Business Models Innovation through New Customer Roles: A Design-Driven Case Study

Business models as relational devices governing transactions with the customers and stakeholders identify new rules of customer engagement and their impact on business model innovations in design-intensive industries. These industries, framed as the locus of “cultural innovation”, see the customer as a product ‘sense giver’. In this setting, new customer roles are explored through a case study based on a fast-growing company operating in the furniture sector. The case study highlights three main customer roles that impact business models: (i) the customer as a market bridge; (ii) the customer context as a company “show- room,”; (iii) the customer as an external company design lab.