Factors Affecting Customer Participation in the New Product Development Process: Case study of food industry of Mazandaran province

Constant changes in the business environment compel companies to think about new product development. In order to meet customer needs, active engagement with the customer and, more specifically, customer involvement in the process of developing new product is essential. The purpose of the present research is to identify the effective factors on customer involvement in the process of new product development in the food industry of Mazandaran province. Six effective variables include organizational strategy, new product features, external environment, organizational features, customer attributes, and relationships. The purpose of this research, in the form of applied research and in terms of the implementation of research, is descriptive-causal research. The statistical population of the research is the managers of different parts of the food industry of Mazandaran province, including production, product, marketing, brand, and other parts of the organization. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. In this research, structural equation modeling (SEM) has been used to analyze data and examine the hypothesis. The results showed that the organizational strategy variables, organizational characteristics, customer characteristics and relational factors have a positive and significant effect on customer involvement in the process of new product development. While the two variables of product and environment characteristics have no significant effect on customer involvement. Therefore, according to the results, food industry companies should pay particular attention to strengthening these factors in order to attract more customers to develop new products.