نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 دانشیار مدیریت بازرگانی دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشگاه علامه طباطبائی، تهران، ایران
2 دانشجوی دکتری مدیریت بازرگانی دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشگاه علامه طباطبائی، ایران
3 گروه مدیریت بازرگانی دانشکده مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشگاه علامه طباطبائی، ایران
چکیده
کلیدواژه‌ها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
In contemporary industrial environments, New Product Development (NPD) in organizations with complex products and systems is characterized by high levels of technological uncertainty, systemic interdependencies, and stakeholder diversity. Under such conditions, customer value co-creation has emerged as a novel approach for managing complexity and enhancing the effectiveness of product development. The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive conceptual model for customer value co-creation in the NPD process of organizations with complex products and systems. Adopting a qualitative approach, this research employed a meta-synthesis method based on Cochrane's 7-step framework. Following a systematic search and screening process, 39 high-quality national and international scholarly articles were selected and analyzed by using thematic analysis. The findings indicated that value co-creation was a multidimensional, systemic, and dynamic phenomenon that unfolded across 6 interrelated levels: (1) the context of system complexity and architecture, (2) theoretical logics of value creation, (3) process mechanisms of co-creation in product development, (4) actors and interaction mechanisms, (5) enabling organizational structures and capabilities, and (6) managerial and performance outcomes. The integration of these levels resulted in a conceptual model demonstrating that value co-creation in complex organizations was not a discrete activity but rather a networked and cyclical process realized through resource integration, mutual learning, and systemic coordination. Beyond advancing the theoretical literature on value co-creation and NPD, the proposed model offers a practical framework for managers of complex organizations, enabling them to design and manage customer participation in a purposeful, stage-based manner aligned with the level of system complexity.
Introduction
In contemporary industrial environments, organizations dealing with complex products and systems (CoPS) face high levels of technological uncertainty, systemic interdependencies, and diverse stakeholder involvement. Under such conditions, traditional firm-centric approaches to New Product Development (NPD) are increasingly insufficient. Value creation has shifted toward interactive, network-based, and collaborative processes, in which customers play an active and strategic role. Although customer value co-creation has received growing attention in marketing, innovation, and service research, most existing studies focus on service industries, digital platforms, or mass-market products and often adopt linear and fragmented perspectives. In CoPS contexts, such as aerospace, energy, telecommunications, and advanced industrial systems, product development is long-term, highly customized, and deeply embedded in multi-actor ecosystems. Here, customer participation goes beyond information provision and becomes integral to system architecture decisions, knowledge integration, and risk management. The complexity of these systems requires continuous interaction between organizations and customers as customer requirements, operational experiences, and contextual knowledge may significantly influence both the technical specifications and eventual performance of the developed system. Despite its importance, the literature lacks a comprehensive and integrative framework that explains how customer value co-creation unfolds across different levels of complexity within the NPD process of CoPS organizations. Accordingly, the main research question of this study was: What dimensions and components constitute a comprehensive model of customer value co-creation in the NPD process of organizations with complex products and systems? This study aimed to address this theoretical and practical gap by developing a holistic conceptual model grounded in prior empirical and theoretical research.
Materials & Methods
This study adopted a qualitative and developmental research design by using a meta-synthesis approach based on Cochrane's 7-step framework. A systematic search was conducted across major international and national academic databases covering the period from 2000 to 2025. Keywords related to customer value co-creation, NPD, and complex products and systems were combined by using logical operators. After removing duplicates and applying predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, such as relevance to CoPS contexts, publication quality, and analytical contribution, 39 high-quality scholarly articles were selected for final analysis. The methodological quality of the selected studies was assessed by using critical appraisal criteria. Data were extracted through repeated reading and coded using thematic analysis. Initial codes were grouped into sub-themes and higher-order themes through constant comparison and iterative refinement. This process enabled the identification of core dimensions, mechanisms, and relationships underlying customer value co-creation in complex NPD environments. The final output of the meta-synthesis was an integrated conceptual model that captured the systemic and dynamic nature of value co-creation in CoPS organizations.
Research Findings
The findings revealed that customer value co-creation in the NPD process of CoPS organizations was a multidimensional, systemic, and dynamic phenomenon. 6 interrelated levels were identified. The first level concerned the context of system complexity and architecture, including technological complexity, modularity, and diverse usage environments. These contextual characteristics established the conditions under which customer involvement became necessary and determined the extent and form of interaction required during product development. The second level reflected the theoretical logics of value creation, emphasizing service-dominant logic, value-in-use, and systemic value. These perspectives shifted the understanding of value from an output created exclusively by the organization toward value that emerged through interaction, resource integration, and actual use and application of the developed solution. The third level comprised process mechanisms of value co-creation within NPD, such as co-experiencing, co-defining, co-developing, and co-evolving solutions across different development stages. The fourth level focused on actors, roles, and interaction mechanisms, highlighting diverse forms of customer participation, lead users, and collaborative decision-making and problem-solving processes. The fifth level included enabling organizational structures and capabilities, such as dynamic capabilities, knowledge integration, project-based structures, and collaborative infrastructures. Finally, the sixth level captured managerial and performance outcomes, including innovation performance, development speed, market success, and risk dynamics. Together, these levels formed a networked and cyclical model of value co-creation rather than a linear or isolated activity.
Discussion of Results & Conclusion
This study contributed to the literature by offering a comprehensive and integrative conceptual model of customer value co-creation in the NPD process of organizations with complex products and systems. The findings demonstrated that value co-creation in CoPS contexts was not a discrete managerial tool but a continuous, multi-level process driven by resource integration, mutual learning, and systemic coordination among actors. This finding extended existing perspectives by positioning customer value co-creation as an organizational and inter-organizational capability embedded throughout the NPD process rather than as a limited technique for collecting customer feedback. From a practical perspective, the proposed model provides managers of complex organizations with a structured framework to design and manage customer participation in a purposeful, stage-based manner aligned with system complexity. Managers can use the identified levels to determine when, why, and how customers should participate, while simultaneously developing the organizational capabilities required to translate customer contributions into actionable knowledge and innovative solutions. By clarifying how and under what conditions value co-creation enhances innovation and development performance, this study supports more effective governance of customer involvement in complex NPD projects. In particular, the findings emphasized the importance of establishing appropriate collaboration structures, facilitating knowledge integration, encouraging mutual learning, and aligning customer participation mechanisms with the technical and organizational characteristics of each development project. Overall, the proposed model suggested that organizations with complex products and systems can achieve greater innovation effectiveness when customers are regarded as active partners in value creation rather than passive recipients of organizational outputs. The systematic integration of customer knowledge and resources can contribute to improved understanding of requirements, more effective solution development, enhanced market alignment, and more informed management of development risks. In conclusion, customer value co-creation constitutes an important mechanism for managing the complexity of contemporary NPD in CoPS organizations. The 6-level conceptual model developed in this study provides a holistic framework for understanding the contextual, theoretical, process, relational, organizational, and outcome dimensions of co-creation. By adopting a systemic and continuous perspective on customer participation, organizations can strengthen their capacity to integrate distributed knowledge, respond to complex requirements, and enhance innovation and development performance. Future empirical research may further examine the proposed relationships in specific CoPS industries and evaluate the applicability of the model across different technological and organizational contexts.
کلیدواژه‌ها [English]
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