Embedded Lead Users Inside the Firm: How Innovative User Employees Contribute to the Corporate Product Innovation Process

The central phenomenon of this book are embedded lead users (ELUs): employees of firms who experience emerging needs and profit from solutions to these needs (i.e. who exhibit lead user characteristics) in relation to one or more of their employing firm’s products or services. In three subsequent studies I explore, how embedded lead users contribute to corporate innovation. I show which factors foster the lead userness of employees and what characterizes embedded lead users’ behaviors. This holds various implications for firms, e.g. with respect to the integration of user knowledge for innovation.​

Tim Schweisfurth completed his doctoral thesis at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). He is now working at the Institute for Technology and Innovation Management as a postdoctoral researcher.