science

Virtual customer environment

Virtual customer environment is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Virtual customer environment rather than just read about it. In short: A Virtual Customer Environment (VCE) is a web forum to facilitate customer co-innovation or user innovation. Customers can partner with companies in different phases of product (or service) innovation - in product ideation, in product design & development, in product testing, and in product diffusion.

Key takeaways

Virtual customer environment belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Virtual customer environment to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Virtual customer environment from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A Virtual Customer Environment (VCE) is a web forum to facilitate customer co-innovation or user innovation. Customers can partner with companies in different phases of product (or service) innovation - in product ideation, in product design & development, in product testing, and in product diffusion. VCEs can be designed so as to facilitate these different customer co-innovation roles. Examples of customer co-innovation through VCEs include Microsoft and the MVP forum; Nokia and the Concept Lounge; Ducati and the Tech Cafe; etc. The term 'Virtual Customer Environment' was introduced by Satish Nambisan of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Research published in MIT Sloan Management Review in 2008 focused on customer experience in such virtual customer environments and how companies can establish their VCEs so as to provide positive customer experiences in value co-creation. Subsequent research extended the concept beyond new product development to include service and business-to-business contexts, and examined the effects of customer participation on innovation outcomes and firm performance.

See also Ideas bank Crowdsourcing Innovation management Wisdom of crowds

References

General Sawhney, M., G. Verona, & E. Prandelli. (2005) “Collaborating to create: The Internet as a platform for customer engagement in product innovation,” Journal of Interactive Marketing, 19 (4), 4–17.

External links Research Channel Video on VCE

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Virtual customer environment

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Virtual customer environment claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Virtual customer environment before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Virtual customer environment ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Virtual customer environment

In research: Virtual customer environment appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Virtual customer environment in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Virtual customer environment is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Customer communications management, Innovation, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Virtual customer environment outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Virtual customer environment in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Virtual customer environment means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Virtual customer environment out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Virtual customer environment in simple terms?

Why does Virtual customer environment matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Virtual customer environment?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Virtual customer environment.