CUSTOMER-INDUCED INTERACTIONS AND INNOVATION IN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: THE CASE OF SOFTWARE CUSTOMISATION

Typically, it is customers who demand that product software be adapted to organisational processes and aligned with their organisational IT landscape. From a knowledge perspective, such customisation services can be conceptualised as a reciprocal knowledge transfer between professional service firms (PSFs) and their customers. In addressing the scarcity in the innovation management literature regarding the benefits that arise from reciprocal knowledge transfers in customer-induced interactions, the present research investigates customer-induced interactions in relation to customisation services. The authors aim to improve the understanding of the complex relationships among PSFs' resource deployment, customer input, and performance. They extend and refine previous research by developing a conceptual model and testable propositions for academic and managerial consideration based on an extensive field study of PSFs and customers in the field of large enterprise product software.