External End User and Innovation Performance

Research about users as a source of innovation has been largely restricted to case studies
exploring specific innovation projects at the firm level. This study assesses empirically the
relationship between external end users knowledge as an input factor to innovation and
firm innovation success. The results strongly support the hypotheses: (i) that external end
users have the potential to essentially improve the innovative performance of firms; (ii) that
the technique of interaction during the innovation process and the characteristics of involved
external users matter as well. The more firms make use of emphatic design and select specific
users to acquire hard-to-articulate customer needs, the stronger is the relationship between
access to external end users knowledge and firm innovation success measured in sales of
innovative products.