Developing successful technology‐based services: the issue of identifying and involving innovative users

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore the identification of innovative customers and the effectiveness of employing such customers to generate new service ideas in a technology‐based service setting. Design/methodology/approach – The first study reported here employs the “technology readiness” (TR) construct and involves telephone surveys with randomly selected Swedish consumers. The second involves a field experiment. Findings – Findings from Study I suggest that the TR is a useful tool for identifying users who exhibit both innovative attitudes and behaviors. The results from Study II show that users with a high TR are highly creative as reflected by the quantity and quality of new service ideas. Research limitations/implications – The sample size for Study II was relatively small and making empirical generalizations with confidence should await results from studies involving larger samples. However, in sum the research demonstrates that TR appears to be an effective tool for identifying innovative customers who would be both willing to participate in new service development and capable of generating creative ideas. Originality/value – Service businesses interested in using customers to help generate new ideas could benefit from this research.