Innovative companies after the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic are undergoing significant changes: from new trends in the markets to the growth of remote work in the digital environment. At any stage of development, innovative companies need an adaptive marketing approach to the implementation of the planned strategy. Marketing solutions to the problems of a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment (VUCA) in 2023 can rightfully be considered an emergency aid to innovative transformations in emerging markets. The triad “market orientation – innovation – performance” chain has been extended to various innovation types– from technological and product innovation to innovation orientation and capability. Moreover, the market orientation research agenda has, during last 10 years, highlighted customer orientation as a key component of market orientation that drives innovative activities.

Despite the importance of technology-based innovation and customer participation for both practitioners and academics, the impact of different customer participation types in new product innovation has rarely been addressed. Since consumers' positive assessment of new technologies leads to positive outcomes in the market, consumer evaluation of new technologies is important. Thus, examining the consumer perception of technology-based innovation including the different levels of customer participation is meaningful to new theoretical and practical insights.

Abstract submitted to the Special Section of Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics (APJML) on “Product Innovation & Consumer Behaviors”

The retailing industry is experiencing a significant transformation driven by e-commerce adoption and tech-innovations; being under pressure to provide exciting and memorable shopping experiences that lead to customer acquisition and brand loyalty. This paper depicts three innovative retail solutions from Australia for business growth through strategic implementation of technology, in-store design and customer engagement.

The restaurant industry is more engaged in innovation now. Many entrepreneurs realized that the restaurant sector faces major challenging market environments: changing needs of customers, high competition, low barriers to entry, high labor costs, and innovation technology. The market orientation drives business learning about customers. Engaged customers can assist firms to improve performance by getting involved with the firm’s product innovation. Innovation could help restaurants to improve the products and service quality, cut costs, increase sales and profits; it is the basic condition for the survival of restaurant entrepreneurs. However, studies about how the innovation affects restaurant performance were still limited to describe the overview of products innovation process (Ivkov et al., 2016). Resource-based theory takes the internal resources and capabilities of a firm as valuable sources of competitive advantage. How to combine internal resources and quickly respond to market needs to create performance of innovation entrepreneurship that still unclear and worth exploring in depth discussion. Based on the above, This study personal interview with twelve restaurant entrepreneur, government experts and scholars reveal how absorptive capacity could strengthen the link between positional advantage and innovation for entrepreneurship restaurants with the influence of customer engagement. The positional advantages can make enterprise differentiate with their competitors, that including entrepreneurial orientation, human capital and market orientation (Jogaratnam,2017). The experts believe that innovation entrepreneurs need to adopt an open mind, seek new opportunities in the catering market, acquire or develop new technologies and launching new products / services in the market, using high returns and high risk strategies in search of success in market. Training and educating team members are effective way to improve their innovation entrepreneurship.

This paper’s aim is to provide an insight into when and for what type of innovation are different types of customers most effective participants in the NPD process (Gemser & Perks 2015). Most of prior research has not considered type of innovation or only focused on one stage of NPD process, although both innovation type and each NPD process are critical factors to the NPD performance in the customer co-development context (Chatterji & Fabrizio 2014). Even though some research has examined all stages of NPD process, they also did not specify users or innovation types to compare them. Thus, we will examine the effect of customer participation on NPD performance considering both innovation and user types in terms of each NPD process. The specific research questions are 1) In the NPD process, will the impact of customer participation on NPD performance differ by user-type (lead users vs. ordinary users)? And the NPD stage?, 2) If so, when we consider both user-type and NPD stage, will the impact of customer participation on NPD performance differ depending on the type of innovation (Incremental vs. radical)? The hypotheses are developed as a basis for the subsequent research. This research has several theoretical contributions. First, we discover more appropriate user type in each NPD stage in the customer participation process. Second, we also find more appropriate user characteristics depending on the type of innovation. Third, if lead users are involved rather than ordinary users, customer participation in the development stage can generate positive impact on NPD performance, which is the opposite result compared to previous research (e.g., Chang & Taylor 2016). Finally, we show practical implications and limitations.

Supply and demand patterns have dynamically changed in recent years due to the increased global competition. Firms have selected quality and price as competition components and have accomplished corporate innovation in order to achieve competitive advantage. Innovation has been recognized as the way to enhance corporate competitiveness and to continuously grow in churning global competition (Homburg, Schwemmle, & Kuehnl, 2015; Moon, Miller, & Kim, 2013). Although innovation becomes a common means to improve a firm’s performance, it has the limitation of achieving a firm’s strategic goal as a long-term strategy. Thus, firms need to have more fine-grained strategies to survive in dynamically changing business environment, such as design innovation (Moon et al., 2015). For example, Apple has produced its products (e.g., iPhone, iPod and iPad) focusing on innovative product design to influence consumer purchase intention. Design can lead to a distinct competitive advantage (Bolch, 1995). Furthermore, product design can be used by firms to create amd enhance brand recognition, as well as to increase firms’ value (Mozota, 2002). Brand experience positively influences customer satisfaction and brand loyalty (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009). Thus, we assume that design experience and product innovation have a positive effect on consumers’ purchase behavior and customer value. However, while the importance of design innovation is recognized, it is not easy to apply the design innovation to marketing due to the lack of relevant research in the field. In fact, relevant research on the influence of innovative new product design and design experience on customer value is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how brand experiences and innovative product design affect customer value. Successful innovation is accomplished by identifying customer needs first and developing innovative products to satisfy their needs (Hauser et al., 2006). Design is seen as the core of innovation and the moment when a new object is conceived of, devised, and shaped in a prototype form (Landwehr, Wentzel, & Herrmann, 2013). Verganti (2008) studies the concept of "user-centered design," which describes how companies can use design to improve their relationships with users and develop a better understanding of user needs. In this research, design innovation has three dimensions: aesthetic attributes, feature attributes, and emotional attributes. First, aesthetic attributes focus on the product design itself. The aesthetic appearance of a product has a large bearing on its potential market share (Liu, 2003). Second, feature attributes focus on the product features and functional aspects that are required to satisfy customer needs. Feature attributes enable performance that can give results in the operating process (Crawford & Di Benedetto, 2007). Third, emotional attributes focus on consumers’ feeling when they purchase a new product to satisfy their needs. Emotional attributes are generated by consumers’ experience when they purchase a new product in the store. The more the product design satisfies customer's emotional needs, the more customers’ attention is attracted to the purchase of a product (Mokarian, 2007). A product satisfying the aesthetic, feature, and emotional attributes through design innovation provides a new experience to customers (Desmet & Hekkert, 2007). A consumer’s purchase decision making is affected by both direct and indirect experience of using the product and the function of product (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009). Therefore, a designer comes to design the product, taking an interest in the experience that the product gives besides its shape and function. Product experiences occur when a customer interacts with the product ̶ for example, when customers search for, examine, and evaluate products (Hoch, 2002). The product experience can be direct, i.e. when there is physical contact with the product (Hoch & Ha 1986) or indirect, i.e. when a product is presented virtually or in an advertisement (Hoch & Ha 1986; Kempf and Smith 1998). Brand experience can be split into four dimensions (sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral), which are differentially evoked by various brands (Brakus, Schmitt, & Zarantonello, 2009). According to previous studies, these four experience dimensions (sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral experience dimensions) have an effect on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Customer value can be defined as the trade-off between the benefits and sacrifices as a customer purchases a product or service from a supplier (Ulaga & Chacour, 2001). Ulaga and Chacour presented three dimensions of customer value: product-related components, service-related components, and promotion-related components. The researchers argued that customer value could be an important strategic marketing tool to clarify a firm's proposition to customers. Product-related components are intrinsic product characteristics. Product quality is a key factor of relationship value (Ulaga, 2003). Customer value consists of product value and service value. Customer value can be enhanced by quality, diversity, payment, and service quality and decreased by price, convenience, and risk (Jarvenpaa & Todd, 2003). Service-related components include all aspects of service associated with the product. Various service components play an important role in differentiating a supplier's offering (Narus & Anderson, 1996). Promotion-related components include all items used to promote the product to the customer. For all purchasing processes, it is necessary to assess the perceived customer value, such as service quality and promotional quality (Qualls & Rosa, 1995). In the present study, we conducted a research survey with 300 subjects and analyzed the data. In order to test the reliability of questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha was used. In order to test the validity, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Measurement was made for 3 variables, i.e. design innovation, design experience, and customer value. Three variables (aesthetical attributes, feature attributes, and emotional attributes) were used for design innovation. Three types of attributes were introduced for a mobile phone design innovation. Four dimensions (sensory, affective, intellectual, behavioral) were measured using a technical design experience and a humanistic design experience. Three variables (product-related customer value, service-related customer value, and promotion-related customer value) were employed for customer value. The results of the analyses demonstrate that design innovation has a positive effect on design experience, while design experience has a positive effect on customer value. Aesthetic attributes of design innovation have a positive effect on technical design experience and humanistic design experience. Feature attributes have a positive effect on the technical design experience and the humanistic design experience. Emotional attributes have an effect on the technical design experience and the humanistic design experience. The technical design experience has a positive effect on product-related customer value, service-related customer value, and promotion-related customer value. The humanistic design experience has a positive effect on product-related customer value, service-related customer value and promotion-related customer value. This study will make it possible to empirically examine how customer's experience in design innovation affects customer value. Our results will provide a theoretical foundation for examining a relationship between variables regarding how design innovation influences customer value through design experience. It is intended to give a direction as to the design innovation of firms by clarifying and presenting antecedent factors having an effect that design innovation produces on customer value. The results of the present study will inspire designers to design in consideration of design experience. Finally, our study will provide marketers with guidelines as to how design experience can influence customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Despite the importance of innovation and customer participation for both practitioners and academics, the effects of the integration between innovation and customer participation has rarely been addressed in consumers’ perspectives. Accordingly, the authors first examine separately the impact of the two breakthrough innovation types (technology-based innovation vs. market-based innovation) and two forms of customer participation (as information providers vs. as co-developers) on brand attitude. Following this, the interaction effect between the two variables is also tested. We used a 2x2x2 mixed subjects design. We employed a 2 (breakthrough innovations: T-INNO, M-INNO) x 2 (customer participation: CPI, CPC) between-subjects design for independent variables and the dependent variable had a 2 (brand attitude: pre-brand attitude, post-brand attitude) within-subject design. The hypotheses were tested for a cell phone product category by pretest. Participants were 148 university students from Seoul, Korea. The results show that both breakthrough innovation and customer participation positively influence the brand attitudes held by customers, though neither the two forms of breakthrough innovation nor the two forms of customer participation differ from each other in terms of the strength of this relationship. However, when technology-based innovation is combined with customer participation in the form of co-development, a stronger positive impact on brand attitude is observed than when customers are treated as information providers. Conversely, when market-based innovation is combined with customer participation in the form of information provision, a stronger positive impact on brand attitude is observed than when the customers act as co-developers. These results have a number of theoretical contributions. First, prior innovation research has mostly focused on the impact on firm performance. Even though a few researchers have conducted several studies about the impact of innovation in terms of consumers’ perspectives, they did not consider the specific type of innovation. The present study focuses on comparing the impact of two types of breakthrough innovation based on customers’ perspectives. Second, prior customer participation or co-creation research has mostly looked at the positive impact on performance from both the firm’s and consumer’s perspective. However, they did not consider the specific type of customer participation which can affect differently performance. In this study, the differential impact of each type of customer participation was explored. Third, previous studies have not focused on the interaction effect between two types of innovation and customer participation. We found that the interaction effect can be significant when they are combined together. This study has also managerial implications. First, when firm managers utilize both breakthrough innovation and customer participation strategies, they need to consider the most effective combination of the forms of innovation and participation available. Second, this interaction effect should be considered not only in the innovative product development process but also in the communication activities in their customers. Finally, the limitations and further research directions of this results are discussed.

The benefits of being customer-oriented for building firm innovativeness remain ambiguous among academics, with some scholars claiming a customer-orientation fosters organizational innovation competencies, whereas some others argue that it merely inhibits innovation processes. A review of research on the effect of customer orientation on innovation activities are inconclusive, with some studies supporting a positive relationship, while others reporting mixed results. With many firms investing in activities to get to know their customers and in innovation activities, managers need an understanding of the role of customer-oriented behaviors on firm innovation practices.

Dongdaemun Fashion Town, a representative clothing wholesale and retail market in South Korea, is a traditional market that was formed in the 19th century in the late Chosun Dynasty. Since then, the market system has strengthened and, as of now, Dongdaemun Fashion Town can produce various products in batch production and is characterized by a quick market response (Jung, Choo, & Chung, 2007). Furthermore, all fashion-related functions are available, making Dongdaemun Fashion Town an industrial cluster where all related businesses and services are locally concentrated (Ko, Choo, Lee, Song, & Whang, 2013). These characteristics of Dongdaemun Fashion Town relieve market trade cost and build a unique production system. It is positioned as a central clothing wholesale and retail district with the function of a national wholesale market. This Dongdaemun Fashion Town system creates services that customers demand through cooperation, partnership, or outsourcing between various suppliers and various resources (Nam, Kim, Yim, Lee, & Jo, 2009). Thus, Dongdaemun Fashion Town is a system space composed of subordinate markets with unique taste functions; here, a systematic network between the suppliers is significant. It produces value co-creation through collaboration with suppliers. However, few previous studies have investigated co-value created through co-production or co-innovation from Dongdaemun Fashion Town. Also, the shift from product-centered thinking to the customer-centered thinking implies the need for an accompanying shift to the customer-based strategy. It also refers the necessity of strategy to improve customer equity (Rust, Lemon, & Zeithaml, 2004). Therefore, further study is needed on co-creation research to make cyclical growth of traditional market and customer equity. The structure of this study is as follows. First, the characteristics of the Dongdaemun Fashion Town’s co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation are investigated and each of the subordinate aspects is investigated. Second, the influence of co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation on customer equity driver is analyzed. Third, the moderating effects on the types of suppliers’ (wholesale/retail) influence relationship are analyzed. In total, 300 samples by wholesalers and retailers were collected for the final analysis. Data analysis was performed used SPSS 21.0 for exploratory factor analyses, reliability analysis, and descriptive statistics. Based on the results, AMOS 18.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and multiple group analysis. The results of this study provide an insight into the influence of Dongdaemun Fashion Town’s co-production, co-innovation, and value co-creation on customer equity by wholesalers and retailers. The study concludes with outlining future directions of research that can be used in the development of marketing strategies.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of social media in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) based on a theoretical foundation. Social media was firstly used as a new communication tool by internet users, and is being commercialized as a powerful tool to build and maintain long-term relationships between customers and businesses. This study focuses on service sectors and aims to clarify how social media helps companies innovate traditional CRM. Social CRM is seen as one of these service innovations and is highlighted in this paper.

These days, thanks to lots of smart devices and advanced communication technologies, consumer’s recognition and relations have been changed. They, beyond relying on information and services which are produced by experts, produce information and knowledge by themselves via SNS or web that they want to know. As consumer’s recognition is changing like this, SNS is evolving into social platform. Therefore, this paper is intended to clarify overall relationship between network characteristics in social platform, knowledge sharing, social capital, social innovation and customer’s value. This paper has clarified influences between variables related to consumer’s behaviors in social platform and the results are summarized as following: First, network characteristics in social platform are found to positively affect knowledge sharing efforts of social platform. Second, knowledge sharing has been found to positively affect social capital and innovation in social platform. However, enjoyment in helping others i.e a sub variable is found to positively affect social capital and innovation through anticipated reciprocal relationships. Third, social capital and innovation in social platform have affected customer value in social platform positively. Consequently, this paper is intended to solve various problems found from overall societies and industries through social innovation and also to advance them. For these purposes, social platform is believed to prompt sharing idea and knowledge based on interactions between users and social relationship. These actions become social capitals resulting in social innovation. Moreover, these would create new businesses and marketing opportunities across various areas in the processes that innovative activities form customer values.

The objective of the present study is to analyze the relationship of suppliers and customer participation in product development process and effects of such participation on product innovation since it is getting more and more weight in manufacturing companies. It is also aimed in this study to explore if business performance of manufacturing companies might be affected by the suppliers participation as well as product innovation that is realizable by such participation. From the analysis, following conclusions could be drawn: First, suppliers participation in manufacturing companies turned out to have influence upon product innovation (standardized coefficient=0.193, C.R=3.510), implying that nothing is more important than the role of suppliers who have intention to realize innovation through participation in manufacturing companies. Second, the analysis showed that customer participation exercised impact upon product innovation of manufacturing companies (standardized coefficient=0.686, C.R=6.433), suggesting that the more customer participate in product development process of manufacturing companies, the more manufacturing companies could sharpen their competitiveness. Third, it was made known from the analysis that the product innovation thanks to suppliers and customer participation in manufacturing companies could have influence upon their business performance (standardized coefficient=0.762, C.R=7.666), signifying that the product innovation of manufacturing companies might depend on the participation of suppliers and manufacturers and, in turn, could affect their own business performance.