Who is the Innovator? Strategic User Innovation in Swedish High-Tech Startups: A Multiple Case Study

Existing research acknowledges users as an important external source of innovation for firms, but mainly focuses on user innovation in mature firms. The aim of this paper is to understand why and how startups strategically integrate users in the innovation process. To achieve this purpose we chose an abductive, qualitative research approach and conducted a multiple case study on six Swedish high-tech startups. The analysis of the findings was further verified through interviews with three incubators who are experts for innovation processes in startups. Our empirical findings suggest that startups consider users a valuable source of feedback and claim to integrate them to assess business opportunities early to reduce the risk of inefficient investments. However, resource constraints hinder startups to utilize users throughout the innovation process. But the startups’ intentions are not aligned with their actions because they mainly integrate users during the late testing stage, where they let them interact with the product and prioritize adjustments to the product based on their feedback. The most important criterion to select users to collaborate with is mutual trust. This paper provides startup managers with a guideline to understand why user innovation is beneficial and how they can strategically integrate users in their innovation process. Barriers that hinder startups to integrate users are mainly a result of poor execution and can be overcome if sufficient resources are allocated. It is important for startups to acknowledge that user integration does not mean that users become the innovator, as the startups have to remain in control of the innovation process.