Integration of Customers in Front-End of Innovation (FEI) by Open Innovation Approach: Generation and Selection of Innovative Product Ideas

Innovation is a key element for the success of companies in a competitive environment. Innovations begin with innovative ideas that form in the early stages of the innovation process, called the front-end of innovation (FEI). Therefore, to access information from different sources, especially external sources, the early activities of the innovation process should be organized as a systematic approach. Customers are as the most important source of innovative ideas in new product process that companies can use them. To benefit from the idea of customers, there needs to be a model for integrating them with internal organization resources. In this paper, a model is presented for integration of customers derived from open innovation paradigm in the FEI based on simultaneous integration of customers, competitors, fringe industries in order to Increase creativity and innovation success. This proposed model is obtained by development of Ulwick’s model that implemented in Agricultural implements industry for “drip irrigation system”. The main objective of this paper is to generate innovative product ideas and then selection of more innovative idea (real and unmet need) of customers in the FEI phase by proposed model, in order to reduce the failure rate of new products in the market. Data were obtained from a survey of 30 customers, as a research sample. The results suggest that opening the FEI phase and the subsequent integration of different customers in this phase, in order to generate innovative ideas, will have a positive impact on the success of the new product.