Business model innovation through new customer roles. Inspirational cues and insights from a design-driven case study analysis

Framing business models as relational devices governing transactions with the customers and stakeholders, the current article aims to 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” – where the innovation soul is characterized by the proposition of new product cultural messages and meaning – sees the customer as a product “sense giver,” an interpreter of the meaning, the cultural and symbolic messages attached to the product. In this setting, new customer roles are explored through a case study analysis based on a fast-growing company operating in the furniture sector. The case study analysis highlights three main customer roles that impact business models: (i) the customer as a market bridge, where the customer attracts new potential contacts and customers; (ii) the customer context as a company “show-room,” where the customer’s home setting is designed to convey the company’s product language and aesthetics; (iii) the customer as an external company design lab, where the customer host events to seek for new product scenarios.