The core idea of stakeholder analysis aims on identification of active participants and passive attendants. It became a powerful means to explore social networks. The adaptation of this method in order to support the NPD process by customer integration demands a central paradigm in order to proceed systematically. Being aware of how products are applied by customers is considered one of the key issues to make products fit customers’ needs. Thus the application process bridges the customer view and the NPD process. The authors present an application based approach to span a process network. Further analysis discloses decisive stakeholders to enrich the NPD process. A case study illustrates the method. Identification of decisive stakeholders in product application supports weighting of requirements in early stages of the NPD process. Characteristics of decisive stakeholders provide a means to further integration in the NPD process.
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