Lead users and emergent nature consumers are two highly attractive targets for marketing co-creation. Based on a representative sample of the French population (n = 995), we show that the competence and engagement in co-creation of these two target groups are significantly greater than for other consumers. This result is encouraging for market research companies that face a growing reluctance of customer participation in marketing studies. In addition, we have normed the distribution of lead user and emergent nature consumer scores among the population. This results in specific reference points for naming customer data while at the same time making it easier to filter respondents for future co-creation initiatives.

The large potential of lead users (LUs) in developing innovative and radically new product concepts is well established in the literature. However, in a widely acknowledged study, Hoffman et al. introduced the new concept of emergent‐nature consumers (ENCs) and showed the superiority of this group of individuals over LUs in developing new product concepts. Consequently, they postulated ENCs to be “the right consumers” to be integrated in new product development processes. In this article, we critically reflect and build on Hoffman et al.'s study and further investigate the promise of the ENC concept as compared to the LU concept. In a pilot study, we replicated the study by Hoffman and colleagues: We conducted a crowdsourcing competition and asked for concepts for new services; those concepts had been generated collectively by the participants and had been assessed by a consumer crowd. In the main study, the participants of a crowdsourcing competition submitted individually generated concepts for products, which were evaluated by industry experts. Across both studies, using different empirical methods in two different contexts, and in contrast to Hoffman et al.'s work, we find support for LUs outperforming ENCs (as well as average users) in generating the commercially most promising concepts. Thus, our insights reinforce the existing user innovation literature and the notion of LUs being the primary source of new product/service concepts.

The purpose of this article is to explain and illustrate the methodological approach used to test moderated mediation effects (conditional indirect effects) in marketing. A moderated mediation effect indicates the presence, in a single model, of one or more mediating variables and one or more moderating variables. Having first described the main methodological approaches used to test moderated mediation effects, with an emphasis on their respective advantages and disadvantages, we go on to recommend the method used by Hayes, which we illustrate through several marketing applications. This method makes it possible rigorously and simultaneously to test both mediating and moderating effects. Recommendations are also made to guide marketing researchers in the analysis of moderated mediation.

L'objectif de cet article est d'expliquer et d'illustrer la démarche méthodologique qu'il convient de suivre pour tester les effets dits de médiation modérée (effets indirects conditionnels) en marketing. Un effet de médiation modérée désigne la présence, dans un même modèle, d'une ou plusieurs variables médiatrices et d'une ou plusieurs variables modératrices. Après avoir décrit les principales approches méthodologiques permettant de tester les effets de médiation modérée en mettant l'accent sur leurs avantages et inconvénients respectifs, nous préconisons la méthode de Hayes (2013a, 2013b), que nous illustrons à travers plusieurs applications en marketing. Cette méthode permet de tester simultanément et de manière rigoureuse les effets médiateurs et les effets modérateurs. Des recommandations sont également formulées pour éclairer les chercheurs en marketing engagés dans des analyses de médiation modérée. Mots-clésBootstrap, effets indirects conditionnels, médiation modérée, méthodologie, modération médiatisée. *Tous les auteurs ont contribué de façon égale à ce travail et sont mentionnés dans l'ordre alphabétique.

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