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thereby accelerate the product development and enhance its potential market
effectiveness.
6.2.4 Product Support Specialist
Perhaps the most common role for customers is supporting other customers as prod-
uct support specialists. Customers are also uniquely qualified to provide product
support to other users. Customers often acquire significant knowledge or expertise
on various aspects of product usage, which then becomes the basis for providing
product support to peer users. The homophily (i.e., the degree to which pairs of indi-
viduals are alike in terms of certain attributes) between peer customers contribute
to their effectiveness in understanding and appreciating the concerns of product
users and their particular usage problems, a critical success factor in product sup-
port (Brown & Reingen, 1987; Kay, 1999). Additionally, over a period of time,
expert users may discover new ways of product usage as well as shortcuts and other
methods to enhance the overall value of the product.
Technology companies such as HP, Novell, Cisco, and Microsoft have been at
the forefront of this area. Further, industry organizations, such as the California-
based Consortium for Service Innovation, have been pursuing projects focused on
enhancing customer's role in product support through the innovative application of
knowledge-based tools and technologies in VCEs.
6.2.5 Product Marketer
Finally, customers can also play a critical role in product marketing. Some com-
panies have leveraged the expertise of customers in product marketing activities
carried out in VCEs. Customers can diffuse information about new products to peer
customers and shape their perceptions about the new product or service through dia-
logue and discussions. Further, VCEs provide an effective venue for customers to
learn about new products.
Both Samsung and Suzuki, for example, have experimented with virtual product
launch centers employing interactive product simulation technologies that incor-
porate customers as active participants in product marketing. Customers' role in
product/service marketing is likely to evolve over the years as newer technologies
facilitate diverse types of interactions, thereby enhancing the diffusion rate.
Each of the above customer co-innovation and value co-creation roles has a lot to
offer to companies. Depending on the market and organizational context, some roles
are likely to have more relevance to certain companies than others. For example,
while Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program concentrates primar-
ily on product support activities, Ducati's Tech Café focuses mainly on developing
product concepts.
Two broad research issues related to customer roles are worth mentioning.
First, what are the specific customer capabilities and expertise that facilitate each
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