Exploring how consumer goods companies innovate in the digital age: The role of big data analytics companies

The advent and development of digital technologies have brought about a proliferation of online consumer reviews (OCRs), i.e., real-time customers’ evaluations of products, services, and brands. Increasingly, e-commerce platforms are using them to gain insights from customer feedback. Meanwhile, a new generation of big data analytics (BDA) companies are crowdsourcing large volumes of OCRs by means of controlled ad hoc online experiments and advanced machine learning (ML) techniques to forecast demand and determine the market potential for new products in several industries. We illustrate how this process is taking place for consumer goods companies by exploring the case of UK digital BDA company, SoundOut. Based on an in-depth qualitative analysis, we develop the consumer goods company innovation (CGCI) conceptual framework, which illustrates how digital BDA firms help consumer goods companies to test new products before they are launched on the market, and innovate. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.