Researches on the customer-centric management innovation seems to be quite primitive. Most of them are either conceptual or case-based with very few empirical studies. While the customer-centric management innovation has been widely discussed in the management consulting area for the past decade, the issue has not been tackled vigorously in the academic society. As a result, it is needed to build a firm theoretical framework on this issue.
The purpose of this research is to explore key variables of customer-centric management innovation in terms of the following four dimensions - (1) strategic innovation, (2) organizational innovation, (3) product innovation, and (4) operational innovation; and to empirically investigate the influence of the customer-centric management innovation on customers' happiness which consists of economic, emotional, and meaningful happiness during all the phases of the customer activity cycle. This study focuses on establishing a theoretical foundation for the customer-centric management innovation.
A hierarchical construct model was developed to derive the concept of customer-centric management innovation from the four different dimensions. The hierarchical construct model in this study proposes that customer-centric management innovation consists of the following four lower-order constructs: i) customer-centric strategic innovation which has also the two lower-order constructs such as offering multi-dimensional values and providing customized solutions to customers, ii) customer-centric organizational innovation with having the four lower-order constructs such as creating diversity within an organization, capitalizing on collective intelligence, guaranteeing employees’ discretionary autonomy, and organizing hybrid structure, iii) customer-centric product innovation with having the four lower-order constructs, i.e., designing human-centered product, designing integrated product and service, product convergence, and open product innovation, and iv) customer-centric operational innovation with the two lower-order constructs such as transforming into customer-oriented operational process and implementing customer-centric information system. This study hypothesized that the customer-centric management innovation with the four dimensions of customer-centric strategic innovation, customer-centric organizational innovation, customer-centric product innovation, and customer-centric operational innovation would have a positive influence on customer happiness.
This study surveyed 250 manufacturing and information and communications technology(ICT) firms in Korea for an empirical analysis. This study employed SmartPLS to analyze the influence of the customer-centric management innovation on customer happiness. The analysis results revealed that the four dimensions of customer-centric management innovation were empirically validated to have a positive impact on customer happiness, which in turn resulted in firm performance in a positive way.
This study has the following theoretical implications. First, this study proposes that the concept of customer-centric management innovation has multi-level constructs with a hierarchy. That is, this study describes the concept of customer-centric management innovation as the fourth-order construct with the multi-staged hierarchical structure consisting of several lower-order constructs. In addition, this study developed measurement items of the four specific ingredients of the customer-centric management innovation. Hence, this study can serve as a theoretical background of future studies. Second, the concept of customer happiness and its measurement items proposed in this study also seem to provide a theoretical background for future studies.
Managerial implications of this research are as follows: This research revealed the impacts of the lower-order constructs of the customer-centric management innovation on customer happiness. Specifically, the two customer-centric product innovation constructs(i.e., open product innovation and designing customer-centered product) and the two customer-centric organizational innovation constructs(i.e., organizing hybrid structure and guaranteeing employees’ discretionary autonomy) have relatively more significant influence on customer happiness than other constructs in this study. On the other hand, the two customer-centric strategic innovation constructs, i.e., providing customized solution and offering multi-dimensional customer values, have relatively less influence on customer happiness. The results help firm managers prioritize the customer-centric management innovation constructs. It suggests firms to have more emphasis on product innovation and organizational innovation to be more customer-centric than strategic innovation. Firms would efficiently achieve their goals for customer happiness by considering these priorities.
현재 고객중심 경영혁신에 관한 연구는 주목을 받고 있다. 그러나 이에 대한 연구는 주로 개념연구 혹은 사례연구들만 있고, 실증적 분석연구는 거의 찾을 수 없는 상황이다. 고객중심 경영혁신이 10여년 전부터 주로경영 컨설팅 업계에서 활발히 논의되어 왔지만(Galbraith, 2002), 현재까지 학계에서는 체계적인 연구가 진행되지 못하고 있기 때문이다. 따라서 이론적 틀이 매우 빈약한 실정이다. 본 연구의 목적은 고객중심 경영혁신의요인들의 4가지 차원 - (1) 전략, (2) 조직, (3) 제품, (4) 운영 –에서 규명하고, 고객중심 경영혁신이 고객 활동사이클 기간 동안 고객행복 - (1) 경제적 행복, (2) 정서적 행복, (3) 의미적 행복 – 에 미치는 영향을 실증적으로규명하는 것이다. 이러한 연구목적 달성을 통해, 본 연구는 궁극적으로 고객중심 경영혁신이라는 새로운 경영패러다임의 이론적 토대를 구축하려 했다.
실증적 분석을 위해 본 연구는 250개의 국내 제조 및 정보통신 기업들을 대상으로 설문조사를 실시하였다.
그리고 SmartPLS 통계 패키지를 사용하여 2차 요인(second-order factor) 혹은 3차 요인(third-order factor)으로 표현된 4가지 개념들(고객중심 전략혁신, 고객중심 조직혁신, 고객중심 제품혁신, 고객중심 운영혁신)을 묶어서 4 차 요인(fourth-order factor)으로 고객중심 경영혁신 개념을 만들고, 이 고객중심 경영혁신 개념이 2차 요인으로표현된 고객행복에 미치는 영향을 조사하였다. 실증분석 결과 고객중심 경영혁신은 고객행복에 긍정적 영향을미친 것으로 나타났다. 구체적으로 2개의 고객중심 전략혁신 변수들(고객에게 다차원의 가치 제공, 고객화된솔루션 제공), 4개 고객중심 조직혁신 변수들(조직내 다양성 조성, 집단지성 활용, 종업원에 자율권 보장, 하이브리드 조직구조), 4개 고객중심 제품혁신 변수들(인간중심적 제품설계, 제품-서비스 통합설계, 제품컨버전스, 개방형 제품혁신), 그리고 2개 고객중심 운영혁신 변수들(고객중심으로 프로세스 변경, 고객중심적 정보시스템운영)이 고객중심 경영혁신을 구성하고, 이들이 고객행복에 유의한 긍정적 영향을 미친 것으로 나타났다.