Investigating the Impact of Strategic New Product Development Process Changes on Innovation Reputation

Abstract

A key question facing firms today is should they integrate customers into their innovation processes and co-create new products. This research examines how strategic change (e.g. closed to open innovation) impacts the attitudes of the periphery of customers and how a firm’s current innovation reputation impacts strategic change. The results show that firms will benefit by moving from closed to open innovation. This relationship is contingent on a firm’s current innovation reputation. When a firm has a high reputation for building innovative products, it should continue with its current strategy for innovation (i.e. regardless of open or closed). Conversely, having a low innovation reputation suggests that any change of strategy is good in order to overcome previous negative perceptions of the firm’s reputation.