Virtual Customer Integration in the Innovation Process: Evaluation of the Web Platforms of Multinational Enterprises (MNE) Ren Rohrbeck1, Fee Steinhoff1, Felix Perder2 1Technische Universitt Berlin, An-Institut Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, Berlin, Germany 2Technische Universitt Berlin, Innovation and Technology Management, Berlin, Germany Abstract-Integrating the customer in the innovation process is believed to be a powerful means to reduce failure rates and to increase the revenue from new products. Although many companies have launched programs to enable such integration, the understanding of the mechanisms behind successful programs remains limited. Furthermore, the benefit of integrating customers in the innovation process has to be weighed against the costs. Virtual customer integration has been discussed as a way to limit these costs and bring the benefits of potentially unlimited scalability. Using a sample of the Euro Stoxx 50 companies, we shed light on the various types of virtual customer integration platforms, their limitations, their benefits and the mechanisms that have to be put in place to make them succeed. Results indicate that only a limited number of platforms go beyond the sourcing of ideas. Especially the integration of the customer in the execution phase of the innovation process remains largely limited to digital goods. I. INTRODUCTION The integration of customers into the innovation process is an important way to reduce uncertainty 14. The position of the customer has successively changed over the last 30 years from a passive recipient to an active co-designer in the creation of value. Successful innovators use competence within an extended network which particularly includes the competence of customers 49, 21. In this context, the ability to integrate customers is decisive. Iansiti and Clark 31 understand this to mean the ability to allow information about customers and their needs to flow into the process of innovation on the basis of mutual learning processes. This ability can be seen as a part of the broader network competence which makes it possible for companies to establish and successfully use relationships with external partners (including customers) within their innovation processes 52. In this study we explore how large companies use the internet for virtual customer integration. Using the Euro Stoxx 50 companies we analyse where in the innovation process the virtual customer integration is used, if it is used primarily for exploration or exploitation purposes and what the major motivation sources exist for customers to participate in the scheme. II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND A. Cooperation in the innovation process The so-called MAP-CAP paradigm deals, from a theoretical point of view, with the interaction between manufacturers and customers in the context of innovation processes. Until the end of the 1970s the literature was dominated by the Manufacturer Active Paradigm (MAP) point of view. According to this, it is the manufacturers task to identify target groups, discover customer needs and, building on this, develop and implement promising, innovative ideas. The customers role within this paradigm is purely passive, in the sense of “speaking only when spoken to“ 66: p. 243. Von Hippel developed a different view 65, 66 with the Customer Active Paradigm (CAP). According to this approach, the essential activities at the start of the innovation process are borne by the customers. The customer generates an idea for a new product, formulates a concept and implements the innovative idea as a prototype. The customer then transfers their development and knowledge to a manufacturer, who checks the market potential, develops a marketable innovation, produces and commercializes it. The cooperative model by Gemnden 19, 20 represents another model for interaction in the context of innovation. The core message is that a match should be achieved between the level of requirements aimed for with the solution and the degree of interaction between the manufacturer and customer, whereby for a large innovative step, particularly intensive interaction is to be recommended. While the idea of working separately is postulated in the CAP, Gemnden 20 prefers the idea of the manufacturer and the customer working together cooperatively. According to this, a balance between technology and benefits does not come from activities carried out separately, but rather from a learning process on both sides. This learning process is not just possible in the development phase but it is also possible, and makes sense, in the earlier and later phases of the innovation process 29: p. 45. There are conceptual similarities to the “lead user“ approach from von Hippel 67. Lead users are particularly advanced customers who will especially benefit from the solution to a particular customer problem that is relevant for the future. They differ from average customers both in their ability