Research Funding from the Danish Industry Foundation

DKK 9 Mio in Research Funding

Dr. Carsten Lund Pedersen, Assistant Professor at the Department of Marketing, has received close to DKK 9 million in research funding from the Danish Industry Foundation. The funding goes to the research project ‘Data-driven Customer Insights’.

Carsten received the funding together with professors Thomas Ritter and Jan Damsgaard (both from Copenhagen Business School), Kim Bruno-Lindby and Tevin Lac (both from DI Handel), Peter Keller-Larsen (Erhvervshus Hovedstaden), and Anna Maria Sønderholm (Erhvervshus Midtjylland).

In order to make SMEs more data-driven and, consequently, enable future growth, we need to take a point of departure in the most readily available, widespread, and important data domain, that is, customer data. All organizations have data, which can be activated and leveraged such as general customer data (e.g., address, industry, size) and data about customer behavior (e.g., sales data, buyer motivation, collaborative form). The exploitation of customer data comprises the building block on which SMEs will bounce back after the COVID-19 pandemic, as customer insights will help SMEs address the right customers with the right propositions in the right channels in a new normal, where there is no room to make flawed decisions or wrong investments.

It is, therefore, fundamental for SMEs’ survival and data-driven growth that they understand customers, and collaborate and co-develop solutions with the customers in order to obtain growth.

There are four complementary processes, which create customer data and insight. The research project covers all four areas:

1. Structuring the experiential and tacit knowledge from customer-facing frontline employees in order to create a logical architecture for customer data;
2. Developing flexibility and autonomy in customer interactions so the individual employee can co-develop a suitable solution in collaboration with the customer;
3. Combining existing customer data to develop and offer data-driven solutions; and
4. Developing IoT concepts and models, which enrich customer data with data about the customers’ usage of products and services to obtain an even deeper understanding.

The purpose of the research project is:

1. To give Danish companies insights into and capabilities in the creation of growth through a data-driven customer understanding and the creation of data-driven customer segments.
2. To give Danish companies the preconditions for transitioning from a general customer understanding of data-driven growth opportunities to operational initiatives in the individual organization where companies will gain the necessary preconditions to scope projects that incorporate IoT solutions in products and/or services.
3. To develop practical tools for Danish SMEs and consultants so they can exploit the data-driven growth opportunities in the interaction and collaboration with customers.

Congratulations!