Creation of Customer Knowledge in a B2B Centred Innovation Ecosystem: A Single-Case Research

Abstract

This study examines how B2B customer knowledge is created and managed within an innovation ecosystem, addressing a gap in prior research that has largely overlooked ecosystem-based perspectives on B2B customer knowledge creation. Drawing on knowledge management literature, particularly the knowledge-creating theory of the firm, and B2B marketing research, the study explores customer knowledge creation as an inter-organizational phenomenon. The research adopts a qualitative single-case study design focusing on a Finnish innovation ecosystem in its early development stage. Empirical data consist of semi-structured interviews supplemented with meetings, presentations, and field notes collected between 2025 and 2026. The focal company is a micro-enterprise developing a new B2B product concept. The findings indicate that B2B customer knowledge creation varies across different phases of new product development and occurs through two main processes. The first, externalization-based customer knowledge creation, involves transforming tacit knowledge held by B2B customers and end users into explicit knowledge through pilot projects, experimentation, and digital communication tools. The second, internalization-based customer knowledge creation, takes place primarily in the early stages of product development and relies on the firm’s own expertise, prior experience, and market-related knowledge rather than direct customer involvement. The study highlights the importance of distinguishing between B2B customers and end users, while emphasizing that both play crucial roles in knowledge creation within innovation ecosystems. It also suggests that effective customer knowledge creation can occur without long-term relationships, enabled instead by shared goals, cognitive proximity, and digital interaction.