Investigating antecedents and stage-specific effects of customer integration intensity on new product success

This cross-sectional study specifically examines the antecedents and performance consequences of customer integration intensity for B2C industries. In line with this focus, we extend the notion of market-oriented management by explicitly considering the role of customers and retailers as two distinct facets of the market intelligence perspective. Moreover, for new product development in B2C industries, research says little about when customers should be integrated during the new product development process. First, data from 205 firms and evidence from a validation study of 175 firms indicate that customer integration intensity in new goods development positively affects overall new product success. Further, the results show that companies can foster the intensity of customer integration by emphasising both retailer and customer orientation and by establishing an incentive system that comprises new product development-specific components. Second, additional cross-sectional data from 171 firms show that managers need to integrate customers intensively in the development and launch stage and less in the ideation stage for the successful development of new goods. </jats:p