"When customer involvement promotes innovation performance: The moderating roles of coordination mechanisms with customers and external collaboration strategies"

Published in the Journal of Business Research

Authors:
Stefano Li Pira (University of Warwick)
Anna Cabigiosu (Cà Foscari)
Diego Campagnolo (dSEA University of Padua) 

While the innovation literature typically considers customers as pivotal sources of innovation, this study investigates how firms can solve the potential dark side of customer involvement due to excessive reliance that can promote overdependence and myopia. Utilizing a unique dataset of 339 Italian knowledge-intensive business services firms, the authors demonstrated that through coordination mechanisms with customers and a broad external collaboration strategy, firms can maximize the innovation benefits derived from customer involvement.

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