Investigating issues and challenges for customer involvement in business services innovation

Abstract

Purpose – The paper aims to investigate how customers may contribute to radical innovation in consultancy services and the conditions needed for <br/>customers to be involved in such radical service innovations. <br/>Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a qualitative case study approach including rich descriptions based primarily on interviews to <br/>investigate an extreme example of successful customer involvement in the development of radical service innovations at Ramboll, a leading <br/>Scandinavian engineering consultancy. <br/>Findings – The study reveals that customers may be involved in radical innovation processes to different degrees. However, actively involving <br/>customers in radical services innovation require a relationship between the customer company and the service provider that might be described as a <br/>partnership in which ongoing learning takes place to develop new solutions. The findings reveal that unsolved problems as well as personal trust are <br/>key in making customers involved in radical service innovations. Customers involved actively are further characterised by possessing high expertise and <br/>extraordinary personal engagement. <br/>Research limitations/implications – As in all case studies, the main limitation of the study is the generalisability of the findings. More cases would <br/>help to shed light on the generalisability of the findings across other radical innovation projects within the same company or in similar types of <br/>company. <br/>Originality/value – The study contributes with new and detailed insights into both how to involve customers in radical service innovations and the <br/>conditions and challenges found in doing so.