the Industrial Network Approach, we suggest five dimensions of importance to analyse customer involvement in the setting of product development. These five dimensionsconcern the degree of involvement, the purpose of involvement, formalisation, duration of collaboration,and the number of participating actors. The case study captures different ways of involving customers. In particular there are two types of projects, termed customer-driven development and segment-driven development, where customer involvement plays a key role in different ways. In the paper these two types of projects are discussed with regard to the suggested dimensions. The analysis reveals, for example,that customers are involved mainly through dyadic collaborations. Multi-actor collaborations seem to be rare in this context. The creation of discussion forums for customers might be a way to further develop the company’s customer involvement practice.