Transfer of need knowledge across organizational boundaries

2 Transfer of need knowledge across organizational boundaries 

Traditionally, the locus of innovation is inside the firm boundaries, if external need knowledge is transferred into the firm. Need knowledge is not only crucial to innovate from a theoretic point of view (Alexander 1964] but valuable, as different types of innovations seem to emerge from external (use] and internal (solution] knowledge. Empirical evidence is provided by Kristensson et al. (2004] who compare users and employees in an experimental design for the innovation of services. They find that ordinary users produce ideas more original and valuable to the firm in contrast 

For a more comprehensive discussion of the field of user innovation see part II.1. 

The inclusion of external use/need knowledge is also one of the main issues of marketing science (Hauser et al. 2006), and remains a remarkable challenge for research and practice (Marketing Science Institute 2010). This task can be attributed to marketing research in organizations (McDaniel and Gates 2008). Many different methods have been developed to assess customer needs, which can be broadly divided Into quantitative (conjoint analysis, quality function deployment) and qualitative techniques (focus interviews, consumer workshops). All of these methods rely on the assumption that users or consumers have the ability to articulate or express their needs. Yet this is only possible for those needs, of which customers are aware themselves. Latent needs, which are crucial for the development of new product, cannot be acquired via these techniques, as they cannot be made explicit by users (Narver et al. 2004). 

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