Driving Innovation Through Customer-Centered Collaboration
Innovation only succeeds when customers adopt it, says Dr. André Wagner, a 2021 DBA graduate. His findings were revelatory and detailed a powerful, practical strategy to improve customer adoption of new products and services called “customer-oriented boundary spanning.” His research, conducted with Drexel faculty Daan van Knippenberg and Lauren D’Innocenzo, was selected as the cover story by the Journal of Organizational Behavior, a highly respected industry publication.
In a field study conducted within a global IT company, Dr. Wagner et. al discovered that teams assigning a member to actively represent the customer throughout the development process saw significantly higher adoption rates. This role ensured customer needs shaped team discussions, priorities and decisions — improving the team’s alignment and impact.
The study offers numerous takeaways for executives:
- Innovation ROI improves when teams integrate customer feedback continuously — not just at the end.
- Cross-functional teams perform better when a designated “customer voice” breaks down silos and grounds creativity in feasibility and value.
- Intentional collaboration design, like appointing a boundary spanner, unlocks the full potential of diverse expertise.
For organizations seeking better outcomes from innovation efforts, Dr. Wagner’s findings have clear implications: structure teams to stay connected to the customer from the start.
Dr. Wagner’s entire article Customer-oriented Boundary Spanning, Functional Diversity, and Customer Adoption is available online and an illuminating summary is available in an article he authored for Medium.
