TY - JOUR

T1 - Knowledge distribution among market experts

T2 - A closer look into the efficiency of information gathering for innovation projects

AU - Lüthje, Christian

AU - Lettl, Christopher

AU - Herstatt, Cornelius

PY - 2003

Y1 - 2003

N2 - Information gathering from sources outside the company plays a critical role in most innovation projects, Particularly, it seems promising to approach external market experts to develop an in-depth understanding of current use problems, changing customer needs and trends for new product solutions. When planning expert interviews, firms are confronted with the question of whether knowledge is distributed rather homogeneously or heterogeneously ('scattered') among a pool of experts. This issue strongly determines how many experts need to be interviewed in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of a given search field for innovation. In the present paper we analyse expert interviews that were conducted in the context of an innovation project in the field of surgical hygiene products. We find high heterogeneity of expert knowledge: market experts in our sample vary in terms of the market information they provide for the particular product field. We argue that this finding is in alignment with the concept of 'bounded rationality' and the theory of 'contextual development of knowledge'. Our findings have implications for the management of external information gathering and the identification of market experts.

AB - Information gathering from sources outside the company plays a critical role in most innovation projects, Particularly, it seems promising to approach external market experts to develop an in-depth understanding of current use problems, changing customer needs and trends for new product solutions. When planning expert interviews, firms are confronted with the question of whether knowledge is distributed rather homogeneously or heterogeneously ('scattered') among a pool of experts. This issue strongly determines how many experts need to be interviewed in order to develop a comprehensive understanding of a given search field for innovation. In the present paper we analyse expert interviews that were conducted in the context of an innovation project in the field of surgical hygiene products. We find high heterogeneity of expert knowledge: market experts in our sample vary in terms of the market information they provide for the particular product field. We argue that this finding is in alignment with the concept of 'bounded rationality' and the theory of 'contextual development of knowledge'. Our findings have implications for the management of external information gathering and the identification of market experts.

KW - Expert knowledge

KW - Information gathering

KW - Lead user method

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0042932753&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1504/ijtm.2003.003423

DO - 10.1504/ijtm.2003.003423

M3 - Scientific review articles

AN - SCOPUS:0042932753

VL - 26

SP - 561

EP - 577

JO - International Journal of Technology Management

JF - International Journal of Technology Management

SN - 0267-5730

IS - 5-6

ER -