Embedded Lead Users inside the Firm

1. Front Matter

   Pages 1-1

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2. Focus and scope

   • Tim Schweisfurth

   Pages 1-10

3. Conceptual foundations of the embedded lead user phenomenon

   • Tim Schweisfurth

   Pages 11-34

4. When passion meets profession – How embedded lead users contribute to firm innovation

   • Tim Schweisfurth

   Pages 35-68

5. A framework for studying embedded lead users

   • Tim Schweisfurth

   Pages 69-73

6. Embedded lead users and market-directed dispositions

   • Tim Schweisfurth

   Pages 75-111

7. Embedded lead users – how are they different and why does it matter

   • Tim Schweisfurth

   Pages 113-153

8. Integration of Findings, Discussion and Conclusion

   • Tim Schweisfurth

   Pages 155-173

9. Back Matter

   Pages 9-9

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The central phenomenon of this book are embedded lead users (ELUs): employees of firms who experience emerging needs and profit from solutions to these needs (i.e. who exhibit lead user characteristics) in relation to one or more of their employing firm’s products or services. In three subsequent studies I explore, how embedded lead users contribute to corporate innovation. I show which factors foster the lead userness of employees and what characterizes embedded lead users’ behaviors. This holds various implications for firms, e.g. with respect to the integration of user knowledge for innovation.​

• Innovation Management

• Hamburg, Germany

  Tim Schweisfurth

Tim Schweisfurth completed his doctoral thesis at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). He is now working at the Institute for Technology and Innovation Management as a postdoctoral researcher.

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