The Originator Effect of User Ideated Products

Abstract

A growing number of consumers are participating in the new product development process with companies. Companies can both obtain product ideas from users and also increase the purchase intent of consumers who see information about the product that has been conceived of by an actual user. Consumers infer the quality of products when they see a display in which product ideas are created by users rather than companies. In this paper, we describe this quality inference as an “Originator Effect” and review the relevant prior research. The previous investigations have been based on the following two trends: (1) mediating factor research to explore the background of the “Originator Effect”, and (2) boundary condition research to investigate the conditions under which the “Originator Effect” is lost. In addition, among future investigations to expand the “Originator Effect” research, the author claims three subjects: (1) investigations of mediation factors, (2) investigations of boundary conditions, and (3) investigations of both mediation factors and boundary conditions.