Developing firm capabilities to utilise social media for the fuzzy front end of innovation

ABSTRACT

Despite the growing importance of using social media to leverage external knowledge for new product development (NPD) in innovation, few studies have examined firm capabilities that underpin this knowledge acquisition route. This paper provides an empirical examination of firm capabilities that leverage external knowledge, utilising social media for the fuzzy-front-end (FFE) phase of the NPD process. With evidence from 27 interviews conducted with executives’ from large fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms, a thematic analysis using NVivo 12 is used to develop a conceptual framework capturing the key capabilities for using social media in the FFE. The findings reveal that the utilisation of social media is an ongoing process of experimenting with new technologies within the NPD phase of a firm’s innovation efforts. Hence, the results of the study suggest FMCG firms may consider developing the following capabilities to help effectively acquire external knowledge via social media: use staff specialised in social media for external knowledge identification; dedicate an independent department for social media knowledge acquisition; and encourage an open innovation culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Social media
• external knowledge
• fuzzy front end
• capabilities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.innocentive.com/ (accessed 20 February 2021).

2 https://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/nikeid (accessed 20 February 2021).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Naheed Bashir

Dr. Naheed Bashir is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Business and Management at Information Technology University (ITU). Naheed has a PhD in Innovation Management from Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, UK. Her academic research includes work in the areas of new product development, social media and online networks for ideation, technology management, digital transformation for innovation of firms in MNCs, transferring knowledge for innovation and firm capabilities. Naheed has published her research findings in peer reviewed journals like Technological Forecasting and Social Change (TFSC). Besides, she also disseminates her research output at conferences like ISPIM and R&D Management.

Khaleel Malik

Dr. Khaleel Malik is a Senior Lecturer in Innovation Management at the Alliance Manchester Business School and a member of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research in The University of Manchester. His academic research experience includes work in the areas of strategic management of innovation in firms, international technology transfer, digitalisation of R&D in MNCs and innovation policy. He has six years industrial experience of working in engineering design, new product development and industrial marketing roles. Khaleel has published his research outputs in a variety of peer reviewed journals including Research Policy, Long Range Planning, Research Technology Management, TASM, TFSC, IJITM, R&D Management and Science & Public Policy.