The Role of Competitors and Customers in the Development of Environmentally Sound Technologies

Abstract

The ar•cle presents two important forces influencing the development of product innova•ons by suppliers of environmentally sound technologies, namely compe•tors and consumers. It discusses these phenomena on the basis of different theore•cal approaches (Ansoff and Stewart, 1967; Von Hippel, 1987, 2005, 2007; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). The results of the study show that Polish companies-suppliers of environmentally sound technologies are willing to gain inspira•on from both demand and supply side market players. In case of supply side of the market, in most cases inspira•on was not aimed at copying exis•ng successful ideas. The compe•tors are perceived rather as a source of inspira•on for further development of technological solu•ons. Although companies concentrate on having a rela•onship with customers and track their behavior, these rela•ons have not been established by the Polish companies researched here in order to treat users as co-creators of product improvements or novel•es.