A Service Marketing Approach to High Technology Innovations Management: Insights from IT and Biotech

Abstract

This chapter reviews the different approaches of innovations management, often treated as synonymous to R&D, which is seen as a component of the product development and manufacturing processes. It is argued that customer needs and expectations are not considered sufficiently through these approaches, which ultimately leads to business failure. Understanding customer needs and expectations is a fundamental source to business success and also a basic element of service marketing. Therefore this chapter explores the possibility of applying a service marketing approach—more specifically, relationship marketing as presented by the Nordic school of thought—to the management of high technology innovations management. The arguments are illustrated with insights from high technology sectors: information technology (IT) and biotech.