Integration of lead users in the sporting goods industry: Potentials of virtual customer integration

The framework conditions of the sporting goods industry have changed in recent years. Besides the increasing individualization of products, the life-style orientation of customers is of rising importance. In order to assure competitive advantage in future markets it is very important being the first to identify crucial trends. In this context, customers are an important source of innovation. Based on the concept of open innovation, we reflect the role of lead users in the innovation process and identify potentials of virtual customer integration through the use of web-based applications. Based on our conducted study in the sporting goods industry we are able to show that the benefit of integrating lead user based impulses into the innovation process is basically confirmed. Furthermore, the study shows that employees are often acting as lead users and that first tendencies towards a systematic implementation of lead user specific, web-based communities are visible. On the other hand, our study identifies that sometimes lead user integration is used in a very unstructured and irregular way. This leads to an insufficient realization of the identified potentials. Finally we conduct practical guidance for companies to improve their innovation activities through a web-based integration of lead users.