Foundations of a Customer- Oriented Strategy: Integration and Involvement

Revision with unchanged content. Information companies can be described as sociotechnological, targeted and open systems with at least one strategic business unit (SBU) that sells or rents (di­gital) information products. Societal, technological, and organizational chan­ges offer new opportunities for these information companies, but also lead to the question how companies can find an appropriate strategy to main­tain competitiveness in a changing environment. These companies need clear strategies for the business units that manage the production of goods and services along the supply chain on the one hand, and the evolution of goods and services throughout their lifecycles on the other hand. In this book, the implementation of a customer-oriented strategy based on com­ple­men­tary methods like customer integration and customer involvement is in the center of attention. Hybrid, combined strategies and product strategies like mass customization are also discussed in this context. In the end, by applying a modeling approach based on system theory and the theory of the punc­tuated equilibrium combined with a strategic management perspective, the author offers new insights into the nature of hybrid strategies. Hence, this book is worth reading for anyone who has to deal with ambiguous ob­jec­tives in everyday (business) life, not only in the information industry.