The Usage of Social Media in New Product Development Process : The benefits and the challenges

Liu, Rebecca Ru-Yuh and Kop, Aysegul Eda (2015) The Usage of Social Media in New Product Development Process : The benefits and the challenges. In: Handbook of Research on Integrating Social Media into Strategic Marketing :. IGI Global, Hershey, PA, pp. 120-139. ISBN 9781466683532

Abstract

This chapter contributes to a better understanding of the role of social media in the NPD process and a debate about the impact of social media on NPD success. Through a critical literature review, this chapter provides an insight into the impact of social media on incremental NPD and its contribution to NPD success, in the context of customer involvement. The review is mainly derived from 286 relevant papers published in top-ranked journals between 2005 and 2014. The results suggest that while social media provides an effective and efficient method for collecting information and knowledge about customers' expectations and experiences, it does not necessarily always lead to NPD success. The study shows that hidden customer needs, an advanced evaluation tool, the huge amount of information and a firm's absorptive capacity challenge the use of social media.