User Involvement throughout the Innovation Process in High-Tech Industries

The feedback and input of users have been an important part of product innovation in recent years. User input has been studied from different approaches and is applied through different methods in particular phases of the innovation process. However, these methods are not integrated into the whole innovation process and are used only in particular phases or on an ad hoc basis. New developments in technology, social media, and new ways of working closer with customers have opened up new possibilities for firms to gain user input throughout the whole innovation process. However, the impact that these new developments in technology offer for user input innovation in high-tech firms is unclear. Therefore, we study how high-tech firms collect and apply user feedback throughout the whole innovation process. The paper is based on a comparative case study of eight cases in the high-tech industry, in which qualitative data collection was applied. The key contribution of the paper is a conceptual framework on user data-driven innovation throughout the innovation cycle. This framework gives insight into user involvement types and approaches to collect and apply user feedback throughout the innovation process.