The impact of the techniques of customer empowerment strategy on the perceived value of the new product

This study seeks to measure the impact of the techniques of customer empowerment strategy - which is related to providing the mechanisms that create the sense of ability to control and participate in the production and development of products and communication messages among corporate customers on the perceived value of new products in light of examining a set of intermediate variables which are represented in the degree of information sharing and the nature of investment relationships between the company and the customer. Also this study attempts to identify the impact of the perceived value of the new product and the degree of customer commitment with the brand on the value gained from employing the empowerment strategy, as well as finding the motives and obstacles that affect the customers' response to the empowerment strategy, and the study applied the survey approach through a questionnaire distributed on an intentional sample of 408 individual customers of a number of food product companies that employ the  techniques  of  empowerment strategy, as well as the qualitative approach through conducting in-depth interviews with corporate clients of the study sample, who were characterized by a high degree of interaction with empowerment strategy.
The results of the hypothesis tests showed that there is a correlation between the techniques of the customer empowerment strategy and the degree of information sharing during the development process. It was also evident that there is a correlation between the two previous variables and the perceived value of the new product. The in-depth interviews highlighted that the drivers and barriers that influence the customer's response to the empowerment strategy relate to two main aspects: the first is associated to the relationship of the customer with the brand, and the second is in the mechanisms that the company can employ in order for the customer to become involved in the process of participating in product development.