2019 年 11 巻 1 号 p. 67-80
The aim of this paper is to investigate the externalization process of tacit customer needs for industrial products. Tacit customer needs are not articulated well, creating highly sticky information that depends on customer context. If a firm can extract tacit customer needs from this context, it would become a source of competitive advantage. This paper focuses on sales organization and the interface between customer and firm. This interface has the potential to decipher tacit customer needs based on firm-owned technologies. Our research employs both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Qualitative interview data were collected from five employees belonging to a sales organization at a precision equipment manufacturer, Japan Equipment (JE), a pseudonym. For the quantitative data, 46 new product development cases at JE were surveyed using a structured interview. Our paper discusses the externalization process of tacit customer needs via the sales organization, focusing on their structure and internal processes. From this discussion, it is clarified that, under highly sticky information environments, concepts relating to customers’ dialogues with the sales organization can accelerate customer feedback and promote the externalization of their tacit customer needs.
