Product Development for Distant Target Groups : An Experimental Study for the Silver Market

253 Pages·2017·12.21 MB·English

by  Malte Marwede (auth.)

Forschungs-/ Entwicklungs- /
Innovations-Management
Hans Dietmar Bürgel (em.) · Diana Grosse
Cornelius Herstatt · Hans Koller
Christian Lüthje · Martin G. Möhrle Hrsg.
Malte Marwede
Product Development
for Distant Target
Groups
An Experimental Study
for the Silver Market
Forschungs-/ Entwicklungs-/
Innovations-Management
Edited by
H. D. Bürgel (em.), Stuttgart, Germany
D. Grosse, Freiberg, Germany
C. Herstatt, Hamburg, Germany
H. Koller, Hamburg, Germany
C. Lüthje, Hamburg, Germany
M. G. Möhrle, Bremen, Germany
Die Reihe stellt aus integrierter Sicht von Betriebswirtschaft und Technik Arbeits­
ergebnisse auf den Gebieten Forschung, Entwicklung und Innovation vor. Die
einzelnen Beiträge sollen dem wissenschaftlichen Fortschritt dienen und die For­
derungen der Praxis auf Umsetzbarkeit erfüllen.
Edited by
Professor Dr. Hans Dietmar Bürgel Professor Dr. Hans Koller
(em.), Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg
Universität Stuttgart
Professor Dr. Christian Lüthje
Professorin Dr. Diana Grosse vorm. de Technische Universität Hamburg­
Pay, Harburg
Technische Universität Bergakademie
Professor Dr. Martin G. Möhrle
Freiberg
Universität Bremen
Professor Dr. Cornelius Herstatt
Technische Universität
Hamburg­Harburg
Weitere Bände in dieser Reihe http://www.springer.com/series/12195
Malte Marwede
Product Development
for Distant Target Groups
An Experimental Study
for the Silver Market
With a foreword by Univ. Prof. Dr. Cornelius Herstatt
Malte Marwede
Hamburg, Germany
Dissertation Technische Universität Hamburg­Harburg, 2017
Forschungs­/ Entwicklungs­/ Innovations­Management
ISBN 978­3­658­18324­0 ISBN 978­3­658­18325­7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978­3­658­18325­7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017940813
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Foreword V

Foreword
Successful product development requires that the target groups' exact customer needs
are inscribed in new products and services. The share of over 65-year-olds of the total
population is growing as a result of demographic changes, for example in the Western
world and Japan. This entails a shift in the customer base in the respective countries,
which presents new challenges and opportunities for product developers. In many
respects, the so-called "Silver Agers" represent a remote target group, which means that
there is a presumed, cognitive distance between the product developers and the target
group. In consequence, this can lead to suboptimal product and service development
outcomes in terms of matching customer needs.
Mr Marwede addresses the outlined topics in his doctoral thesis and, with his research,
contributes to innovation research that is relevant and valuable in both theoretical and
practical terms. Mr Marwede examines the presumed influence of different distance
dimensions between developers (social and temporal) and the target group with regard
to the idea quality as well as quality in new product development. The accentuated target
group is the "Silver Market", i.e. persons in their third age.
The motivation for this work is the frequently stated assumption of authors and
practitioners that product development for Silver Agers can only be successfully carried
out if the responsible developers are of similar age and sharing similar life experiences to
relate well with the needs and wishes of the target group. Mr Marwede disproves this
assertion based on experimental evidence. He bases his empirical research contribution
on a comprehensive, experimental investigation of product and service innovation in the
aviation industry.
The work of Mr Marwede is, to the best of my knowledge, the first work to empirically
investigate cognitive distances at the individual level in the field of product development.
Furthermore, it enriches the body of knowledge in of user involvement of elderly people
in the early stages of the innovation process.
Researchers as well as practitioners in the field of innovation management significantly
benefit from reading this dissertation.
Hamburg, April 2017
Univ. Prof. Dr. Cornelius Herstatt
Acknowledgements VII

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank everyone who directly or indirectly supported me and my
dissertation project over the last three years.
In particular, I am grateful to have Professor Herstatt as my dissertation advisor – for
providing research guidance, practical support and for establishing such a fertile
environment at the Institute for Technology and Innovation Management. I also thank
Professor Koller for valuable feedback at our colloquia and for his willingness to be my
second evaluator. Furthermore, I want to express gratitude to Professor Ringle for
chairing my dissertation examination.
I want to acknowledge the many partners in the different phases of the project: the Silver
Ager associations Deutsche Seniorenliga e.V. Unie KBO and ANBO for supporting and
distributing my web-based pre-study to their members; the Senior Research Group of
Berlin for providing real first hand insights about Silver Agers' needs, their willingness to
conduct several preparatory sessions and for taking part in the experimental workshops;
the two industrial partners from the aviation industry for sending developers to the
workshops, supplying inspirational locations, challenging the structure and last but not
least for covering the costs; Twente University and Frans Jonkman for making this study
international and having me host a workshop at their Design Lab. Furthermore, I would
like to thank the many students who backed my thesis with their research or
pragmatically helped to prepare, conduct and wrap-up the workshops, in particular Jia
Lui Hew and Hilrike Hildebrandt.
I also want to recognize my fellow PhD comrades for their helpfulness and support, in
particular André Schorn and Florian Denker for instant problem-solvings, practical help
at the workshops and morale support.
Last but not least I am thankful for my family for raising me and helping out, friends for
distraction, and mostly for my wife Anna. You are everything for me, taking every role
from coach, critique, and also for being the loving mother of our children Matteo and
Karla.
Hamburg, April 2017
Malte Marwede
Table of contents IX

Table of contents
Index of figures ............................................................................................................................................XIII
Index of tables ............................................................................................................................................... XV
List of abbreviations ................................................................................................................................ XVII
1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Context and relevance ................................................................................................................. 1
1.2 Research questions and objective .......................................................................................... 4
1.3 Research approach ....................................................................................................................... 6
1.4 Structure of dissertation ............................................................................................................ 8
2 Theoretical foundations of silver agers and user involvement ......................................... 11
2.1 Demographic changes and the establishment of the silver market ........................ 11
2.1.1 Ageing societies ......................................................................................................................... 11
2.1.2 Characterisation of silver agers .......................................................................................... 11
2.1.3 Silver agers as a distant target group ............................................................................... 15
2.1.4 Age-based innovation for silver agers .............................................................................. 15
2.2 User involvement in new product development ............................................................ 16
2.2.1 Innovation management, fuzzy front-end of innovation and idea
generation ............................................................................................................................. 16
2.2.2 Meeting customer requirements .................................................................................. 17
2.2.3 User involvement to meet customer needs.............................................................. 18
2.2.3.1 Development history of user involvement in new product
development .................................................................................................................... 18
2.2.3.2 Effects of user involvement ....................................................................................... 19
2.2.3.3 Typology of user involvement .................................................................................. 20
2.2.3.4 Frameworks on the degree of user involvement .............................................. 24
3 Foundations of research in the field of cognitive distance .................................................. 33
3.1 Co-citation methodology .......................................................................................................... 33
3.2 Results ............................................................................................................................................. 36
3.2.1 Cluster distribution ........................................................................................................... 37
3.2.2 Cluster 1 – Cognitive distance and construal level ................................................ 37
3.2.3 Cluster 2 – Interrelation between four dimensions of cognitive distance ... 39
3.2.4 Cluster 3 – Spatial distance and construal levels ................................................... 40
3.2.5 Cluster 4 – Subjective distance and emotional involvement ............................. 40
X Table of contents

3.2.6 Cluster 5 – Social distance and focalism .................................................................... 41
3.2.7 Cluster 6 – Temporal distance influencing behaviours and decisions .......... 42
3.2.8 Cluster 7 – Communication between geographically distributed or
virtual teams ........................................................................................................................ 42
3.2.9 Cluster 8 – Network and organisational proximity............................................... 43
3.3 Discussion ...................................................................................................................................... 44
3.3.1 Cognitive distance – A gap in innovation management ...................................... 45
3.3.2 Applicability of cognitive distance subcategories in new product
development ........................................................................................................................ 47
3.3.3 Requirements for cognitive distance subcategory measures ........................... 50
3.3.4 Social distance operationalisation through social capital .................................. 51
3.4 Conclusion of co-citation analysis ........................................................................................ 52
4 Research questions and hypotheses for the experimental study ..................................... 53
4.1 Research gap and research question ................................................................................... 53
4.2 Hypotheses development for product development outcomes ................................ 54
4.2.1 Hypothesis regarding idea quality............................................................................... 55
4.2.1.1 Cognitive distance ......................................................................................................... 56
4.2.1.2 User involvement .......................................................................................................... 60
4.2.1.3 Cognitive distance and user involvement ............................................................ 65
4.2.2 Hypothesis regarding idea quantity............................................................................ 67
4.2.2.1 Cognitive distance ......................................................................................................... 67
4.2.2.2 User involvement .......................................................................................................... 68
5 Selection of research context for quantitative study ............................................................. 71
5.1 Choice of experimental approach ......................................................................................... 71
5.2 Classification of experimental approach............................................................................ 73
5.3 Industry context of experimental setting .......................................................................... 75
6 Pre-study – Analysis of silver agers’ personal dispositions and air travel
customer experiences ........................................................................................................................ 77
6.1 Purpose and methodology....................................................................................................... 77
6.2 Data collection .............................................................................................................................. 77
6.2.1 Survey development ......................................................................................................... 77
6.2.2 Structure and constructs ................................................................................................. 79
6.2.3 Cooperation partners ....................................................................................................... 81
6.2.4 Sample description ............................................................................................................ 82
6.3 Flight patterns and preferences of silver agers ............................................................... 83
Table of contents XI

6.4 Silver-ager characteristics ....................................................................................................... 86
6.4.1 Cognitive age ........................................................................................................................ 86
6.4.2 Innovation- and product-related user characteristics ......................................... 88
6.5 Pain points of air travel customer experience ................................................................. 92
6.6 Interim conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 97
7 Distance effects in product development for silver agers ................................................ 101
7.1 Study methodology/approach ............................................................................................ 101
7.1.1 Research framework ...................................................................................................... 102
7.1.2 Context and institutional partners ........................................................................... 103
7.1.3 Survey for development participants ...................................................................... 104
7.1.4 Experimental workshops ............................................................................................. 105
7.1.4.1 Workshop structure .................................................................................................. 105
7.1.4.2 Treatments ................................................................................................................... 107
7.1.4.3 Design of ideation session ...................................................................................... 111
7.1.4.4 Trial runs ....................................................................................................................... 113
7.1.4.5 Addressing reliability and validity of experimental design ....................... 113
7.1.5 Idea assessment ............................................................................................................... 115
7.1.5.1 Judge selection ............................................................................................................ 116
7.1.5.2 Rating method ............................................................................................................. 117
7.1.5.3 Rating session .............................................................................................................. 118
7.1.6 Operationalisation of constructs ............................................................................... 118
7.1.6.1 Independent variables from participant survey ............................................ 118
7.1.6.2 Independent and dependent variables from experimental
workshops..................................................................................................................... 123
7.1.6.3 Dependant variables from idea assessment .................................................... 124
7.1.7 Data analysis technique ................................................................................................ 125
7.2 Findings from experimental study .................................................................................... 126
7.2.1 Data set for analysis ....................................................................................................... 126
7.2.2 Exemplary ideas generated in workshops ............................................................ 127
7.2.3 Descriptive analysis........................................................................................................ 129
7.2.3.1 Control variables – Diversity of workshop participants ............................. 129
7.2.3.2 Independent variables – Characteristics of participants ............................ 131
7.2.3.3 Dependant variables – Ideated output from workshops ............................ 134
7.2.3.4 Descriptive analyses of workshop control variables ................................... 137