Leveraging customer involvement for fueling innovation: The role of relational and analytical information processing capabilities 
Management Information Systems Quarterly
, 41
(1) , 367-396. 2017.
Author(s): Terence J. V. Saldanha. Sunil Mithas. M. S. Krishnan.
Topics: IT and innovation
Country: USA
Objective and main results
This article seeks to increase the understanding of how IT enables customer-focused innovation in organizations. It examines how IT capabilities affect the relationship between customer involvement and innovation.
Main findings:
- In general, the degree of innovation in organizations may be increased by developing abilities to process and manage customer information.
- Relational information processing capability, enabled by CRM applications, positively moderates the relationship between product-focused customer involvement and innovation
- No significant direct effects of customer feedback and suggestions on innovativeness were found. However, IT-enabled analytical information processing capabilities positively moderate the relationship between information-intensive customer involvement and innovation.
- Interaction effects indicate that innovation may be increased by combining product-focused customer involvement with IT capabilities that facilitate analytical information processing and relational information processing.
Summary of practical implications
The results show that innovation is best achieved when specific configurations of IT-enabled capabilities are leveraged in unison with specific types of customer involvement. Hence, organizations should be aware that adding more IT may not increase innovation unless these IT capabilities are also accompanied by appropriate management interventions.
The study points to types of IT that can help firms harness different types of customer involvement for innovation. Managers thus need to carefully evaluate their firm’s IT capabilities when formulating innovation strategies that involve customers. Merely collaborating with or incorporating information from customers may not increase innovation as much as when those business practices are accompanied by relevant IT applications that enable analytical information processing capabilities or relational information processing capabilities.
