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2024/2025  KAN-CSAAO1004U  Creating Innovation and Customer Value

English Title
Creating Innovation and Customer Value

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Start time of the course Second Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for cand.merc. and SAM
Course coordinator
  • Ad de Jong - Department of Marketing (Marketing)
Main academic disciplines
  • Innovation
  • Marketing
Teaching methods
  • Blended learning
Last updated on 27-06-2024

Relevant links

Learning objectives
  • Acquire insight into how companies can integrate marketing and sales strategies more strategically in the organization to improve the success of newly developed products throughout the innovation process.
  • Identify and analyse the process of value co-creation during the different stages of the innovation process taking into account the role of the company, the role of the customer and the role of the frontline employee.
  • Acquire knowledge about how the organizational frontline (i.e., marketers, salespersons, and service employees) can use the customer dialogue to effectively communicate and present the value of innovations to customers.
  • Identify and analyse how companies can use digital data and digital channels to (co-)create customer value during the different stages of the innovation process
  • Apply key marketing and sales concepts, models, and theories, singly or combined to fit a concrete case situation under study and critically assess the value and relevance of the concepts, models, and theories presented throughout the course in relation to their practical application in a relevant case.
  • Follow the academic conventions in your written presentation.
Prerequisites for registering for the exam (activities during the teaching period)
Number of compulsory activities which must be approved (see section 13 of the Programme Regulations): 1
Compulsory home assignments
The student must get 1 out of 2 assignments/activities approved in order to attend the ordinary exam.

1. Weekly quiz: Every week a mandatory multiple-choice test is administered. The purpose of the test is to provide students with an overview of which topics they master and which not. More specifically, the multiple-choice test examines students’ capabilities with respect to (i) knowledge, (ii) comprehension, (iii) application, and (iv) problem solving for the topics covered in the course. This helps students to better prepare for the final exam.

2. Mock exam: In the course, a mandatory mock exam is administered. The purpose of the test is to provide students with (i) information about the form and function of the final examination and (ii) an overview of which topics they master and which not. This helps students to better prepare for the final exam.

Students will not have extra opportunities to get the required number of compulsory activities approved prior to the ordinary exam. If a student has not received approval of the required number of compulsory activities or has been ill, the student cannot participate in the ordinary exam.
If a student prior to the retake is still missing approval for the required number of compulsory activities and meets the pre-conditions set out in the program regulations, an extra assignment is possible.
The extra assignment is a 10 page home assignment that will cover the required number of compulsory activities. If approved, the student will be able to attend retake.
Examination
Creating Innovation and Customer Value:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Group exam
Please note the rules in the Programme Regulations about identification of individual contributions.
Number of people in the group 2-3
Size of written product Max. 15 pages
Assignment type Case based assignment
Release of assignment The Assignment is released in Digital Exam (DE) at exam start
Duration 7 days to prepare
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Aim of the course 
The aim of the course is to gain an understanding of how marketing and sales functions can serve as essential drivers to company’s commercial success on product innovations.

 

More concretely, the course aims at (1) Acquiring insight into how companies can integrate marketing and sales strategies more strategically in the organization to improve the success of newly developed products throughout the innovation process, (2) identifying and analyzing the process of value co-creation during the different stages of the innovation process taking into account the role of the company, the role of the customer and the role of the frontline employee, (3) acquiring knowledge about how the organizational frontline (i.e., marketers, salespersons, and service employees) can use the customer dialogue effectively communicate and present the value of innovations to customers, and (4) identifying and analyzing how companies can use digital data and digital channels to (co-)create customer value during the different stages of the innovation process.

 

Description of the teaching methods
This course is delivered in a blended learning format. That is, we combine online material and lectures with in-class discussions and workshops. Blended learning (the mix of online and offline platforms) creates a powerful learning environment for students, which we intend to use to its fullest potential. The course consists of online lectures and materials, online activities (e.g. online discussion forum, and/or peer graded assignments), and on-campus group work and in-class discussion. The class is highly interactive both online and offline with a corresponding expectation that students engage in these interactions.
Feedback during the teaching period
In-class discussions about exam-related questions, peer review of test exam questions.
Student workload
Teaching 33 hours
Preparation 123 hours
Exam 50 hours
Expected literature

Exam-Relevant) Reading List

(Note: the list still can change. An updated course reading list will be provided briefly before the start of the course)

 

Each content-session includes some articles that are exam-relevant and will be discussed in class. Therefore reading the article before each session to be prepared for in-class discussion is mandatory!

 

Session 45.1: Introduction

 

  • Hauser, Jon, Gerald Tellis, Abbie Griffin (2006). Research on Innovation: A Review and Agenda for Marketing Science. Marketing Science, Vol. 25, No. 6, November–December 2006, pp. 687–717
  • Van der Borgh, Michel, Ad de Jong, and Ed Nijssen (2017). “Alternative Mechanisms Guiding Salespersons’ Ambidextrous Product Selling” British Journal of Management. 28, 331–353
  • Percy, L. and R. Rosenbaum-Elliott (2012). Strategic Advertising Management. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press). [Chapter 6: Selecting the Target Audience ONLY]

 

Additional literature suggestions:

  • Kumar, V. and W. Reinartz (2016). Creating enduring customer value. Journal of Marketing, 80 (November), 36-68. 
  • Johnston, Mark W. and Greg W. Marshall (2013). Contemporary Selling: Building Relationships, Creating Value.4th ed., Routledge. New York 
  • Moncrief, William C, Greg W. Marshall (2005). The evolution of the seven steps of selling. Industrial Marketing Management, 34, 13 – 22.
  • Schmidt, G., & van der Rhee, B. (2014). How to Position Your Innovation in the Marketplace. MIT Sloan Management Review, 55(2), 15-20

 

Session 45.2: Marketing-Sales-R&D Integration

 

Additional literature suggestions:

  • Harz, Nathalie, Sebastian Hohenberg, and Christian Homburg (2022). Virtual Reality in New Product Development: Insights from Prelaunch Sales Forecasting for Durables, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 86(3) 157–179
  • Vadakkepatt, G, V. Shankar & R. Varadarajan (2021). Should firms invest more in marketing or R&D to maintain sales leadership? An empirical analysis of sales leader firms. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science
  • Kotler, P., N. Rackham, and S. Krishnaswamy (2006). Ending the War between Sales and Marketing Harvard Business Review, (July-August), 68-78.

 

 

MODULE 2: Value Creation 

 

Session 46.1: Value creation during the selling process

  • de Jong, A., Zacharias, N., & Nijssen, E. (2021). How Young Companies Can Effectively Manage Their Slack Resources Over Time to Ensure Sales Growth: The Contingent Role of Value-Based Selling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 92 (2) 304-326
  • Leslie, M., and Ch. A. Holloway (2006). The Sales Learning Curve. Harvard Business Review, (July-August), 115-123.De Jong, A., Zacharias, N., & Nijssen, E. (2021).

 

Additional literature suggestions:

  • Berg, W. van den, Verbeke, W., Bagozzi, R., Worm, L., Jong, A. de, Nijssen, E.J. (2014). Salespersons as internal knowledge brokers and new products selling: Discovering the link to genetic makeup. Journal of Product Innovation Management. 31 (4): 695–709
  • Hartmann, Nathaniel N., Heiko Wieland, & Stephen L. Vargo (2018) Converging on a New Theoretical Foundation for Selling. Journal of Marketing, 82 (March), 1–18

 

  • Peterson, Robert M., Avinash Malshe, Scott B. Friend, & Howard Dover (2020) Sales enablement: conceptualizing and developing a dynamic capability. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

 

  • Ruth Stock-Homburg, Ad de Jong, and Nicolas Zacharias (2017). Frontline Employees’ Innovative Service Behavior as Key to Customer Loyalty: Insights into FLEs’ Resource Gain Spiral? Journal of Product Innovation Management. 34 (2) 223-245.

 

  • Ad de Jong, Jeroen JL Schepers, Cristiana R Lages, Selma Kadić-Maglajlić (2021) The role of the service manager’s perceived career success in frontline employees’ learning processes and service improvement: Journal of Business Research
     
  • Bond III, E. U., de Jong, A., Eggert, A., Houston, M.B., Kleinaltenkamp, M., Kohli, A.K., Ritter, T, & Ulaga, W. (2020). The Future of B2B Customer Solutions in a Post-COVID-19 Economy: Managerial Issues and an Agenda for Academic Inquiry. Journal of Service Research, 23 (4) 401-408.

 

Session 46.2: Value creation by customers

 

  • Füller, J. (2010). Refining virtual co-creation from a consumer perspective. California Management Review. 52 (2), 97-122.

 

  • Grönroos, Christian & Päivi Voima (2013). Critical Service Logic: Making Sense of Value Creation and Co-Creation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. (41) 133–150.

 

Additional literature suggestions:

  • Bartl, M., J. Füller, H. Mühlbacher & H. Ernst (2012) A Manager’s perspective on virtual customer integration for new product development, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 29(6), 1031-1046.
  • Keeling, Debbie Isobel, Kathleen Keeling, Ko de Ruyter, Angus Laing (2020). How value co-creation and co-destruction unfolds: a longitudinal perspective on dialogic engagement in health services interactions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. (forthcoming)
  • Ranjan, Kumar Rakesh & Stuart Read (2016) Value Co-Creation: Concept and Measurement. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 44 : 290–315
  • Grönroos, Christian (2011)Value co-creation in service logic: A critical analysis, Marketing Theory, 11(3) 279–301
  • Füller, J. & Matzler, K. (2007). Virtual product experience and customer participation—A chance for customer-centred, really new products, Technovation, 27, 378-387.

 

Session 46.3: Online peer review

No readings required

 

MODULE 3: Role of Design

 

Session 47.1: Design-Based Science & Design Thinking

  • Van Aken, J. E., & Romme, G. (2009). Reinventing the future: adding design science to the repertoire of organization and management studies. Organization Management Journal6(1), 5-12.
  • Brown, T., & Martin, R. (2015). Design for action. Harvard Business Review, 93(9), 57-64.
  • Liedtka, J. (2015). Perspective: Linking design thinking with innovation outcomes through cognitive bias reduction. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(6), 925-938.

 

Session 47.2: Case North consulting

No readings required

 

MODULE 4: Data and Digitalization

 

Session 48.1: Innovating in Data-Rich Environments

  • Sorescu, Alina (2017), "Data-Driven Business Model Innovation," Journal of Product Innovation Management, 34(5), 691-696.
  • Troilo, Gabriele, Luigi M. De Luca, and Paolo Guenzi (2017), "Linking Data-Rich Environments with Service Innovation in Incumbent Firms: A Conceptual Framework and Research Propositions," Journal of Product Innovation Management, 34(5), 617-639.

 

Session 48.2: Social Media Analytics, Crowdsourcing and the Future of Data-Rich Innovation

  • Moe, Wendy W. and David A. Schweidel (2017), "Opportunities for Innovation in Social Media Analytics," Journal of Product Innovation Management, 34(5), 697-702.
  • Brown, Terrence E. (2017), "Sensor-Based Entrepreneurship: A Framework for Developing New Products and Services," Business Horizons, 60(6), 819-830.

 

Session 49.1: Digital technologies in the frontline

  • Singh, Jagdip, Karen Flaherty, Ravipreet S. Sohi, Dawn Deeter-Schmelz, Johannes Habel, Kenneth Le Meunier-FitzHugh, Avinash Malshe, Ryan Mullins & Vincent Onyemah (2019). Sales profession and professionals in the age of digitization and artificial intelligence technologies: concepts, priorities, and questions. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management Vol. 39, No. 1, 2–22,
  • Kevin J. Trainor (2012). Relating Social Media Technologies to Performance: A Capabilities-Based Perspective. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. XXXII, no. 3 (summer 2012), pp. 317–331.

 

Additional literature suggestions:

 

  • Andzulis James “Mick”, Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos, and Adam Rapp (2012). A Review of Social Media and Implications for the Sales Process. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management vol. XXXII, no. 3 (summer 2012), pp. 305–316
  • de Jong, A., de Ruyter, K, Keeling, D.I., Polyakova, A., Ringberg. T (2021). Key Trends in Business-to-Business Services Marketing Strategies: Developing a Practice-based Research Agenda. Industrial Marketing Management 93 1-9
  • Huang, Ming-Hui, and Roland Rust (2018). Artificial Intelligence in Service. Journal of Service Research, 21(2), 155-172.

 

Session 49.2: Exam preparation

Last updated on 27-06-2024