JPIM Thomas P. Hustad Award for Christoph Fuchs
<link people christoph-fuchs _blank>Christoph Fuchs’ paper Customer Empowerment in New Product Development (co-authored by Martin Schreier – University of Bocconi) won the Thomas P. Hustad award for the best paper published in the Journal of Product Innovation Management in the year 2011.
In this paper, the researchers argue and show that companies that foster customer empowerment in new product development (NPD)—that is, companies that allow customers to create (ideas for) new product designs or to decide which products should be produced—can gain a competitive advantage over "traditional" firms that do not empower their customers. In the domains of T-shirts, furniture, and bicycles, it is found that both empowerment dimensions (and their interaction) lead to higher perceived customer orientation, more favorable corporate attitudes, and more favourable behavioural intentions (keeping product quality constant) compared with zero-empowerment strategies (company creates; company selects).
The paper was selected by the JPIM Editorial Board and the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) Board of Directors as they feel the refereed paper has made the most significant contribution to new product development practice and thought.
