Use of Social Media Applications for Supporting New Product Development Processes in Multinational Corporations

This paper examines the use of social media in new product development (NPD) processes. It is based on an in-depth study of multinational corporations (MNCs) around the world in the fast moving consuming goods (FMCG) sector. In order to obtain an in-depth understanding on the subject, a qualitative approach has been adopted to collect and analyse the data. The results suggest that social media can be viewed as an informal source for gaining an understanding of customers' preferences, competitors' activities, market trends and product feedback. Drawing from the literature and our empirical analysis, we ascertain that the use of social media platforms as a source for providing information for new product projects does not constitute a formal part of MNCs' new product development processes. MNCs rely on their own trusted and dedicated research and development (R & D) institutes instead to support new product projects. The study concludes with practical guidelines for NPD managers. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Inc.