A systematic literature review on customer integration in the new product development process

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Customer Relationship Management, CRM, grade: 2,0, Saarland University, language: English, abstract: The present bachelor thesis aimes to make a systematic literature review on customer integration in the new product development process because no similar literature review on this topic has been available thus far. After explaining some theoretical background on innovation and customer engagement as a preamble of customer integration in the marketing theory, the research method was described, and the results were presented. There is also an explanation of reasons why customer integration is useful and rational and nowadays not a rare occurrence anymore. As results of the systematic review, different instruments on customer integration in the new product development were categorized and risks and benefits were mainly discussed. The implications of the thesis were that customer integration is beneficial at all, but a company has to evaluate possible risks and methods painstakingly.