Using virtual worlds to integrate customers into new product development

Julia Daecke - 2009

An explorative examination using the automotive industry as an example

Integrating customers into new product development is a key factor in successfully realizing viable innovations. Nevertheless, such potential is apparently far from exhausted yet, especially in the technology-driven automotive industry. Julia Daecke takes a look at how companies and customers can add value. She examines how the new phenomenon of Internet-based 3D worlds can aid this process and what organizational requirements are necessary for this to happen. Interviews with managers from German automotive OEMs and industry-related institutions serve as the empirical basis for her exploratory research.