How customer interaction improves technology-driven new product development in industrial markets

Abstract

This paper shows how customer interaction in industrial markets enables the creation of a value offer tailored to the target market’s needs. The resource dependence theory helps understand how in technology driven environments early customer interaction provides direction to research and development efforts. The empirical part of the paper is a detailed description of a development project in a large chemicals company. Interactions with various types of firms in the target market for the product under development are discussed and analyzed. The driver for these interactions is a mutual dependence.