Embedded users and market-directed dispositions

The second form of use intensity is having own use experience. Employees use the products of the firm, in which they are employed. They are likely to build up need knowledge which can be traced back to the use of products and direct confrontation with emerging problems during product use. 

Yet it remains unclear how types of use Intensity and knowledge are relevant Influence factors of market-directed dispositions. This has to do with the fact that the concept of embedded users has not been researched until now. Scholars have especially focused on non-user employees and how they contribute to innovation. Here, the combination of explorative and exploitative activities has been regarded to be crucial for innovation (Li et al. 2008 March 1991]. March (1991, p. 71] writes  

With respect to markets and customers, explorative activities focus on emerging and new customers, exploitative activities aim at existing customers (Benner and Tushman 2003 Jansen et al. 2006], Similarly, market-directed dispositions from employees can be theoretically framed to be either aimed at new customers or at existing customers. Whereas the former activity is related to the use context of embedded lead users, the latter is related to their firm embeddedness. I.e. embedded lead users are likely to exhibit both explorative and exploitative market-directed dispositions. 

By estyloitative market-directed dispositions I mean dispositions that are aimed at the existing customer base. Here, I focus on the customer orientation of employees, wdiich is an antecedent to customer satisfaction and thus sustains the current customer base. Customer orientation is an employee s tendency or predisposition to meet customer needs (Brown et aL 2002. p. 111). 

Sununatizing the existing evidence on use intensity, knowledge, and market-directed dispositions (explorative and exploitative), 1 expect different types of embedded users to exist, who differ with respect to the knowledge th hold. The first dimension is the 

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