Customer knowledge: a resource for innovation? The PSA case study

As underlined by Porter and Stern (2001), the concept of competitiveness has changed: the 'reduce manufacturing costs and increase quality' approach has been replaced by 'create new processes and market new products in less time'. Similarly, D'Aveni (1994) shows that, in hypercompetitive environments, the traditional cycle of competition based on price and quality leads towards a critical value position; a competitive situation in which no party has a competitive edge. Innovation represents the only means to free oneself from these constraints and build a new competitive advantage. It is based on two principles: accelerate new product time-to-market (Time-based Competition) and exploit new competencies to benefit from the 'attacker's advantage' (Foster, 1986). The capacity to innovate clearly appears as a core competency to hold on to, enhance or create a competitive advantage. Although it is relatively easy to qualify this as a separate competency, it is more difficult to understand its genesis. Consequently, according to Lamarque, ' studying competencies is often like infinitely declining, in other words, it is always possible to find an additional level of explanation for the existence of the advantage [...]. Each element contributing to its explanation may have its 'genesis' at a much deeper level ' (Lamarque, 2001). An RBV (Resource Based View) conception of innovation invites us to better understand how such a competency is forged. Its deconstruction is of fundamental interest: it can help a business become more innovative by enabling it to build (or buy) the resources (and the competencies) which determine innovation capacity.