Customers as Partners in Radical Service Innovation

  Purpose- The main purpose of this paper is to investigate customer involvement and related challenges in radical service innovations in engineering consulting services Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses a case study approach and so called rich descriptions to investigate customer involvement, roles and related challenges and conditions in radical service innovations.Findings- One main finding is that customers can engage in radical service innovations in engineering consultancy services and may play a decisive role. In doing this they most likely take on all the three user involvement roles defined in the literature of New Service and New Product Development. Also a number of conditions are found to be necessary in order for this collaboration to succeed. The conclusion is that another understanding and handling of the customer/supplier relation is needed along with a need for ongoing collaboration where creativity and trial and error are crucial. These needs require new ways of communicating and interacting between customer and consultants. Originality/value- This article is original because it generates new insights into conditions and challenges in radical innovations in engineering consulting services on the base of an in depth case study of an engineering consultancy. Research paper