Search

Software startup is a unique type of company with unique characteristics. On the one hand, they must offer innovative products appealing to customers to generate revenue and survive, but on the other hand, they are limited in resources, time, and experience. During the new product development, it is important to experiment with their original ideas. However, doing a meaningful experiment requires resources and challenges. A study on failed software startups shows that, despite its importance, many software startups skipped or did not experiment with their ideas. The study identifies 25 inhibitors spread in five experimentation stages. In the last few years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have become a popular technology. The advancement of LLM has made it adopted into many parts of the software development cycle. Studies show that LLM also has been used to generate new innovative product ideas and to manage innovation. However, there is no investigation into the possibility of utilizing the power of LLM to help software startups do experimentation. Interactions to an LLM are done through prompts. During the interaction or session, a user will send one or more prompts in a zero-, one-, or few-shots to an LLM agent. Unfortunately, learning and using prompts effectively requires time and resources, things that software startups are scarce with. In this project, we aim to help improve the experimentation process and address the inhibitors by leveraging the power of LLMs. There are five initial research questions and studies planned in the project. In the first step, we will investigate current experimentation practices, challenges, inhibitors, and the strategies used to circumvent them. Secondly, we will investigate how AI has been used in today's experimentation. Then, we will investigate the set of measurements available to measure the success of an experiment. The next step is to investigate how to support experimentation using LLMs followed by a validation sequence. T

Entre 2013 et 2019, l’auteur s’est lancé dans une initiative ambitieuse, créant et publiant chaque semaine un nouveau concept de produit. L’objectif principal était d’obtenir une rétroaction participative du public. Malgré un fort engouement médiatique, cette approche n’a pas réussi à identifier de manière adéquate les fonctionnalités les plus et les moins appréciées de chaque concept. Pour résoudre cette problématique, l’auteur a élaboré et testé une nouvelle méthode novatrice combinant l’animation 3D avec l’utilisation de logiciels de rétroaction neurale. Cette recherche a abouti à la création d’une maquette et d’une vidéo animée présentant un nouveau concept : le bac de collecte des matières résiduelles autonome Nestor. Quatre-vingt-quatre entrevues semi-dirigées ont suivi avec des clients potentiels. Lors de chaque présentation, les participants ont porté des casques électroencéphalographiques (EEG) pour enregistrer leurs activités neuro-électriques. Trois programmes d’interprétation des données neurales ont été utilisés pour générer des données de rétroaction, couvrant le niveau d’intérêt et d’excitation, l’intensité des expressions faciales et la détection d’émotions en temps réel. À la fin de chaque présentation, un questionnaire écrit a été administré aux participants pour comparer les perceptions entre les différents modes de présentation et les types de rétroaction, qu'elles soient écrites ou neurales. Les résultats ont montré des tendances intéressantes. La rétroaction neurale, combinée au questionnaire, a permis de mieux comprendre les fonctions du concept les plus et les moins appréciées, ainsi que les émotions ressenties par les participants. Cette approche a révélé des nuances entre les groupes Maquette et Animation, soulignant la valeur ajoutée des programmes de rétroaction neurale dans le processus de développement de nouveaux produits (DNP). En résumé, cette thèse exploratoire représente une avancée significative dans le domaine du développement de, Between 2013 and 2019, the author embarked on an ambitious initiative, creating and publishing a new product concept every week. The primary objective was to obtain participative feedback from the public. Despite considerable media enthusiasm, this approach failed to adequately identify the most and least appreciated features of each concept. To address this issue, the author developed and tested an innovative method that combines 3D animation with the use of three neural feedback software. This research led to the creation of a mock-up and an animated video featuring a new concept: the autonomous waste collection bin Nestor. Eighty-four semi-structured interviews followed with potential clients. During each presentation, participants wore electroencephalographic (EEG) headsets to record their neuro-electric activities. Three neural data interpretation programs were used to generate feedback data, covering levels of interest and excitement, facial expression intensity, and real-time emotion detection. At the end of each presentation, a written questionnaire was administered to participants to compare perceptions between different presentation modes and types of feedback, whether written or neural. The results showed interesting trends. Neural feedback, combined with the questionnaire, provided insights into the most and least appreciated functions of the concept, as well as the emotions experienced by participants. This approach revealed nuances between the Mock-up and Animation groups, highlighting the added value of neural feedback programs in the NPD process. In summary, this exploratory thesis represents a significant advancement in the field of product development by introducing innovative tools to understand and improve consumer reactions to new concepts. It opens promising perspectives by suggesting the use of neural feedback and the potential integration of artificial intelligence in the design of new products, making them more tailored to the need

I dagens digitala värld har artificiell intelligens (AI) ett omvälvande inflytande som påverkar människors liv och arbete. Företagens användande av AI hittar ständigt nya områden där det förändrar och skapar möjligheter som tidigare varit otänkbara. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur AI kan användas inom nyproduktutveckling (NPD) för små och medelstora företag (SME) för att förbättra effektiviteten i NPD-processen genom att studera möjligheter och hinder för utökad användning samt hur SME kan gå till väga för att applicera AI i NPD-processen. Syftet är baserat på ett fallföretags behov av större kunskap på området inför utökad användning av AI i verksamheten och NPD-processen i synnerhet. En fallstudie har genomförts hos ett projektorganiserat fallföretag specialiserat på NPD och tillhörande kategorin SME med kunder främst inom industrisektorn. Studiens syfte är baserat på fallföretagets behov av större kunskap på området inför utökad användning av AI i verksamheten och NPD-processen i synnerhet. En kvalitativ insamling av empiriskt material har gjorts genom litteraturstudie och genomförande av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultaten har analyserats och diskuterats och lett fram till studiens slutsatser med rekommendationer, så att studiens frågeställningar har besvarats. Fallföretaget använder generativ AI som sökverktyg i dagsläget och vill utöka användningen av AI till NPD-processen, men ser säkerhetsaspekten och avsaknad av AI-anpassad dataskyddsförordning (GDPR) som stora hinder. Studien undersöker valda metoder och verktyg med AI som skulle kunna användas inom NPD för att automatisera och effektivisera processen från idé till färdig produkt. Studiens resultat visar potential till förbättring och effektivisering av NPD-processen med hjälp av AI, men också att oklarheter finns som kan bero på att AI ännu är nytt inom NPD för SME., In today's digital world, artificial intelligence (AI) has a transformative impact on people's lives and work. Companies' use of AI continuously finds new areas where it transforms and creates opportunities previously unimaginable. This study explores how AI can be used in New Product Development (NPD) for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) to improve efficiency by examining opportunities and obstacles for expanded use, and how SME can apply AI in the NPD process. This aim is based on a case company's need for greater knowledge before expanding the use of AI in its operations, particularly in NPD. A case study was conducted at a project-based company specialized in NPD, categorized as an SME with customers primarily in the industrial sector. The study’s aim is based on the case company's need for greater knowledge before expanding the use of AI in its operations, particularly in NPD. A qualitative collection of empirical material was conducted through a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The results were analysed and discussed, leading to conclusions with recommendations, ensuring that the research questions were answered. The case company currently uses generative AI as a search tool and wishes to extend AI use to the NPD process but identifies security concerns and the lack of an AI-adapted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) solution as significant barriers. The study examines selected methods and AI tools that could be used in NPD to automate and streamline the process from idea to finished product. The results indicate potential improvements and efficiencies in the NPD process with AI, but also highlight uncertainties since AI is still new within NPD for SME.

During the last few decades, supply chain (SC) strategy has become an important focus for manufacturering companies (hereafter referred to as "manufacturers"). This has resulted in the implementation of a wide variety of SC strategies, including, for example, lean, agile, and leagile - the latter being a combination of the first two. All these and other SC strategies aim at achieving a certain level of responsiveness to customer needs. Since the level of responsiveness should match the characteristics of a product, this chapter discusses how manufacturers can engage in SC strategizing in the context of new product development (NPD).Through the theoretical lens of "strategy-as-practice" (SAP), SC strategizing in NPD is conceptualized as a dynamic interplay of "practitioners," "activities," and "practices." The chapter also explains that, while managing this interplay, manufacturers should be aware of challenges caused by uncertainty, politics, and learning. Finally, the chapter opens the door for future research that utilizes the SAP lens in order to empirically explore SC strategizing in NPD.

Purpose - This research contributes to the new product development conversation by investigating different firms’ new product development processes in volatile contexts, to better understand the way Cross-Functional Integration impacts internal efficiency. Method - We conducted a qualitative study and interviewed product managers and product owners responsible for the development of digital products. Findings - Our main contribution lies in examining different structures and their viability in volatile contexts. Our findings bring nuances to prior research that indicate appropriate ways of implementing cross-functional integration. We found that the team structure could be determined by the availability of resources and the size of the firm, and not solely depend on the nature of the context. Originality - The study provides a different view on internal efficiency where the managers emphasize product superiority and development time as priority and factors for increased new product development performance. Consequently, development cost is not as prioritized as indicated in previous research and seems to be left out as an objective, which we conclude may stem from the digital nature of the product.

I dagens digitala värld har artificiell intelligens (AI) ett omvälvande inflytande som påverkar människors liv och arbete. Företagens användande av AI hittar ständigt nya områden där det förändrar och skapar möjligheter som tidigare varit otänkbara. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur AI kan användas inom nyproduktutveckling (NPD) för små och medelstora företag (SME) för att förbättra effektiviteten i NPD-processen genom att studera möjligheter och hinder för utökad användning samt hur SME kan gå till väga för att applicera AI i NPD-processen. Syftet är baserat på ett fallföretags behov av större kunskap på området inför utökad användning av AI i verksamheten och NPD-processen i synnerhet. En fallstudie har genomförts hos ett projektorganiserat fallföretag specialiserat på NPD och tillhörande kategorin SME med kunder främst inom industrisektorn. Studiens syfte är baserat på fallföretagets behov av större kunskap på området inför utökad användning av AI i verksamheten och NPD-processen i synnerhet. En kvalitativ insamling av empiriskt material har gjorts genom litteraturstudie och genomförande av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultaten har analyserats och diskuterats och lett fram till studiens slutsatser med rekommendationer, så att studiens frågeställningar har besvarats. Fallföretaget använder generativ AI som sökverktyg i dagsläget och vill utöka användningen av AI till NPD-processen, men ser säkerhetsaspekten och avsaknad av AI-anpassad dataskyddsförordning (GDPR) som stora hinder. Studien undersöker valda metoder och verktyg med AI som skulle kunna användas inom NPD för att automatisera och effektivisera processen från idé till färdig produkt. Studiens resultat visar potential till förbättring och effektivisering av NPD-processen med hjälp av AI, men också att oklarheter finns som kan bero på att AI ännu är nytt inom NPD för SME., In today's digital world, artificial intelligence (AI) has a transformative impact on people's lives and work. Companies' use of AI continuously finds new areas where it transforms and creates opportunities previously unimaginable. This study explores how AI can be used in New Product Development (NPD) for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) to improve efficiency by examining opportunities and obstacles for expanded use, and how SME can apply AI in the NPD process. This aim is based on a case company's need for greater knowledge before expanding the use of AI in its operations, particularly in NPD. A case study was conducted at a project-based company specialized in NPD, categorized as an SME with customers primarily in the industrial sector. The study’s aim is based on the case company's need for greater knowledge before expanding the use of AI in its operations, particularly in NPD. A qualitative collection of empirical material was conducted through a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The results were analysed and discussed, leading to conclusions with recommendations, ensuring that the research questions were answered. The case company currently uses generative AI as a search tool and wishes to extend AI use to the NPD process but identifies security concerns and the lack of an AI-adapted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) solution as significant barriers. The study examines selected methods and AI tools that could be used in NPD to automate and streamline the process from idea to finished product. The results indicate potential improvements and efficiencies in the NPD process with AI, but also highlight uncertainties since AI is still new within NPD for SME.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how Swedish banks leverage service quality to handle the changed customer expectations shaped by COVID-19-related product development. Due to COVID-19, the digital shift along with product development accelerated resulting in changed customer expectations within the banking sector. The authors acknowledge the gap in the literature regarding what changed customer expectations that arose, which is essential to understand service quality. To reach a conclusion aligned with the purpose that answered the three formulated research questions, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees from the Swedish banking sector. The data was analyzed through a thematic approach allowing the authors to structure and analyze the findings. The findings revealed several changed customer expectations and that banks continuously handle these. It was concluded that service quality permeates the bank's operations, and the focus is directed toward the customer, fulfilling their needs and meeting expectations. Banks leverage service quality by integrating NPD, needs analysis for customer satisfaction, feedback, and exceeding expectations by providing extra services. Due to growing competition, leveraging service quality allows banks to reduce the risk of customers switching to competitors and differentiate.

Research on project management and new product development (NPD) identifies both strategy and tactics as important for success. Whilst there is a lot of attention on strategy, few studies address the role of tactics in NPD projects. In the pursuit for increasing organisational abilities to manage uncertainty, agile is increasingly getting traction in large firms. Both tactical activities and agile methodology deal with adapting to emergent challenges and handling uncertainty in projects. This motivated this study of how an agile transformation initiative influences tactical activities within NPD projects. The paper is based on a longitudinal case study of Volvo Car Group's autonomous car project. The case firm's transformation from waterfall to agile method provided the possibility to understand how tactical activities differ between the two methods. By using observations from the case, we argue that agile development method facilitates the use of tactics in NPD projects. © 2024 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Software startup is a unique type of company with unique characteristics. On the one hand, they must offer innovative products appealing to customers to generate revenue and survive, but on the other hand, they are limited in resources, time, and experience. During the new product development, it is important to experiment with their original ideas. However, doing a meaningful experiment requires resources and challenges. A study on failed software startups shows that, despite its importance, many software startups skipped or did not experiment with their ideas. The study identifies 25 inhibitors spread in five experimentation stages. In the last few years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have become a popular technology. The advancement of LLM has made it adopted into many parts of the software development cycle. Studies show that LLM also has been used to generate new innovative product ideas and to manage innovation. However, there is no investigation into the possibility of utilizing the power of LLM to help software startups do experimentation. Interactions to an LLM are done through prompts. During the interaction or session, a user will send one or more prompts in a zero-, one-, or few-shots to an LLM agent. Unfortunately, learning and using prompts effectively requires time and resources, things that software startups are scarce with. In this project, we aim to help improve the experimentation process and address the inhibitors by leveraging the power of LLMs. There are five initial research questions and studies planned in the project. In the first step, we will investigate current experimentation practices, challenges, inhibitors, and the strategies used to circumvent them. Secondly, we will investigate how AI has been used in today's experimentation. Then, we will investigate the set of measurements available to measure the success of an experiment. The next step is to investigate how to support experimentation using LLMs followed by a validation sequence. T

Software startup is a unique type of company with unique characteristics. On the one hand, they must offer innovative products appealing to customers to generate revenue and survive, but on the other hand, they are limited in resources, time, and experience. During the new product development, it is important to experiment with their original ideas. However, doing a meaningful experiment requires resources and challenges. A study on failed software startups shows that, despite its importance, many software startups skipped or did not experiment with their ideas. The study identifies 25 inhibitors spread in five experimentation stages. In the last few years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have become a popular technology. The advancement of LLM has made it adopted into many parts of the software development cycle. Studies show that LLM also has been used to generate new innovative product ideas and to manage innovation. However, there is no investigation into the possibility of utilizing the power of LLM to help software startups do experimentation. Interactions to an LLM are done through prompts. During the interaction or session, a user will send one or more prompts in a zero-, one-, or few-shots to an LLM agent. Unfortunately, learning and using prompts effectively requires time and resources, things that software startups are scarce with. In this project, we aim to help improve the experimentation process and address the inhibitors by leveraging the power of LLMs. There are five initial research questions and studies planned in the project. In the first step, we will investigate current experimentation practices, challenges, inhibitors, and the strategies used to circumvent them. Secondly, we will investigate how AI has been used in today's experimentation. Then, we will investigate the set of measurements available to measure the success of an experiment. The next step is to investigate how to support experimentation using LLMs followed by a validation sequence. T

Software startup is a unique type of company with unique characteristics. On the one hand, they must offer innovative products appealing to customers to generate revenue and survive, but on the other hand, they are limited in resources, time, and experience. During the new product development, it is important to experiment with their original ideas. However, doing a meaningful experiment requires resources and challenges. A study on failed software startups shows that, despite its importance, many software startups skipped or did not experiment with their ideas. The study identifies 25 inhibitors spread in five experimentation stages. In the last few years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have become a popular technology. The advancement of LLM has made it adopted into many parts of the software development cycle. Studies show that LLM also has been used to generate new innovative product ideas and to manage innovation. However, there is no investigation into the possibility of utilizing the power of LLM to help software startups do experimentation. Interactions to an LLM are done through prompts. During the interaction or session, a user will send one or more prompts in a zero-, one-, or few-shots to an LLM agent. Unfortunately, learning and using prompts effectively requires time and resources, things that software startups are scarce with. In this project, we aim to help improve the experimentation process and address the inhibitors by leveraging the power of LLMs. There are five initial research questions and studies planned in the project. In the first step, we will investigate current experimentation practices, challenges, inhibitors, and the strategies used to circumvent them. Secondly, we will investigate how AI has been used in today's experimentation. Then, we will investigate the set of measurements available to measure the success of an experiment. The next step is to investigate how to support experimentation using LLMs followed by a validation sequence. T

Software startup is a unique type of company with unique characteristics. On the one hand, they must offer innovative products appealing to customers to generate revenue and survive, but on the other hand, they are limited in resources, time, and experience. During the new product development, it is important to experiment with their original ideas. However, doing a meaningful experiment requires resources and challenges. A study on failed software startups shows that, despite its importance, many software startups skipped or did not experiment with their ideas. The study identifies 25 inhibitors spread in five experimentation stages. In the last few years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have become a popular technology. The advancement of LLM has made it adopted into many parts of the software development cycle. Studies show that LLM also has been used to generate new innovative product ideas and to manage innovation. However, there is no investigation into the possibility of utilizing the power of LLM to help software startups do experimentation. Interactions to an LLM are done through prompts. During the interaction or session, a user will send one or more prompts in a zero-, one-, or few-shots to an LLM agent. Unfortunately, learning and using prompts effectively requires time and resources, things that software startups are scarce with. In this project, we aim to help improve the experimentation process and address the inhibitors by leveraging the power of LLMs. There are five initial research questions and studies planned in the project. In the first step, we will investigate current experimentation practices, challenges, inhibitors, and the strategies used to circumvent them. Secondly, we will investigate how AI has been used in today's experimentation. Then, we will investigate the set of measurements available to measure the success of an experiment. The next step is to investigate how to support experimentation using LLMs followed by a validation sequence. T

Purpose - This research contributes to the new product development conversation by investigating different firms’ new product development processes in volatile contexts, to better understand the way Cross-Functional Integration impacts internal efficiency. Method - We conducted a qualitative study and interviewed product managers and product owners responsible for the development of digital products. Findings - Our main contribution lies in examining different structures and their viability in volatile contexts. Our findings bring nuances to prior research that indicate appropriate ways of implementing cross-functional integration. We found that the team structure could be determined by the availability of resources and the size of the firm, and not solely depend on the nature of the context. Originality - The study provides a different view on internal efficiency where the managers emphasize product superiority and development time as priority and factors for increased new product development performance. Consequently, development cost is not as prioritized as indicated in previous research and seems to be left out as an objective, which we conclude may stem from the digital nature of the product.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how Swedish banks leverage service quality to handle the changed customer expectations shaped by COVID-19-related product development. Due to COVID-19, the digital shift along with product development accelerated resulting in changed customer expectations within the banking sector. The authors acknowledge the gap in the literature regarding what changed customer expectations that arose, which is essential to understand service quality. To reach a conclusion aligned with the purpose that answered the three formulated research questions, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees from the Swedish banking sector. The data was analyzed through a thematic approach allowing the authors to structure and analyze the findings. The findings revealed several changed customer expectations and that banks continuously handle these. It was concluded that service quality permeates the bank's operations, and the focus is directed toward the customer, fulfilling their needs and meeting expectations. Banks leverage service quality by integrating NPD, needs analysis for customer satisfaction, feedback, and exceeding expectations by providing extra services. Due to growing competition, leveraging service quality allows banks to reduce the risk of customers switching to competitors and differentiate.

Software startup is a unique type of company with unique characteristics. On the one hand, they must offer innovative products appealing to customers to generate revenue and survive, but on the other hand, they are limited in resources, time, and experience. During the new product development, it is important to experiment with their original ideas. However, doing a meaningful experiment requires resources and challenges. A study on failed software startups shows that, despite its importance, many software startups skipped or did not experiment with their ideas. The study identifies 25 inhibitors spread in five experimentation stages. In the last few years, Large Language Models (LLMs) have become a popular technology. The advancement of LLM has made it adopted into many parts of the software development cycle. Studies show that LLM also has been used to generate new innovative product ideas and to manage innovation. However, there is no investigation into the possibility of utilizing the power of LLM to help software startups do experimentation. Interactions to an LLM are done through prompts. During the interaction or session, a user will send one or more prompts in a zero-, one-, or few-shots to an LLM agent. Unfortunately, learning and using prompts effectively requires time and resources, things that software startups are scarce with. In this project, we aim to help improve the experimentation process and address the inhibitors by leveraging the power of LLMs. There are five initial research questions and studies planned in the project. In the first step, we will investigate current experimentation practices, challenges, inhibitors, and the strategies used to circumvent them. Secondly, we will investigate how AI has been used in today's experimentation. Then, we will investigate the set of measurements available to measure the success of an experiment. The next step is to investigate how to support experimentation using LLMs followed by a validation sequence. T

Businesses within the physical product domain seek to transform the way they manage new product development, through more flexible approaches. Traditionally, this was done through a fixed approach, characterized by linear and rigid workflow. In this context, however, a complete transition over to a flexible approach, characterized by iterative workflow and adaptability, is not feasible in most cases. To increase flexibility more suitably, hybrid approaches emerged, which combine elements from fixed- and flexible project management approaches. Existing literature lacks in the area of suitability assessment for when and how to combine these two approaches. Therefore, this exploratory study set out to identify factors that affect the suitability of any of the three approaches, fixed, flexible, or hybrid. The thesis took a qualitative approach, collecting data from semi-structured interviews and company documents. Interviewees included project managers and developers. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings revealed a total of 19 relevant factors within four primary areas, Communication & Engagement, Knowledge & Principles, Contextual Constraints, and Risk & Change Management. Stakeholder- and Team Communication and engagement were shown to be highly influential and recurrent factors. The practical contributions of the thesis aim towards increasing the assessment capabilities amongst managers, trying to determine the suitability of any particular project management approach. By evaluating the factors, conditions regarding the characteristics of a project can be established and more appropriate management approaches can be adopted., Tillverkande organisationer inom den fysiska produkt-domänen som strävar efter att förbättra sättet de hanterar utvecklingen av nya produkter, kan vända sig till flexibla metodiker. Traditionellt sett gjordes detta genom mer fasta metodiker som kännetecknas av linjära och stela arbetsflöden. I denna kontext är det oftast inte optimalt att helt övergå till ett flexibelt arbetssätt, som kännetecknas av iterativa arbetsflöden. För att öka flexibiliteten på ett mer lämpligt sätt har hybrida metoder utvecklats, vilket kombinerar element från både fasta och flexibla projektledningsmetoder. Den befintliga litteraturen brister när det kommer till lämplighetsbedömning för när och hur organisationer ska kombinera dessa två. Därför syftar denna explorativa studie till att identifiera faktorer som påverkar lämpligheten för någon av de tre arbetssätten: fast, flexibel eller hybrid. Studien använde sig av en kvalitativ forskningsmetodik och samlade in data genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och företagsdokument. Intervjupersonerna inkluderade projektledare och utvecklare inom studierelevanta områden. Analys av samtlig data skedde genom metoden Tematisk analys. Resultaten visade på totalt 19 relevanta faktorer inom fyra huvudsakliga områden: Kommunikation & Engagemang, Kunskap & Principer, Kontextuella Begränsningar samt Risk- & Förändringshantering. Intressent- och Team Kommunikation & Engagemang visade sig vara mycket påverkande och återkommande faktorer. Studiens praktiska bidrag syftar till att öka förmågan hos företagsledare att bedöma lämpligheten hos en specifik projektledningsmetod. Genom att utvärdera faktorerna kan förhållanden gällande ett projekts karaktärsdrag fastställas och mer lämpliga projektledningsmetoder tillämpas.

Innovation is a crucial activity to ensure companies’ viability and is increasingly important to sustain competitive advantage. Globalization and the accelerating technological development are creating new markets previously not explored. Companies’ capability to execute New Product development (NPD) under these circumstances is limited since this is a new setting for most companies. Literature reveals that developing highly innovative products entails higher potential of economic growth and this incentivizes companies to explore opportunities in unfamiliar markets. It is also previously empirical shown that the NPD process for products targeting unfamiliar respectively familiar markets should differ due to their varying nature. Despite this, companies tend to use the same NPD processes regardless of the market situation which furthermore can hinder companies from succeeding with innovations targeting unfamiliar markets. Considering this, the purpose of this thesis is to explore and identify which aspects within the execution of the NPD process that enable respectively inhibit companies to achieve commercial success in markets of different characteristics. To investigate this, a multiple case study was conducted at a Swedish manufacturer of industrial machines. Two cases representing unfamiliar respectively familiar markets were studied through employee interviews, observations, reading internal documents and informal meetings. The study was conducted with an abductive approach, investigating the empirical reality and existing literature simultaneously. The result of this study reveals aspects that are challenging for companies to contemplate when executing NPD in unfamiliar markets and how it contrasts to the conditions for familiar markets. Raising companies’ awareness of this enables them to be better equipped for executing NPD under unfamiliar market conditions. The main challenges concluded are allocation of human resources and competency utilization, deficient, Innovation är avgörande för att säkerställa företagens lönsamhet och blir allt viktigare för att upprätthålla konkurrenskraft. Globaliseringen och den accelererande tekniska utvecklingen skapar nya marknader som tidigare inte utforskats. Företagens förmåga att genomföra utveckling av nya produkter (NPD) under dessa omständigheter är begränsade eftersom detta är en ny miljö för de flesta företag. Litteratur visar att utveckling av mycket innovativa produkter skapar större potential för ekonomisk tillväxt och detta uppmuntrar företag att utforska möjligheter i okända marknader. Det är också tidigare empiriskt visat att NPD-processen för produkter som riktar sig mot okända respektive kända marknader bör skilja sig åt på grund av deras varierande karaktär. Trots detta tenderar företag att använda samma NPD-processer oavsett marknadssituation, vilket dessutom kan hindra företag från att lyckas med innovationer som riktar sig mot okända marknader. Med bakgrund i detta är syftet med detta examensarbete att utforska och identifiera vilka aspekter inom genomförandet av NPD-processen som gör det möjligt, respektive hämmar för företag att nå kommersiell framgång på marknader med olika karakteristik. För att undersöka detta genomfördesen fallstudie hos en svensk tillverkare av industrimaskiner. Två fall som representerade okänd respektive känd marknad studerades genom intervjuer, observationer, läsning av interna dokument och informella möten. Studien genomfördes med ett abduktivt tillvägagångssätt, som undersökte den empiriska verkligheten och befintlig litteratur samtidigt. Resultatet av denna studie identifierar aspekter som är utmanande för företag när de utför NPD i okända marknader och hur detta kontrasterar mot förhållandena i kända marknader. Genom att öka företags medvetenhet om detta kan de bli bättre rustade för att utföra NPD under olika marknadsförhållanden. De främsta utmaningarna som har identifierats är allokering av personalresurser och kompetensutnyttjande, br

Innovation is a crucial activity to ensure companies’ viability and is increasingly important to sustain competitive advantage. Globalization and the accelerating technological development are creating new markets previously not explored. Companies’ capability to execute New Product development (NPD) under these circumstances is limited since this is a new setting for most companies. Literature reveals that developing highly innovative products entails higher potential of economic growth and this incentivizes companies to explore opportunities in unfamiliar markets. It is also previously empirical shown that the NPD process for products targeting unfamiliar respectively familiar markets should differ due to their varying nature. Despite this, companies tend to use the same NPD processes regardless of the market situation which furthermore can hinder companies from succeeding with innovations targeting unfamiliar markets. Considering this, the purpose of this thesis is to explore and identify which aspects within the execution of the NPD process that enable respectively inhibit companies to achieve commercial success in markets of different characteristics. To investigate this, a multiple case study was conducted at a Swedish manufacturer of industrial machines. Two cases representing unfamiliar respectively familiar markets were studied through employee interviews, observations, reading internal documents and informal meetings. The study was conducted with an abductive approach, investigating the empirical reality and existing literature simultaneously. The result of this study reveals aspects that are challenging for companies to contemplate when executing NPD in unfamiliar markets and how it contrasts to the conditions for familiar markets. Raising companies’ awareness of this enables them to be better equipped for executing NPD under unfamiliar market conditions. The main challenges concluded are allocation of human resources and competency utilization, deficient, Innovation är avgörande för att säkerställa företagens lönsamhet och blir allt viktigare för att upprätthålla konkurrenskraft. Globaliseringen och den accelererande tekniska utvecklingen skapar nya marknader som tidigare inte utforskats. Företagens förmåga att genomföra utveckling av nya produkter (NPD) under dessa omständigheter är begränsade eftersom detta är en ny miljö för de flesta företag. Litteratur visar att utveckling av mycket innovativa produkter skapar större potential för ekonomisk tillväxt och detta uppmuntrar företag att utforska möjligheter i okända marknader. Det är också tidigare empiriskt visat att NPD-processen för produkter som riktar sig mot okända respektive kända marknader bör skilja sig åt på grund av deras varierande karaktär. Trots detta tenderar företag att använda samma NPD-processer oavsett marknadssituation, vilket dessutom kan hindra företag från att lyckas med innovationer som riktar sig mot okända marknader. Med bakgrund i detta är syftet med detta examensarbete att utforska och identifiera vilka aspekter inom genomförandet av NPD-processen som gör det möjligt, respektive hämmar för företag att nå kommersiell framgång på marknader med olika karakteristik. För att undersöka detta genomfördesen fallstudie hos en svensk tillverkare av industrimaskiner. Två fall som representerade okänd respektive känd marknad studerades genom intervjuer, observationer, läsning av interna dokument och informella möten. Studien genomfördes med ett abduktivt tillvägagångssätt, som undersökte den empiriska verkligheten och befintlig litteratur samtidigt. Resultatet av denna studie identifierar aspekter som är utmanande för företag när de utför NPD i okända marknader och hur detta kontrasterar mot förhållandena i kända marknader. Genom att öka företags medvetenhet om detta kan de bli bättre rustade för att utföra NPD under olika marknadsförhållanden. De främsta utmaningarna som har identifierats är allokering av personalresurser och kompetensutnyttjande, br

The use of new technologies is important in new product development and virtual reality is a technology that companies today are trying to find use for in their organizations. The problem present today is that there are tools ready to be used that are not because organizations are at different maturity levels of understanding how to work in virtual reality (VR). VR could not only make development cheaper but also greener. This thesis aims to bridge the gap within Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE) to make the use of VR more present in product development. That is why the thesis crafted a startup guide on how to work with VR. The value of this is to inform all stakeholders within VCE of the value of VR at a basic level as a tool. The guide explains the benefits of virtual reality as well as a general step by stepguide on how to use it to replace some physical prototypes. It is targeted to project leaders and product developers.

The use of new technologies is important in new product development and virtual reality is a technology that companies today are trying to find use for in their organizations. The problem present today is that there are tools ready to be used that are not because organizations are at different maturity levels of understanding how to work in virtual reality (VR). VR could not only make development cheaper but also greener. This thesis aims to bridge the gap within Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE) to make the use of VR more present in product development. That is why the thesis crafted a startup guide on how to work with VR. The value of this is to inform all stakeholders within VCE of the value of VR at a basic level as a tool. The guide explains the benefits of virtual reality as well as a general step by stepguide on how to use it to replace some physical prototypes. It is targeted to project leaders and product developers.

Existing research highlights the importance of sourcing external knowledge in manufacturers’ innovative processes. Specifically, supplier involvement in new product development (NPD) has been widely analysed but without conclusive results. To shed light on this matter, this paper provides a deeper insight by analysing the indirect effects in the relationship between supplier involvement and two NPD dimensions (efficiency and effectiveness). In particular, it examines R&D collaboration with supporting organisations as a mechanism by which knowledge provided by suppliers may lead to better innovation performance. This study focuses on 155 high-tech and medium–high-tech Spanish firms to test indirect effects through the PROCESS macro. The results show that while there is a positive and significant indirect effect of supplier involvement on NPD efficiency through R&D collaboration with supporting organisations, that indirect effect is not significant in increasing NPD effectiveness. This research contributes to the literature on inter-organisational networks and NPD by analysing the effects of supplier involvement on NPD through the role played by supporting organisations, with different empirical evidence for each NPD dimension and practical implications., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, CRUE-CSIC, Depto. de Organización de Empresas, Fac. de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, TRUE, pub

The present study shows the set of analyses conducted during the development of a hot chili pepper sauce to valorize green peppers usually discarded in the Espelette region (France). A traditional production process was used as the inspiration for product development, and two different fermentation processes were assessed and characterized by measuring pH, sugar content, instrumental color, volatile composition, and conducting sensory (discriminant test) and microbiological analyses (total plate count). Significant differences were observed among pepper mash samples with respect to their physicochemical characteristics, but the products were considered similar from a sensory standpoint. Both sensory and physicochemical tests suggested that the ingredients added to make the sauces were determinant and had a higher impact on the organoleptic profile of the final product than the fermentation process. Finally, a Napping® test was conducted to determine the attributes that could differentiate the product from the hot sauces found in the current market. The results of the present research allowed the optimization of the elaboration process of the new product, saving time and ingredient costs. The procedures shown in the study could be used as an example of a new product development process in which physicochemical and sensory data are collected and used for decision making.

(Innovation) portfolio management literature is extensive but barely touched upon in the public context. Portfolio management is instrumental in resource allocation and strategic decision-making, directing investments toward strategic priorities. This thesis explores how innovation portfolio management (IPM) is performed at the Dutch Ministry of Defense, and a comparison is made with private and public sector literature available. Key findings illuminate pronounced disparities between the MoD’s IPM methodologies and those established in the private sector. Notably, the MoD’s IPM framework places subjective risk-reward metrics at the forefront of decision-making, diverging from conventional private sector emphasis on monetary considerations. Furthermore, the MoD’s IPM approach primarily revolves around project-level evaluations, constraining portfolio-level prioritization decision-making. The conspicuous absence of a articulated innovation strategy and the decentralized nature of portfolio oversight serve as additional distinguishing features of the MoD’s IPM practices. Moreover, the MoD’s unique procurement model, which relies extensively on external development, and its innovation strategy, predominantly shaped by market dynamics, set it apart from IPM practices commonly observed in the private sector. Existing public sector literature has provided valuation methodologies across diverse sectors; however, these contributions have often neglected to provide a comprehensive under standing of how IPM is executed and have been relatively under-referenced. Within the MoD, this thesis reveals that the valuation of IPM, while exhibiting variations among different departments, predominantly relies on multi-criteria analysis (MCA) with a retrospective focus. Notably, subjective measures such as relevance and urgency are employed as yardsticks for assessing project value. This research enhances our understanding of IPM in the public sector and underscores the need to, Management of Technology (MoT)

In this graduation thesis, the evolution of Adidas's product development process is explored, focusing on the introduction of a Adizero footwear Fuzzy Front-End aimed at enhancing brand credibility and user experience through agile, user-centric design methods. This stage, a crucial part of the development of Adidas Adizero Footwear, prioritizes functional prototypes and utilizes athletes’ performance data to inform design before products enter the marketing phase. An in-depth context analysis illuminates Adidas’ intricate organizational structure, brand categorization, and the history and innovative essence of the Adizero franchise. This analysis lays the groundwork for exploring the fuzzy front-end (FFE) stage, where challenges such as neglect of individual consumer needs and complexities in the initial development stages are underscored, and opportunities like well-balanced stakeholder engagement, participatory design methods, and data-enabled engagement approaches are identified. In seeking to resolve identified challenges, novel stakeholder engagement strategies are devised, promoting dynamic understanding and interaction amongst stakeholders beyond traditional managerial definitions. Innovative tools and methods, such as the ‘Superpower Element Sticker,’ are developed to encourage co-creation and facilitate the formulation of new engagement strategies. At the same time, analyses and pilot testing sessions ensure the practical applicability of proposed solutions. This research highlights the delineation of a novel conceptual design framework, aimed at enabling effective multi-stakeholder co-creation in the Fuzzy Front-end of Adizero Footwear. Then a new process design, based on the conceptual design framework in a co-creation workshop, integrates innovative data tunnels allowing varied stakeholders, including consumers, marketers, and developers, to actively contribute insights and refine the design throughout different seasons and, Strategic Product Design

The practice of ‘Design for Supply Chain’ (DfSC) aims at integrating strategic sourcing into manufacturers’ new product development (NPD) processes. The literature on this topic, however, mainly focuses on contexts involving high-volume, standardised products, while the engineer-to-order (ETO) context has received only limited attention. As argued in this paper, this constitutes a gap in the literature since the findings from high-volume, standardised contexts may not be directly applicable to the ETO context. To support this claim, a case study approach is used to explore DfSC in two ETO manufacturers. This paper terms this practice ‘Engineer for Supply Chain’ (EfSC) and identifies four dimensions that it comprises: (1) consideration of strategic sourcing in NPD, (2) representation of the sourcing function in NPD, (3) collaboration between the R&D and sourcing functions, and (4) adoption of methods for considering strategic sourcing in NPD. Although these dimensions partly overlap with the literature on DfSC, the characteristics of EfSC differ—most notably by requiring the consideration of strategic sourcing before the product design stage of NPD, as well as procedures that encourage this consideration. Finally, the study identifies relationships among the dimensions and develops a holistic four-step process for engaging with EfSC.

The agile methodology is gaining attention among practitioners and researchers in hardware development. As a new methodology, it is a source of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. This is problematic at the managers' levels as they may hinder its adoption or lead to its impractical implementation and use. This study, therefore, aims to explore the manager's level of understanding of the agile methodology. The study identifies the similarities and differences between the fundamental elements of the agile methodology and the elements mentioned by managers in hardware development. The fundamental elements of the agile methodology are identified based on the elements presented in the Scrum method; the elements mentioned by managers are identified based on ten semi-structured interviews with managers in hardware development. The study shows that the understanding of the agile methodology varies largely among managers. The obtained detailed insights in the managers' level of understanding of the agile methodology could be used to develop appropriate support to facilitate its adoption and implementation.

Creativity is an essential factor in the development of innovative products. 4 Step Creation (4SC) is a method for systematic ideation and can be used to enhance the new product development process. It aims to promote creativity in interdisciplinary teams and provides a framework for collaboration so that original ideas can emerge, laying the foundation for innovation. At the same time, the method can be used for continuous improvement of existing systems. In this contribution 4SC is used in a design method experiment following the Design Method Validation System (DMVS) to validate design methods in product development. The experiment was carried out at PAD2022 International Summer School on the example of a vacuum cleaner robot. Findings show, that the developed method promotes transparency, traceability of ideas and thus communication in the team. It also facilitates the integration of different stakeholders in the ideation phase. The experiment also shows that the DMVS is well suited for planning, conducting, and evaluating design experiments.

Usage data of reference systems can be analyzed in the development process for the validation of system elements. The process model for data-driven validation of elements in the system of objectives aids developers in performing such data analyses. The conducted studies show that the basis for an efficient analysis process is a common understanding of the system and the goal of the analysis. Therefore, a template was derived over the course of case studies describing the elements in the system of objectives. The template covers the three descriptive dimensions general information, technical system and data. It allows a comprehensive description of analysis use cases. On average it takes 11 minutes for developers to aggregate all necessary information and consequently fill out the template. An A/B-Test confirmed the comprehensibility and applicability of the template even for developers of different domain knowledge. Through its contribution to a sustainable knowledge management the template provides an added value for the developers for conducting analysis.

The agile methodology is gaining attention among practitioners and researchers in hardware development. As a new methodology, it is a source of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. This is problematic at the managers' levels as they may hinder its adoption or lead to its impractical implementation and use. This study, therefore, aims to explore the manager's level of understanding of the agile methodology. The study identifies the similarities and differences between the fundamental elements of the agile methodology and the elements mentioned by managers in hardware development. The fundamental elements of the agile methodology are identified based on the elements presented in the Scrum method; the elements mentioned by managers are identified based on ten semi-structured interviews with managers in hardware development. The study shows that the understanding of the agile methodology varies largely among managers. The obtained detailed insights in the managers' level of understanding of the agile methodology could be used to develop appropriate support to facilitate its adoption and implementation.

Embedded systems have become a key technology for the evolution of medical devices. However, the regulatory requirements that must be met make designing and developing these devices challenging. As a result, many start-ups attempting to develop medical devices fail. Therefore, this article presents a methodology to design and develop embedded medical devices while minimising the economic investment during the technical risk stages and encouraging customer feedback. The proposed methodology is based on the execution of three stages: Development Feasibility, Incremental and Iterative Prototyping, and Medical Product Consolidation. All this is completed in compliance with the applicable regulations. The methodology mentioned above is validated through practical use cases in which the development of a wearable device for monitoring vital signs is the most relevant. The presented use cases sustain the proposed methodology, for the devices were successfully CE marked. Moreover, ISO 13485 certification is obtained by following the proposed procedures.

The practice of ‘Design for Supply Chain’ (DfSC) aims at integrating strategic sourcing into manufacturers’ new product development (NPD) processes. The literature on this topic, however, mainly focuses on contexts involving high-volume, standardised products, while the engineer-to-order (ETO) context has received only limited attention. As argued in this paper, this constitutes a gap in the literature since the findings from high-volume, standardised contexts may not be directly applicable to the ETO context. To support this claim, a case study approach is used to explore DfSC in two ETO manufacturers. This paper terms this practice ‘Engineer for Supply Chain’ (EfSC) and identifies four dimensions that it comprises: (1) consideration of strategic sourcing in NPD, (2) representation of the sourcing function in NPD, (3) collaboration between the R&D and sourcing functions, and (4) adoption of methods for considering strategic sourcing in NPD. Although these dimensions partly overlap with the literature on DfSC, the characteristics of EfSC differ—most notably by requiring the consideration of strategic sourcing before the product design stage of NPD, as well as procedures that encourage this consideration. Finally, the study identifies relationships among the dimensions and develops a holistic four-step process for engaging with EfSC., Included in doctoral thesis in manuscript form.

Businesses within the physical product domain seek to transform the way they manage new product development, through more flexible approaches. Traditionally, this was done through a fixed approach, characterized by linear and rigid workflow. In this context, however, a complete transition over to a flexible approach, characterized by iterative workflow and adaptability, is not feasible in most cases. To increase flexibility more suitably, hybrid approaches emerged, which combine elements from fixed- and flexible project management approaches. Existing literature lacks in the area of suitability assessment for when and how to combine these two approaches. Therefore, this exploratory study set out to identify factors that affect the suitability of any of the three approaches, fixed, flexible, or hybrid. The thesis took a qualitative approach, collecting data from semi-structured interviews and company documents. Interviewees included project managers and developers. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings revealed a total of 19 relevant factors within four primary areas, Communication & Engagement, Knowledge & Principles, Contextual Constraints, and Risk & Change Management. Stakeholder- and Team Communication and engagement were shown to be highly influential and recurrent factors. The practical contributions of the thesis aim towards increasing the assessment capabilities amongst managers, trying to determine the suitability of any particular project management approach. By evaluating the factors, conditions regarding the characteristics of a project can be established and more appropriate management approaches can be adopted., Tillverkande organisationer inom den fysiska produkt-domänen som strävar efter att förbättra sättet de hanterar utvecklingen av nya produkter, kan vända sig till flexibla metodiker. Traditionellt sett gjordes detta genom mer fasta metodiker som kännetecknas av linjära och stela arbetsflöden. I denna kontext är det oftast inte optimalt att helt övergå till ett flexibelt arbetssätt, som kännetecknas av iterativa arbetsflöden. För att öka flexibiliteten på ett mer lämpligt sätt har hybrida metoder utvecklats, vilket kombinerar element från både fasta och flexibla projektledningsmetoder. Den befintliga litteraturen brister när det kommer till lämplighetsbedömning för när och hur organisationer ska kombinera dessa två. Därför syftar denna explorativa studie till att identifiera faktorer som påverkar lämpligheten för någon av de tre arbetssätten: fast, flexibel eller hybrid. Studien använde sig av en kvalitativ forskningsmetodik och samlade in data genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och företagsdokument. Intervjupersonerna inkluderade projektledare och utvecklare inom studierelevanta områden. Analys av samtlig data skedde genom metoden Tematisk analys. Resultaten visade på totalt 19 relevanta faktorer inom fyra huvudsakliga områden: Kommunikation & Engagemang, Kunskap & Principer, Kontextuella Begränsningar samt Risk- & Förändringshantering. Intressent- och Team Kommunikation & Engagemang visade sig vara mycket påverkande och återkommande faktorer. Studiens praktiska bidrag syftar till att öka förmågan hos företagsledare att bedöma lämpligheten hos en specifik projektledningsmetod. Genom att utvärdera faktorerna kan förhållanden gällande ett projekts karaktärsdrag fastställas och mer lämpliga projektledningsmetoder tillämpas.

Tesi en modalitat de compendi de publicacions, (English) Fish can play a crucial role in feeding the growing global population and providing it with essential nutrients. However, the world’s fish stocks are limited and almost fully exploited. Consequently, aquaculture is regarded as the most suitable alternative to relieve pressures on wild-caught fish stocks. While wild fish enjoy a good reputation among European consumers, farmed fish still have their detractors. Consequently, it is crucial to understand consumers’ perception of aquaculture fish to determine what is hindering its consumption to ensure the full development of the aquaculture sector in the European Union. The main objective of this doctoral thesis was to study, from various perspectives, consumers’ perceptions of aquaculture fish and fish products to stimulate their consumption. To tackle the main objective, three different studies were carried out, each belonging to one of the three main factors influencing individuals’ food choices: personal (beliefs), situation/environment (product variety), and product (packaging). The results of these studies and their implications should offer a substantive and rich picture of the actual fish consumers´ concerns and provide insights towards the same aim; favouring and stimulating aquaculture fish consumption by focussing on different consumer-driven strategies. The first strategy involved exploring consumers’ beliefs when wild and farmed fish were compared to guide promotional and marketing campaigns for aquaculture fish. Two different online surveys in five European countries each were used to analyse general consumers’ beliefs and those dealing with sustainability issues. Accordingly, different guidelines for designing informational and promotional campaigns have been provided to influence and drive consumers’ beliefs. The second strategy was centred on generating novel ideas for new aquaculture fish products to increase the product variety on the market. A combination of creative and projective techniqu, (Català) El peix pot tenir un paper cabdal en l'alimentació de la població mundial, així com en la provisió de nutrients essencials. No obstant això, la població de peixos salvatges és limitada i està essent quasi bé explotada en la seva totalitat. Per tant, l'aqüicultura constitueix l'alternativa més viable per alleujar aquesta pressió. Ara bé, mentre que el peix salvatge gaudeix d’una bona reputació entre els consumidors europeus, el d'aqüicultura continua tenint els seus detractors. En conseqüència, per tal de determinar quins factors obstaculitzen el consum del peix d’aqüicultura i assegurar així el desenvolupament d’aquest sector a la Unió Europea és essencial conèixer i entendre la percepció que tenen els consumidors sobre el peix d'aqüicultura. L’objectiu principal d'aquesta tesi doctoral ha es tat estudiar, des de diverses perspectives, la percepció dels consumidors sobre el peix d'aqüicultura i dels productes elaborats a base d'aquest, per tal d’estimular el seu consum. Per abordar l'objectiu principal, es van dur a terme tres estudis diferents, cadascun d'ells centrat en un dels tres factors principals que influeixen en les decisions alimentàries dels individus: personal (creences), situació/entorn (varietat de productes) i producte (envàs). Els resultats d'aquests estudis i les seves implicacions haurien d'oferir una imatge completa de les inquietuds dels consumidors de peix i aportar idees i solucions cap a un mateix objectiu; afavorir i estimular el consum del peix d'aqüicultura focalitzant-se en diferents estratègies orientades cap als consumidors. La primera estratègia es va centrar en explorar les creences dels consumidors comparant el peix salvatge i el d'aqüicultura per tal d’orientar les campanyes d'informació i promoció del peix d'aqüicultura. Es van realitzar dues enquestes en línia en cinc països europeus per analitzar les creences generals dels consumidors i les relacionades amb la sostenibilitat. Els resultats obtinguts han de servir per guia, Postprint (published version)

[EN] An important trend in New Product Development (NPD) projects is the involvement of suppliers in them, in order to obtain great competitive advantage, improve quality and reduce the cost of new products and time. This involvement may range from simple consultation with suppliers on design ideas to making suppliers fully responsible for the design of components or systems they will supply. Moreover, suppliers can be involved at different stages of the new product development process. Although extensive research has been carried out on supplier integration in NPD (Monczka, Ragatz, Handfield Clark, Kim B., 1989; McGinnis, 1998 among others), all of it is focused on success supplier integration factors and the requirements of this relationship. This paper focuses on several important questions regarding supplier involvement in new product development that remain unanswered, like when it is better to involve the suppliers and how. The main findings of this Master’s Thesis are that there is not a rule that defines where or how suppliers have to be involved, it depends on the product features, what the customer company is looking for and the supplier expertise, among others. The contribution of this Master’s Thesis is a new model developed which considers the most important variables in the customer-supplier relationship in a supplier involvement in NPD, they are: the cost of design changes, the supplier responsibility and the supplier level of integration in the five possible phases that Handfield (1999) defined

[EN] An important trend in New Product Development (NPD) projects is the involvement of suppliers in them, in order to obtain great competitive advantage, improve quality and reduce the cost of new products and time. This involvement may range from simple consultation with suppliers on design ideas to making suppliers fully responsible for the design of components or systems they will supply. Moreover, suppliers can be involved at different stages of the new product development process. Although extensive research has been carried out on supplier integration in NPD (Monczka, Ragatz, Handfield Clark, Kim B., 1989; McGinnis, 1998 among others), all of it is focused on success supplier integration factors and the requirements of this relationship. This paper focuses on several important questions regarding supplier involvement in new product development that remain unanswered, like when it is better to involve the suppliers and how. The main findings of this Master’s Thesis are that there is not a rule that defines where or how suppliers have to be involved, it depends on the product features, what the customer company is looking for and the supplier expertise, among others. The contribution of this Master’s Thesis is a new model developed which considers the most important variables in the customer-supplier relationship in a supplier involvement in NPD, they are: the cost of design changes, the supplier responsibility and the supplier level of integration in the five possible phases that Handfield (1999) defined

[EN] An important trend in New Product Development (NPD) projects is the involvement of suppliers in them, in order to obtain great competitive advantage, improve quality and reduce the cost of new products and time. This involvement may range from simple consultation with suppliers on design ideas to making suppliers fully responsible for the design of components or systems they will supply. Moreover, suppliers can be involved at different stages of the new product development process. Although extensive research has been carried out on supplier integration in NPD (Monczka, Ragatz, Handfield Clark, Kim B., 1989; McGinnis, 1998 among others), all of it is focused on success supplier integration factors and the requirements of this relationship. This paper focuses on several important questions regarding supplier involvement in new product development that remain unanswered, like when it is better to involve the suppliers and how. The main findings of this Master’s Thesis are that there is not a rule that defines where or how suppliers have to be involved, it depends on the product features, what the customer company is looking for and the supplier expertise, among others. The contribution of this Master’s Thesis is a new model developed which considers the most important variables in the customer-supplier relationship in a supplier involvement in NPD, they are: the cost of design changes, the supplier responsibility and the supplier level of integration in the five possible phases that Handfield (1999) defined

Conjoint analysis is one of the most popular methods to measure preferences of individuals or groups. It determines, for instance, the degree how much consumers like or value specific products, which then leads to a purchase decision. In particular, the method discovers the utilities that (product) attributes add to the overall utility of a product (or stimuli). Conjoint analysis has emerged from the traditional rating- or ranking-based method in marketing to a general experimental method to study individual’s discrete choice behavior with the choice-based conjoint variant. It is therefore not limited to classical applications in marketing, such as new product development, pricing, branding, or market simulations, but can be applied to study research questions from related disciplines, for instance, how marketing managers choose their ad campaign, how managers select internationalization options, why consumers engage in or react to social media, etc. This chapter describes comprehensively the “state-of-the-art” of conjoint analysis and choice-based conjoint experiments and related estimation procedures.

Based on the results of a multiple case study of seven manufacturing firms, a contingency framework for harnessing fuzziness in the front end of innovation is proposed by delineating two discrete capability paths through which new product ideas are developed into corroborated product definitions. The study illustrates that ideas characterized by high levels of fuzziness benefit from following an exploratory path, where the creative potential of fuzziness is embraced by deploying problem-formulation and problem-solving capabilities. In contrast, ideas at low levels of fuzziness benefit from following an exploitative path, where fuzziness is tolerated by drawing upon idea-refinement and process-management capabilities. When the fuzziness level of the idea and the set of capabilities to develop the idea are poorly aligned, the idea-development process is either inefficient or runs the risk of stalling. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the front end of innovation and new product idea development. © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd., Funding: CAPES, VINNOVA, and the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation

This qualitative study investigates how organisations approach the development processes of sustainable products considering their micro-level sustainability efforts and ambitions and compare it to the model presented in the literature. The research follows a qualitative, social constructivist approach that enabled the researcher to work with pre-existing theories and the new empirical material. The empirical data was collected through seven semi-structured interviews. The findings contribute to the literature by elucidating how sustainable product development is applied within the fast-moving-consumer-goods food industry. Furthermore, the study has highlighted the circularity of SPD and the necessary addition of the Voice-of-customer in the model. Moreover, environmental certification, governmental regulations, and consumer (il)literacy have proven to be possible tools to further the ethical rationality in the process.

Saab Dynamics is a business unit of Saab AB that offers solutions, services and products for military operations. In Saab Dynamics product portfolio the rocket launcher Carl-Gustaf is included. Carl-Gustaf is a portable, recoil free and reusable weapon system. Saab Dynamics also manufactures ammunition to Carl-Gustaf which can be varied between with explosive effect, smoke grenades, illuminating and fine caliber. To respective type of ammunition there is dummy grenades which has the same appearance, weight and loading procedure with the difference that the grenade is inert. Initiation to the study came from an identified need to update the fuze on Drill Round 545C. The project was made on Saab Dynamics facility in Karlskoga and the purpose was to generate feasible concepts of the fuze, including to generate production documentation of the final concept. Since a concept development process was going to be executed it was considered relevant to investigate how this process should be performed at the company. From this the question at issue has been formulated. Which success factors can be identified at a concept development process at Saab Dynamics? In addition, a sub-goal with the study is to produce production documentation to the updated fuze of Drill Round 545C according to ISO 22081 and manufacture a physical prototype. The study is split into two parts, a qualitative study with purpose of answering the issue, and a concept study with purpose to produce the final prototype. Through interviews with employees and a literature study, success factors have been identified. A total of five success factors was found, together with some specific situations where they have significant matter. The success factors are: Communication, Group Composition, Openness in the group, Process fitted according to the specific project and Focus on boundaries between sub-projects. The concept study was performed through a systematical method for construction and design, with distinct, Saab Dynamics är ett affärsområde inom Saab AB, som erbjuder lösningar, tjänster och produkter för militär verksamhet. Inom Saab Dynamics produktportfölj ingår granatgeväret Carl-Gustaf, ett axelburet, rekylfritt och återanvändbart vapensystem. Till vapensystemet tillverkar dessutom Saab Dynamics ammunition som kan varieras mellan sprängverkan, rökgranater, lysgranater och finkalibrig ammunition. Till respektive typ av ammunition finns dessutom övningsgranater, som innehar samma utseende, tyngd och laddningsförfarande med skillnaden att granaten är inert. Initieringen till studien grundas i ett identifierat behov av uppdatering av tändrörsattrappen till Drill Round 545C. Projektet utfördes på Saab Dynamics i Karlskoga, där syftet var att ta fram flera genomförbara koncept för tändrörsattrappen samt att ta fram tillverkningsunderlag för ett slutgiltigt koncept. Eftersom det skulle utföras en konceptutvecklingsprocess ansågs det också relevant att undersöka hur denna typ av process bör utföras inom företaget. Utifrån detta har det formulerats en frågeställning samt ett delmål med studien. Vilka framgångsfaktorer går att identifiera vid en konceptutvecklingsprocess på Saab Dynamics? Dessutom ska studien ta fram tillverkningsunderlag till den uppdaterade tändrörsattrappen enligt ISO 22081 samt tillverka en fysisk prototyp. tudien har delats upp i två delar, en kvalitativ studie med syfte att svara på frågeställningen samt en konceptstudie med syfte att ta fram den slutgiltiga prototypen. Genom att intervjua anställda med erfarenhet av konceptutveckling på Saab Dynamics och kombinera detta med en litteraturstudie har framgångsfaktorer identifieras. Resultatet av studien innebär att fem framgångsfaktorer identifierats samt några specifika situationer då de har väsentlig betydelse. Framgångsfaktorerna är: Kommunikation, Gruppsammansättning, Öppenhet inom gruppen, Process anpassad för det specifika projektet och Fokus på gränsytor mellan delprojekt. Konceptstudien utför

Managing the new product development (NPD) process, especially the first phase, the front end of innovation (FEI), is crucial for companies today in order to develop successful products and reach process and product sustainability. This has proved to be a significant challenge for start-ups since 90 percent of them fail (Krishna et al., 2016). This explorative study investigates how prototyping can be used in FEI, with a focus on Swedish start-up companies. A great deal of research has been published about prototyping in the later stages in the development process, and about FEI in general. Regarding prototyping in FEI, the existing literature is mainly located in the product design area. A substantial research gap has also been identified in a start-up context regarding prototyping in FEI. To fill in this gap, a qualitative approach was used collecting data form three different perspectives; start-up accelerators, start-ups employees and users. To accumulate these three perspectives, two sets of semi-structured interviews and two focus groups were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the collected data. The empirical findings align with the existing literature in several areas, but also gain new insights, contributing to filling the research gap. To conclude, there are a number of different specific prototyping purposes and methods, as well as crucial recommendations, that start-ups should consider in FEI to succeed. The thesis highlights that start-ups should use simple prototypes early in FEI, iterating the prototyping efforts, and gradually increasing the accuracy of the prototype during the FEI.

This study examines how the organizational structure affects New Product Development (NPD) in mature companies that enter a fast-growing phase. A case study with interviews and a workshop was conducted in a company in south of Sweden in addition to studying the current literature. This company is currently experiencing fast growth and is therefore facing new challenges. The fast growth in the recent years has affected the NPD processes, organizational structure, culture, and communication according to its employees. The literature argues that there must be a balance between the NPD and organizational structure to ensure performance. Each organization must have a structure that complements the NPD processes to maintain high performance. Furthermore, communication affects NPD projects' performance, and for organizations experiencing fast growth, communication has an even more significant effect on performance. Mature organizations tend to hold on to existing organizational structures and processes, which can become troublesome when entering a fast-growing phase, as fast-growing companies need to invest in the future. As the research is lacking regarding fast-growing companies, this in-depth study explores the correlation between NPD, organizational structure, communication and culture for fast-growing companies. This case study found that the internal culture positively impacts innovation, along with the need to modify the organizational structure and NPD processes as it grows, and when growing fast, communication plays a vital role. In conclusion, we can see an interconnection between organizational structure, culture, and communication, for facilitating NPD performance, where communication is the red thread that facilitates or hinders, depending on its quality.

Based on the results of a multiple case study of seven manufacturing firms, a contingency framework for harnessing fuzziness in the front end of innovation is proposed by delineating two discrete capability paths through which new product ideas are developed into corroborated product definitions. The study illustrates that ideas characterized by high levels of fuzziness benefit from following an exploratory path, where the creative potential of fuzziness is embraced by deploying problem-formulation and problem-solving capabilities. In contrast, ideas at low levels of fuzziness benefit from following an exploitative path, where fuzziness is tolerated by drawing upon idea-refinement and process-management capabilities. When the fuzziness level of the idea and the set of capabilities to develop the idea are poorly aligned, the idea-development process is either inefficient or runs the risk of stalling. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the front end of innovation and new product idea development. © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd., Funding: CAPES, VINNOVA, and the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation

Based on the results of a multiple case study of seven manufacturing firms, a contingency framework for harnessing fuzziness in the front end of innovation is proposed by delineating two discrete capability paths through which new product ideas are developed into corroborated product definitions. The study illustrates that ideas characterized by high levels of fuzziness benefit from following an exploratory path, where the creative potential of fuzziness is embraced by deploying problem-formulation and problem-solving capabilities. In contrast, ideas at low levels of fuzziness benefit from following an exploitative path, where fuzziness is tolerated by drawing upon idea-refinement and process-management capabilities. When the fuzziness level of the idea and the set of capabilities to develop the idea are poorly aligned, the idea-development process is either inefficient or runs the risk of stalling. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for the front end of innovation and new product idea development. © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd., Funding: CAPES, VINNOVA, and the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation

In diesem Artikel wurde die vorhandene Literatur zu Innovationsmodellen und deren Einflussfaktoren dargestellt. Es wurde kritisch beleuchtet, welche Innovationsmodelle welche Einflussfaktoren mit sich bringen und welche Effekte die Modelle auf die Innovationen haben. Zur Beurteilung der Modelle und Innovationen wurden Erfolgsfaktoren aus der Literatur definiert und gesammelt. Es konnte festgestellt werden, dass die Wissenschaft noch keine ausreichende Einschätzung der Auswirkung von Organisationsgröße auf die vorhandenen Einflussfaktoren eines Innovationsprozesses getroffen hat. Das Stage Gate Modell wurde klar als dominantes Model in der Wissenschaft identifiziert, weshalb die beschriebenen Einflussfaktoren sich primär dem Stage Gate Modell zuordnen lassen. Durch eine qualitative Befragung von großen und kleinen Unternehmen, sowie Recherche in der vorhandenen Literatur, wurden Anforderungen an einen Innovationsprozess abgeleitet und anschließend die Innovationsmodelle genannt, die diesen Anforderungen entsprechen.*****In this article existing literature on innovation models and their influences were presented. It was critically examined, which innovation models occurred with which influencing factors and what effects the models have on the innovations. To evaluate these models and innovations, success factors from literature were defined and collected. It could be determined that science has not yet found a sufficient assessment of the effect of organizational size on the existing influences of an innovation process. The stage gate model was clearly identified as the dominant model in science, which is why the described influences can be primarily assigned to the stage gate model. Through a qualitative survey of large and small companies, as well as research of the existing literature, requirements for an innovation process were derived and in a second step the innovation models were named that corresponded to these requirements.

Packaging is no longer a mere structural element that only aims to preserve foods, but it is also a powerful marketing tool able to affect product perception, purchase decision and consumers’ food choices. Incorporating consumers’ voices into packaging design through co-creation could maximise its impact on the market. The main goal of this exploratory study was to test the usefulness of co-creation with consumers for packaging design. For that purpose, a survey with 200 Spanish participants was conducted to find out which of the presented visual and textual packaging attributes were the most appropriate. A validation study with 40 participants using implicit (eye tracker, galvanic skin response and automatic facial expression analysis) and explicit measurements was used to test the packaging co-created by consumers against some of its possible competitors in the market. The co-creation process with consumers allowed for the identification of the visual and textual attributes, among the available options, that best fit their preferences, whereas the validation process confirmed that the packaging design co-created by consumers was equally or even preferred over the competitors. The information gathered might help designers and marketers to guide the packaging design for fish products in the Spanish market., This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon2020 MedAID project (grant number 727315). L.L.-M. was supported by a grant from the Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya and the European Social Fund., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

Swedish firms have become increasingly accountable for their impacts on the economy, society, and environment. Since the year 2016, Corporate Sustainability has emerged as a relatively new phenomenon forcing SMEs that meet certain criteria to report annual sustainability metrics. However,sustainability reporting has not yet become standardized. Previous literature acknowledges the importance of sustainability orientation for the firm and the managers’ role in developing a general understanding of how sustainabilitypractices add value to the firm. Moreover, the particular organizationalpractice of sustainability reporting is still immature and have scarcely been attended by contemporary literature. This study aims to develop an understanding of how sustainability reporting practices look like in the firm, and whether sustainability reporting practiceshas affected today’s innovation management. To answer the research questions, a mixed research method were chosen with an inductive approach.Three kinds of data was collected and analyzed – sustainability reports, survey, and firm-level interviews – in a step-wise manner to explore the complexities of sustainability reporting practices and its’ impact on firms’ innovation management. In this study, we found that there are complexities in establishing clear routines in the sustainability reporting practices due to the multiple internal and external actors involvement, and because of knowledge gaps within the firm. In addition, sustainability reporting practices positively impactinnovation management through the building of general awareness, or even culture towards sustainability. In turn, this has boosted the firms’ creativity in sustainable innovations. Moreover, sustainability reporting practices impact New Product Development in particular, through stakeholder engagement in reporting the contents included in the sustainability reports. This study contributes to an updated understanding of Sustainability Reporting p

Saab Dynamics is a business unit of Saab AB that offers solutions, services and products for military operations. In Saab Dynamics product portfolio the rocket launcher Carl-Gustaf is included. Carl-Gustaf is a portable, recoil free and reusable weapon system. Saab Dynamics also manufactures ammunition to Carl-Gustaf which can be varied between with explosive effect, smoke grenades, illuminating and fine caliber. To respective type of ammunition there is dummy grenades which has the same appearance, weight and loading procedure with the difference that the grenade is inert. Initiation to the study came from an identified need to update the fuze on Drill Round 545C. The project was made on Saab Dynamics facility in Karlskoga and the purpose was to generate feasible concepts of the fuze, including to generate production documentation of the final concept. Since a concept development process was going to be executed it was considered relevant to investigate how this process should be performed at the company. From this the question at issue has been formulated. Which success factors can be identified at a concept development process at Saab Dynamics? In addition, a sub-goal with the study is to produce production documentation to the updated fuze of Drill Round 545C according to ISO 22081 and manufacture a physical prototype. The study is split into two parts, a qualitative study with purpose of answering the issue, and a concept study with purpose to produce the final prototype. Through interviews with employees and a literature study, success factors have been identified. A total of five success factors was found, together with some specific situations where they have significant matter. The success factors are: Communication, Group Composition, Openness in the group, Process fitted according to the specific project and Focus on boundaries between sub-projects. The concept study was performed through a systematical method for construction and design, with distinct, Saab Dynamics är ett affärsområde inom Saab AB, som erbjuder lösningar, tjänster och produkter för militär verksamhet. Inom Saab Dynamics produktportfölj ingår granatgeväret Carl-Gustaf, ett axelburet, rekylfritt och återanvändbart vapensystem. Till vapensystemet tillverkar dessutom Saab Dynamics ammunition som kan varieras mellan sprängverkan, rökgranater, lysgranater och finkalibrig ammunition. Till respektive typ av ammunition finns dessutom övningsgranater, som innehar samma utseende, tyngd och laddningsförfarande med skillnaden att granaten är inert. Initieringen till studien grundas i ett identifierat behov av uppdatering av tändrörsattrappen till Drill Round 545C. Projektet utfördes på Saab Dynamics i Karlskoga, där syftet var att ta fram flera genomförbara koncept för tändrörsattrappen samt att ta fram tillverkningsunderlag för ett slutgiltigt koncept. Eftersom det skulle utföras en konceptutvecklingsprocess ansågs det också relevant att undersöka hur denna typ av process bör utföras inom företaget. Utifrån detta har det formulerats en frågeställning samt ett delmål med studien. Vilka framgångsfaktorer går att identifiera vid en konceptutvecklingsprocess på Saab Dynamics? Dessutom ska studien ta fram tillverkningsunderlag till den uppdaterade tändrörsattrappen enligt ISO 22081 samt tillverka en fysisk prototyp. tudien har delats upp i två delar, en kvalitativ studie med syfte att svara på frågeställningen samt en konceptstudie med syfte att ta fram den slutgiltiga prototypen. Genom att intervjua anställda med erfarenhet av konceptutveckling på Saab Dynamics och kombinera detta med en litteraturstudie har framgångsfaktorer identifieras. Resultatet av studien innebär att fem framgångsfaktorer identifierats samt några specifika situationer då de har väsentlig betydelse. Framgångsfaktorerna är: Kommunikation, Gruppsammansättning, Öppenhet inom gruppen, Process anpassad för det specifika projektet och Fokus på gränsytor mellan delprojekt. Konceptstudien utför