Both practitioners and researchers criticize customers for providing only limited insights as to which of ferings they want to have in the future (e.g., Christensen and Bower 1996; Hamel and Prahalad 1994). Practitioners have especially criticized modes of customer involvement that ask customers to express their needs explicitly, as, for instance, in interviews with customers (Thomke and von Hippel 2002). Critics of explicit expression of needs claim that customers lack foresight, are unable to express their real needs, lack a common understanding enabling proper communication with the developing company, or are unwilling to express their needs to prevent costly changes (Hamel and Prahalad 1994). These shortcomings become even more important in the case of services, for which customers can hardly forecast their behavior, since every service situation is to some extent unique (Leonard-Barton 1995).
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