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One of the ways to improve the New Product Development (NPD) process is to eliminate the problems that arise over years of practice. This article describes the systematization of recurrent NPD management problems. The main NPD problems were found to be recurrent; hence, the systematization resulting from this study allows for the identification of NPD areas requiring special attention from both practitioners and researchers. This identification enables researchers to define new areas of academic research, and practitioners to focus on specific improvement projects. Eight case studies were conducted, in which 124 NPD personnel were interviewed, involving the diagnosis of the NPD process and the identification and selection of NPD improvement projects. The diagnostic method applied was the Current Reality Tree (CRT), which is a cognitive method for identifying undesirable effects (problems) in a process. Text mining techniques were then applied to identify similarities among these CRTs. Lastly, NPD categories were created to classify the NPD problems. An analysis of the rate of problems per category underlined the importance of diagnosing the NPD process. It was concluded that process and project management are just as critical as product strategy definition and human resource management. Additionally, we concluded that companies would gain greater benefits by focusing on the aforementioned areas before investing in information and communication technology. Potential pitfalls of NPD may be avoided if companies adopt proactive management actions to mitigate their NPD recurrent problems based on the results presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it necessary or even possible to apply the management technology of open innovation to all projects in the same way? An analysis of the practices used in different product development projects in the same European medical company shows that commercially successful projects did apply many of the best practices for open innovation. However, projects were not equally successful. The outcome seems to be highly influenced by the type of collaborative arrangements used and their application. In particular, the analysis indicates that organizational factors seem to be indicative but not sufficient for success, and some open innovation practices were more successful than others. The most open and exploratory practices were not so successful in this company. This might be due to the nature of innovation, which develops in unpredictable and nonlinear ways. These observations suggest that those involved in open innovation need both a broad knowledge of the various potential elements of an open innovation effort and a flexible attitude toward their application. INSET: Summary of Projects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In many firms, the marketing department plays a minor role in new product development ( NPD). However, recent research demonstrates that marketing capabilities more strongly influence firm performance than other areas such as research and development. This finding underscores the importance of identifying relevant capabilities that can improve the position of marketing within the NPD process as part of the quest to improve innovation performance. However, thus far, it has remained unclear precisely how the marketing department can increase its influence on NPD to enhance a firm's innovation performance. The results of this study demonstrate that the relationship between marketing capabilities and innovation performance is generally mediated by the decision influence of marketing on NPD. In particular, both marketing research quality and the ability to translate customer needs into product characteristics serve to increase marketing's influence on NPD. This increased influence, in turn, positively contributes to overall firm innovation performance. Hence, these results show that in addition to having the appropriate marketing capabilities, the marketing department must achieve a status in which these capabilities can translate into performance implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In screening decisions, senior managers from various disciplines need to collaborate to evaluate innovation project proposals and decide about the allocation of scarce resources to selected projects. Screening decisions are complex and made under high levels of uncertainty, and are considered to be one of senior management's most challenging tasks. In the present field study, screening decision making is investigated from the perspective of a Transactive Memory System ( TMS). TMS theory explains how cross-disciplinary groups of people in interdependent relationships gain, store, combine, and utilize their knowledge in solving complex problems. According to this theory, a TMS emerges to the extent that team members manage to synchronize three core socio-cognitive processes-specialization, building credibility, and coordination-to achieve team objectives. A theoretical model summarizing antecedents and consequences of the emergence of a TMS in a screening context is proposed and investigated using structural equation modeling. Data from 136 screening committees were used. Results show that the degree to which a committee acts as a TMS is positively related to decision-making effectiveness as well as efficiency in a screening context. Transformational leadership and an open organizational climate are shown to act as antecedents of TMS emergence. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing the interests of a wide set of stakeholders is important because it may have positive effects on financial performance. At the same time, however, it is also very complex because managers may face conflicting stakeholder issues, much more so than organizations that listen to only one stakeholder. Little is known about how multiple stakeholder issues are dealt with in the context of new product development ( NPD). The objective of this study is to delineate the elements of stakeholder integration in the context of NPD. A combination of insights from stakeholder theory and market information processing serves as a theoretical perspective to guide the empirical exploration in this study. The authors take the development of green (ecological) products as an empirical context for their qualitative multiple case study. Specifically, they selected four case studies with different expected levels of stakeholder integration, based on literature about green NPD. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with key informants, collecting documents, and obtaining artifacts. In total, 28 informants from various domains were interviewed. Transcribed interviews were coded using qualitative analysis software. The results show that a distinction needs to be made between market and nonmarket stakeholders, and that not all organizations are equally capable of identifying issues that are important to both categories of stakeholders. Organizations that identify issues that are relevant to both market stakeholders and nonmarket stakeholders are more likely to face tensions between stakeholder issues in NPD. Organizations manage these tensions using several, sometimes redundant, coordination mechanisms and using multiple prioritization principles in conjunction. Based on the results, the authors conceptualize stakeholder integration capability in an NPD context as the combination of stakeholder issue identification techniques, coordination mechanisms, and prioritization principles. They propose that stakeholder integration capability is the result of a learning process. Moreover, they propose that proactivity of environmental management and environmental impact of the industry help to explain why stakeholder issue identification techniques are developed, and that the identification of more stakeholder issues leads organizations to develop coordination mechanisms and prioritization principles. Finally, the authors propose that stakeholder integration capability leads to competitive advantage through organizational identification by stakeholders. The study implies that integrating multiple stakeholder issues is not just a matter of feeding additional information into NPD processes, but of changing the nature of these NPD processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concurrent product development process and integrated product development teams have emerged as the two dominant new product development ( NPD) 'best practices' in the literature. Yet empirical evidence of their impact on product development success remains inconclusive. This paper draws upon organizational information processing theory ( OIPT) to explore how these two dominant NPD best practices and two key aspects of NPD project characteristics (i.e., project uncertainty and project complexity) directly and jointly affect the NPD performance. Contrary to the 'best practice' literature, the analysis, based on 266 NPD projects from three industries (i.e., automotive, electronics, and machinery) across nine countries (i.e., Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United States), found no evidence of any direct impact of process concurrency or team integration on overall NPD performance. Instead, there is evidence of negative impact of the interaction between project uncertainty and concurrent NPD process and positive impact of the interaction between project complexity and team integration on overall NPD performance. Moreover, the study found no evidence of any direct negative impact of project uncertainty or complexity on overall NPD performance as suggested in the literature, but found evidence of a direct positive relationship between project complexity and overall NPD performance. The practical implications of these results are significant. First, neither process concurrency nor team integration should be embraced universally as best practice. Second, process concurrency should be avoided in projects with high uncertainty (i.e., when working with unfamiliar product, market, or technology). Finally, team integration should be encouraged for complex product development projects. For a simple product a loosely integrated team or a more centralized decision process may work well. However, as project complexity increases, team integration becomes essential for improved product development. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for managing NPD projects. The choice of a product development practice should be determined by the project characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diversification of research approaches became apparent in the field of product development management in the 1990s, based on a monumental study by Clark and Fujimoto (1991) (the so-called "Harvard Study"). The following five new research approaches then came into play. The "product-industry based approach," sought to clarify effective product development management by focusing on the characteristics of products and industry. The "multi-project approach" analyzed multiple projects over single projects. The "dynamic approach" focused on the dynamic aspects of product development from the long-term perspective. The "problem-solving approach" regarded product development as a problem-solving process. The "organizational capability approach" sought to elucidate organizational capabilities that contribute to high performance in product development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product development projects are exposed to a number of challenges, and the significance of different challenges differs among projects. To prepare for these challenges, project managers may benefit from assessing them at an early stage of the project. This paper presents a method that can be used to assess product development challenges in terms of technological and market uncertainty, product and production complexity, and geographical and organizational dispersion. Project managers can use the results from such assessments to justify preventive action, negotiate resources and specifications, and devise processes that fit the specific characteristics of individual development projects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The deployment of scientific approach to customers' voice by means of customer science to achieve a good product development process. This model means implementing Customer Kano Model for turning the design perception into a precise knowledge as more creative activities from the hidden knowledge of designing using statistical science. The model has been applied to product design process and the results obtained are shown. An application of Kano CAGE model has further given the option of customer centric evaluations and which leads to an optimum product development process. A concept is arrived at and importance is given to Kano model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to increase the understanding of how offshoring influences the introduction of new products and services. Focusing on the offshoring of those business functions that provide direct knowledge inputs for innovation (i.e., production, R&D, and engineering), we propose that offshoring has an inverted U-shaped influence on firm innovativeness. Additionally, we provide an upper echelon contingency perspective by considering the moderating role of two top management team (TMT) attributes (i.e., informational diversity and shared vision). Using a cross-industry sample with lagged data, we find that offshoring has an inverted U-shaped influence on firm innovativeness and that this relationship is steeper in firms with high TMT informational diversity and in firms with low TMT shared vision. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building a complex portfolio of products can be beneficial for young firms due to increased sales growth and competitiveness. Yet, the benefits from product portfolio complexity (PPC) are often outweighed by rising costs, leading to an inverted U-shaped relationship between PPC and performance. Recent research has called for an increased understanding of how firms are able to better manage higher levels of PPC. We suggest that absorptive capacity and ambidexterity are vital to enhancing the benefits and mitigating the costs of increasing PPC. Using a sample of 215 young high technology firms, we find support for positive moderating effects of absorptive capacity and ambidexterity on the inverted U-shaped relationship between PPC and firm performance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers frequently question whether financial firms benefit by developing new products because barriers to entry common to other industries generally do not exist. Studies of early mover advantages for new financial products provide mixed evidence at best. We find evidence of early mover advantages in the relatively young market for long-term care insurance (LTCI) using data that allow broad testing of financial performance. Product differentiation, individual lines exposure, firm size, and traditional health insurance experience also affect financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study recognizes that collaboration with customers for new product development may bring important financial benefits to firms, but at the same time may seriously hamper explorative learning. Many firms are approached by customers with requests to develop new products for them. While such requests may strengthen customer relationships and result in short-term financial gains, it may force a firm in technologically undesirable directions. As a result, many firms struggle with the dilemma of, on the one hand, responding to customer requests, and on the other hand, safeguarding the long-term competitive position of the firm. Firms with strong customer ties are particularly prone to this dilemma. Drawing on opportunity recognition literature, capability monitoring literature as well as goal setting theory, the authors have developed a framework arguing that Strategic Value Assessment ( SVA) can help resolve this. SVA is defined as an a priori business evaluation of the value of a particular innovation collaboration, based on anticipated long-term strategic benefits. It helps innovative firms to focus on collaboration with customers with lead user status and to develop intense relationships, allowing for more effective knowledge transfer and learning. The framework is tested using data collected from a sample of 136 business-to-business firms in the Netherlands. The sampling frame was a panel of small and medium-sized high-tech enterprises. The study finds positive direct and indirect effects of SVA on explorative learning. In addition, the findings show that the intense collaboration/learning relationship is positively moderated by customer lead user status, and negatively moderated by customer dependence. The findings suggest that SVA is a useful heuristic for managers to utilize opportunities for innovation involving collaboration with customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing factors that predict new product success ( NPS) holds critical importance for companies, as research shows that despite considerable new product investment, success rates are generally below 25%. Over the decades, meta-analytical attempts have been made to summarize empirical findings on NPS factors. However, market environment changes such as increased global competition, as well as methodological advancements in meta-analytical research, present a timely opportunity to augment their results. Hence, a key objective of this research is to provide an updated and extended meta-analytic investigation of the factors affecting NPS. Using Henard and Szymanski's meta-analysis as the most comprehensive recent summary of empirical findings, this study updates their findings by analyzing articles published from 1999 through 2011, the period following the original meta-analysis. Based on 233 empirical studies (from 204 manuscripts) on NPS, with a total 2618 effect sizes, this study also takes advantage of more recent methodological developments by re-calculating effects of the meta-analysis employing a random effects model. The study's scope broadens by including overlooked but important additional variables, notably 'country culture,' and discusses substantive differences between the updated meta-analysis and its predecessor. Results reveal generally weaker effect sizes than those reported by Henard and Szymanski in 2001, and provide evolutionary evidence of decreased effects of common success factors over time. Moreover, culture emerges as an important moderating factor, weakening effect sizes for individualistic countries and strengthening effects for risk-averse countries, highlighting the importance of further investigating culture's role in product innovation studies, and of tracking changes of success factors of product innovations. Finally, a sharp increase since 1999 in studies investigating product and process characteristics identifies a significant shift in research interest in new product development success factors. The finding that the importance of success factors generally declines over time calls for new theoretical approaches to better capture the nature of new product development ( NPD) success factors. One might speculate that the potential to create competitive advantages through an understanding of NPD success factors is reduced as knowledge of these factors becomes more widespread among managers. Results also imply that managers attempting to improve success rates of NPDs need to consider national culture as this factor exhibits a strong moderating effect: Working in varied cultural contexts will result in differing antecedents of successful new product ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introducing new products remains a critical challenge for managers. Consumer acceptance of new products is key to new product success and requires the effective implementation of market launch activities. The present study describes the relationship between different types of market launch activities and market-related, time-related, and financial market launch success. The study's framework extends previous work on launch management by complementing the view that launch activities are predominantly outwardly directed with the notion that launch management can also be inwardly directed. More specifically, launch activities can both target customers as the external audience, for example, via communication and pricing, and address an internal audience, such as management and sales personnel, for example, using departmental coordination or employee incentives. The study also sets out to investigate how situational factors impact the relative effectiveness of both externally directed and internally directed launch activities in engendering successful new product launches. In particular, product newness, technology drivers, and firm size are considered as relevant variables. Structural equation analysis of data on 178 new products across industries provide empirical evidence that market launch success depends on the intensity of both externally directed and internally directed market launch activities. With regard to the overall impact of internally directed activities, the findings confirm that organizational factors and antecedents indeed play a critical role in new product launch and its respective performance with internally directed activities having an even stronger impact on time-related and financial success than outwardly directed instruments. Specifically, these internal activities are often viewed as idiosyncratic resources that are hard for competitors to observe and are therefore more difficult-if not impossible-to replicate compared to externally directed activities in market launch. The paper clearly pinpoints that the successful launch of new products is a complex task that also necessitates the implementation of internally directed launch activities. Fast market penetration requires coordination among the different internal players as well as support from top management. Furthermore, the financial objectives of the market launch can only be met if employees and executives both receive the necessary incentives and support to effectively execute the new product introduction. The study also demonstrates that moderators impact the strength of the effectiveness of these two different types of market launch activities. This research provides important implications for launch management by advocating that the two foci on external and internal constituencies should not be pursued in isolation but that instead, the opposite is true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New ventures are often launched for the purpose of pioneering an innovative new product or service in the marketplace. Entrepreneurs or founders of new ventures thus often have to make the decision whether to be the market pioneer or the first mover. While being a first mover potentially is advantageous, it also involves taking risks and facing uncertainties. Entrepreneurs must assess the benefits and risks of pioneering in the first-mover decision-making process to realize the potential competitive advantages associated with being a pioneer. Previous research has shown how entrepreneurs perceive potential gains and losses associated with exploring opportunities as the key defining element of entrepreneurial decision-making. Past studies have also indicated that cultural and business environmental factors affect both perceptions and decision-making. However, studies to date have insufficiently addressed the relationship between entrepreneurs' perceived pioneering advantages/disadvantages and their first-mover decisions, with little attention to cross-national differences. This study includes hypotheses postulating how entrepreneurs' perceived advantages and disadvantages of pioneering affect the number of first-mover decisions made by entrepreneurs in two different cultural contexts, the United States and China. We collect data from 152 U. S. entrepreneurs and 140 Chinese entrepreneurs over a four-year period and carry out empirical tests on the hypotheses using Poisson regression models. Our results provide insight on how culture affects perceptions of advantages and disadvantages of pioneering, and how these perceptions impact the likelihood of making a first-mover decision. We find that a higher level of perceived advantages will drive first-mover decisions, whereas perceived disadvantages will deter first-mover decisions. The negative effect of perceived erosion disadvantages on the number of first-mover decisions was higher for Chinese entrepreneurs, consistent with the high risk-aversion culture in China. However, this effect was not found for perceived uncertainty disadvantages, suggesting that the risk-averse characteristics of Chinese entrepreneurs is an oversimplification, and that the Chinese cultural, business, and legal environment helps offset uncertainty disadvantages. We also find an interesting positive moderating effect of perceived advantage on the relationship between perceived disadvantages and the number of first-mover decisions in China only. That is, if perceived advantages are low, Chinese entrepreneurs are more risk averse than U. S. entrepreneurs; but if perceived advantages are high, Chinese entrepreneurs are more risk-seeking than U. S. entrepreneurs. This finding again challenges the risk aversion conclusion found by previous studies of Chinese managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational adaptive capability is a broad term and was studied from different perspectives, such as market, technology, and management system, in the management literature. However, the simultaneous effects of these different perspectives and their related adaptive capability constructs on a firm's product innovativeness have yet to be addressed. Additionally, an empirical study of the influence of informal structural dimensions, such as loose coupling, multiplexity, and redundancy, on the organizational adaptive capability, as antecedents, is also missing in the technology and innovation management ( TIM) literature. By studying 153 firms, we found that (1) market-, technology-, and management system-related adaptive capability constructs simultaneously and positively impact firm product innovativeness; (2) under the loose coupling construct, autonomous behaviors of departments positively impact technology and management system adaptive capability, loose management style influences market and management system adaptive capability, and uneven/slow information travel in organizations negatively affects technology and management system adaptive capability; (3) multiplexity positively influences all organizational adaptive capability constructs; and (4) under the redundancy construct, information distribution redundancy has an '∩' shape relationship with technology adaptive capability. We also demonstrated that the impact of informal structural constructs on adaptive capability is contingent upon environmental turbulence, e.g., rapid or unanticipated changes in market and technology. We found that the influence of loose management style on technology adaptive capability decreases with increased rate of market turbulence, and the effect of resource slack, as a part of the redundancy construct, on technology adaptive capability changes quadratically, an '∩' shaped curve, with an increased rate of market turbulence. We further found that the effect of the autonomous behaviors of departments on market adaptive capability increases with an increased level of technology turbulence. The role of resource slack on the market adaptive capability was also found to change quadratically, an '∩' shaped curve, with an increased rate of technology turbulence. Interestingly, the impact of the information distribution redundancy on market adaptive capability changes nonlinearly, a ' U' shaped curve, with an increased rate of technology turbulence. Further, we showed that the influence of organizational technology adaptive capability on product innovativeness increases with increased level of technology turbulence. This study concludes with several theoretical and managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the role of imagination difficulty on the evaluation of really new products ( RNPs) in comparison with incrementally new products ( INPs). We extend past research on accessibility utilizing an anticipatory approach where consumers look forward and generate mental images for future product usage. We found that the role of imagination changes based on the newness of the product. Specifically, for RNPs, imagination difficulty is perceived to be diagnostic in product assessment, and thus, higher imagination difficulty leads to lower product evaluations. However, for INPs, which are shown to be less susceptible to context effects, imagination difficulty has a limited impact on product evaluations. In addition, we show that the effect of imagination difficulty on the evaluation of RNPs is moderated by the level of involvement of the consumer. Research and managerial implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Market vision' is a mental model that helps focus the organization on a new market application for an advanced technology during the fuzzy front end of the new product development process. Previous research demonstrates that firms involved in the development of radically new, high-tech products need to develop a market visioning competence ( MVC) in order to develop an effective market vision ( MV), and these capabilities, in turn, have been found to have a positive effect on key aspects of the early performance ( EP) of these firms-specifically, the ability to attract capital and early success with customers. Based on a major empirical study of the nanotechnology sector, the research described in this paper takes an important step forward by focusing on factors in both the external and internal environment of the firm, and their moderating impact on the paths that link MVC, MV, and EP. External structural factors relevant to the firm's competitive environment as well as internal factors, including firm resources, size, incumbency, and technology, are shown to have significant moderating effects both on the way in which MV unfolds and on its capacity for affecting positive returns for the firm when undertaking radical innovation. Five of seven hypotheses were supported by the research. Both level of incumbency (the extent to which the firm has taken part in previous generations of a given technology) and resource availability are shown to positively impact the link between MVC and MV. Also, appropriability (i.e., protection for innovations) and reputation of the firm were found to positively impact the path to EP. Finally, a low level of industry concentration-that is, a large number of small firms-were found to have a positive effect on the path to EP. In sum, the findings support the structure of the model and the majority of the hypothesized moderating relationships, suggesting important implications for management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms increasingly rely on suppliers to perform tasks in new product development ( NPD). Research has only recently begun to focus on the processes to manage this supplier development responsibility, and has hardly investigated how firms collect and analyze information regarding the cost and performance of alternative supplier offerings. Our study addresses this gap, through a field survey among 144 paired samples of project leaders and cost analysts involved in the same NPD projects. On the basis of literature and qualitative research, we conceptualize a substantive model. We first use a substantive validity assessment to vet the measures for the proposed constructs. We then test the substantive model with structural equation modeling using a multiple-sample analysis. The results strongly show that monetary quantification of differences and detail gathering play significant roles in successfully leveraging supplier development responsibility. The findings support the hypothesis that the extent of development responsibility that suppliers have leads the development team to a more focused monetary quantification of the differences in alternative supplier offerings. Monetary quantification of differences has a significant, positive effect on the extent of supporting-detail gathering and on the development speed of the project, whereas supporting-detail gathering has a significant, positive effect on the product advantage of the new product as well as development speed. These findings are robust across the two functional perspectives. Our study complements the literature on interfirm control and monitoring by demonstrating the effects of selective and focused output controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation contests as a means to realize innovative product or service solutions are growing in popularity among practitioners and researchers. An increasing number of organizations worldwide have adopted innovation contests, not only for innovation purposes, but also for other reasons such as promoting sustainability. At the same time, innovation contests represent a growing research field to scholars from different backgrounds, e.g., economics or information systems. In this article, first, the growing body of literature on innovation contests is reviewed and classified into five research categories: economic perspective, management perspective, education focus, innovation focus and sustainability focus. Second, some design elements of innovation contests that are central for the understanding, design and management of innovation contests are presented based on the current body of literature. Finally, current research gaps are presented and some of the research questions are developed that could be explored to contribute to the body of literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has identified numerous determinants leading to the success of new product development ( NPD) projects. However, which particular determinants carry more importance when developing high-novelty projects under tight time constraints have yet to be clarified. We study the development of ECJ-400 of Eclipse Aircraft Company, a highly innovative new jet airplane that was designed and built in a very aggressive 229-day timetable. Through an in-depth case analysis using interviews with members of the four companies involved in the design, manufacturing, and flight testing of the airplane, we enquire about the underlying factors that led to the successful creation of this product. Propositions were formulated and then depicted respectively through the development of a casual network diagram. Our study contributes to the NPD speed literature by highlighting the particular interrelationships between determinants that are influential toward highly novel time-pressured NPD projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing popularity of organizational sensemaking in the literature, sensemaking capability of firms attracts many researchers and practitioners from different fields. Nevertheless, sensemaking capability is rarely addressed in the new product development ( NPD) project teams in the technology and innovation management literature. Specifically, we know little about what team sensemaking capability is, its ingredients and benefits, and how it works in NPD projects (e.g., its antecedents and consequences). By investigating 92 NPD project teams, we found that (1) team sensemaking capability, which is composed of internal and external communication, information gathering, information classification, building shared mental models, and taking experimental actions, has a positive impact on the information implementation and speed-to-market; (2) information implementation and speed-to-market mediate the relationship between team sensemaking capability and new product success; and (3) team sensemaking capability mediates the relationship between team processes and information implementation and partially mediates the relationship between team processes and speed-to-market. We also found that team autonomy, interpersonal trust among team members, and open-mindedness of team members positively influence the development of team sensemaking capability. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By associating materials of another universe with the product of yet another universe, cosmetic marketing teams wish to bring even more emotions and reinforce the interpretation of a sense by conveying the sensorial properties of a product with sensorial images contained in other product universes. This study aimed at characterizing sensorial descriptors of velvet fabrics so as to identify the descriptors relevant to cosmetic emulsions. A panel of 10 judges, expert in cosmetics, was therefore trained and qualified on velvet fabrics. At the end of this study, the panelists were efficient on a structured scale, in which each descriptor was associated to a reference fabric. The product profiles of cosmetic emulsions were carried out around the velvet universe, thus demonstrating that most of the sensations expressed in a cosmetic product could be explained through the characteristics of velvets. Practical Applications The descriptors issued from the reference fabrics were relevant in distinguishing two cosmetic emulsions, thus suggesting that they could be used in the evaluation of other products. The results of this study could be used to define the technical specifications in the functional specifications of the new products being developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing firms are under many financial and competitive pressures that focus attention on the performance of their manufacturing processes. In this article the opportunities for improving the environmental impact of products within the constraints of existing manufacturing infrastructure are examined. Approaches that support sustainability in two aspects are proposed; first, the provision of products to the users in ways which extend the product life; and second, manufacturing approaches that reduce resource usage. This article outlines three different sustainable development strategies for different product types and describes the cost implications for manufacturers across the life cycle. The performance measures affected by these strategies are examined, drawing on product development case studies from a number of high technology sectors to highlight the different approaches taken. The results are intended to aid manufacturers during the earliest stages of business planning to consider alternative product development approaches that are more sustainable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT Initial applications of prediction markets (PMs) indicate that they provide good forecasting instruments in many settings, such as elections, the box office, or product sales. One particular characteristic of these 'first-generation' (G1) PMs is that they link the payoff value of a stock's share to the outcome of an event. Recently, 'second-generation' (G2) PMs have introduced alternative mechanisms to determine payoff values which allow them to be used as preference markets for determining preferences for product concepts or as idea markets for generating and evaluating new product ideas. Three different G2 payoff mechanisms appear in the existing literature, but they have never been compared. This study conceptually and empirically compares the forecasting accuracy of the three G2 payoff mechanisms and investigates their influence on participants' trading behavior. We find that G2 payoff mechanisms perform almost as well as their G1 counterpart, and trading behavior is very similar in both markets (i.e. trading prices and trading volume), except during the very last trading hours of the market. These results indicate that G2 PMs are valid instruments and support their applicability shown in previous studies for developing new product ideas or evaluating new product concepts. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents the exploration and application of a feature-based design methodology within mechanical product development cycles. Based on a review of the feature technology and previous research work, this paper focuses on the modeling of intricate relations among features of different design aspects. A concept of feature parameter map that leads to a constraint mapping method is proposed. Further, features are classified into different levels; and information management for product lifecycle support is considered. The application of this method is demonstrated with the conceptual design and optimization of a gearbox as the study case. In addition, an extended feature system for product development was explored. With a spreadsheet package and a computer aided design (CAD) tool, the product model generation, change management and final optimization of the case assembly including its bulk shape, have been achieved. Two important information chains were used to address the aspect of “design for post-manufacture services” with concurrent engineering consideration, i.e. a field installation pattern and a set of wrapping dimensions for product transport packaging. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of change management, a different product derivative model was regenerated by adopting and changing the values of a main conceptual feature. The result is promising. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Despite recording the highest growth among tourism sub-sectors [Dhesi, D. (2009, March 25). Medical tourism rises in Malaysia despite economic downturn. The Star Online. Retrieved from http://www.malaysiahealthcare.com/; Leonard, T. (2009, July 24). Medical tourists to bring in RM 540 million by 2010. Retrieved from http://www.malaysiahealthcare.com/; Tourism Malaysia. (2008). Profile of tourist by selected markets 2008. Kuala Lumpur: Tourism Malaysia], little is known empirically with regard to travel behaviour among inbound medical tourists in Malaysia. This study examined the demographic profile, travel motivation, healthcare consumption, and expenditure behaviour among them in Kuala Lumpur. Using the combination of purposeful and convenience sampling, a total of 138 questionnaires were completed, returned, and analysed. The majority of the respondents were female, middle aged, travelling with two others and Indonesians. Their main travel motivation factors were ‘value for money’, ‘excellent medical services’, ‘supporting services’, ‘cultural similarity’, and ‘religious factor’ in descending order of importance. Medical treatment, cosmetic procedure, surgical procedure, and medical check-up were important healthcare services sought after by the respondents. On average, medical tourists spent MYR 26,844.19 per visit, with females and tourists of European descent contributing significantly more. Tourists from ASEAN had stronger motivation of ‘cultural similarity’ compared with other tourists. This paper is unique in providing the empirical evidence of the city's unique selling points (pull factors) in attracting inbound medical tourists. It also highlights the potential economic contribution and some managerial implications in terms of marketing and product development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumer preferences and information on product choice behavior can be of significant value in the development processes of innovative products. In this paper, product customization evaluation and selection model is introduced to support imprecision inherent of qualitative inputs from customers and designers in the decision making process. Focusing on customer utility generation, an optimum design selection approach based on fuzzy set decision-making is proposed, where design attributes priority is identified from customer preferences using an analytical hierarchy process. A multi-attribute analysis diagram is developed to visualize the preference of each attribute from the expert's group decision. Conjoint analysis is used in the product customization to focus on customer utility generation in terms of multiple criteria. The use of the decision-making method is illustrated with a case example that highlights the utility of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articl presents a research study on the integration of chosen management standards into the organization by the Integrated Management System Role-Play Simulation (SIMPRO-IMS). The research methodology is based on standards innovation and integration management system application of International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It shows that positive results can be viewed after the first use of IMS role-play simulation in customer satisfaction and product improvement.

The extensive academic literature on innovation has long recognized product users as a potentially important source of ideas. Although prior work has primarily focused on understanding the unique motivations and knowledge that allow users to generate their own innovations, we extend existing theory to investigate the contribution of users to corporate invention. We draw on the knowledge-based view of the firm, evolutionary theory, and the user innovation literature to theorize that corporate inventions that integrate user knowledge will be of greater importance, contribute to a broader set of follow-on technologies, and occur earlier in the product life cycle than other corporate inventions do. We test these propositions with a large data set of medical device inventions. We find support for our predictions and discuss the implications of our results for the theoretical and empirical literature on organizational innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents industrial company's engineering activities in order to define that they stand out from other activities and engineers occupy an important role in product development process. Analysis of the data was carried out and it presented information about shaping the engineering activities, goals, objectives, responsibilities of engineers, their promoting methods, administrative efficiency and influence on the company's economic results. At the end of the article we present ideas and schemes how to assess the activities of engineering and engineers from economic and social aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between information technology (IT) and trademarks. Using an 11-year panel data set (1987-1997) of IT capital stock, trademark holdings, and other measures for 116 Fortune 1000 manufacturing firms, we find that IT contributes to higher trademark holdings. Further, we find evidence suggesting that firms with more IT capital tend to apply for more new trademarks and retire existing trademarks more quickly, leading to a shorter trademark life cycle. Because trademarks are mainly used by firms to communicate differences among similar products to the marketplace, these results suggest that the business value of IT can be realized in greater product variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of increasing licensing, we challenge the common assumption that product development and technology licensing are substitutes. We develop a resource-based framework, which distinguishes a firm's technological resource base and technology exploitation processes. We further combine survey, patent, and financial data of 228 medium-sized and large industrial companies to examine the interactions of firms' product development processes and technology licensing processes in order to explain heterogeneity in new product revenues, licensing performance, and firm performance. The results underscore that product development, which indicates innovative capacity, and technology licensing, which indicates desorptive capacity, are complements rather than substitutes in integrated knowledge exploitation in medium-sized and large firms. This complementarity is particularly pronounced in firms with an emphasis on cross-licensing and with a strong patent portfolio. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OVERVIEW: Along with other Web 2.0 market intelligence tools, online idea competitions can provide essential input for decision making in the early phases of product innovation. However, in order to use online competitions effectively, it is essential to know when to use which method, how to use it, and to what extent virtual and conventional research techniques can be used interchangeably or complementarily. A first step toward assessing the power of Web 2.0 techniques is to compare them with traditional ones. We compare the expense and results of online idea competitions with focus groups for idea generation in the market for senior citizen mobile phones and services. We find that idea competitions lead to more and better ideas at a lower cost per idea, while focus groups yield richer interactions with users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group customer and user research methods, brainstorming, and focus groups continue to be used in innovation efforts to uncover customer needs, generate new product and service ideas, and evaluate decisions, despite extensive empirical evidence that group methods are ineffective for such purposes. This paper summarizes the strong evidence of the ineffectiveness of group research methods for these purposes, much of which has been published outside of the new product development or business literature. The paper shows that the most common rationalization for the continued use of group methods-cost and speed advantages-are questionable, and then proposes an organizational market learning framework for evaluating the use of group methods. This framework provides guidance for the proper use of these research tools and suggests areas for future research on research methods for product innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers frequently face problems when using a product or service. Successful incremental product development depends on accurately identifying these problems. Exploratory methods that are commonly used to identify such problems tend to present consumers with stimuli (i.e., questions) that prompt a particular kind of psychological processing. Subproblem decomposition, a new exploratory method, uses stimuli that prompt a different kind of psychological processing. Consumers are asked to think out loud while performing product-related tasks, and their spoken thoughts are used to identify the 'subproblems' faced during product use. Subproblem decomposition, therefore, generates different insights, which complement the perspective gained by more conventional exploratory methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While previous studies have shed light on the benefits and antecedents of platform-based product development, there is still much to be learned on the subject, particularly through an empirical approach. Based on the literature, this study proposes the concept of product platform competency and identifies four antecedents related to the development process, knowledge sharing, and the organization of development. The study hypothesizes that such competency directly affects the performance of platform-based product development. To test these hypotheses, a large-scale survey was conducted in the United States with 242 firms. The study found empirical evidence to support the existence of the concept of product platform competency, which comprises the reusability of subsystems, the compatibility of subsystem interfaces, and the extensibility of platform-based products. The results show that a formalized development process, knowledge sharing across platform-based products, continuity of platform-based product development teams, and the existence of a champion in platform-based product development will significantly enhance product platform competency. More interestingly, the results show that factors which have a significant effect on platform development cost are statistically different from those that have a significant effect on platform development time. For example, while formalized product development process and continuity of development team play a very significant role in shortening development time, they are less crucial in reducing development costs. In contrast, the presence of a product champion is a significant factor in achieving cost efficiency, but it has relatively lower impact on development time. Knowledge sharing was found to affect both development time and cost. In sum, this study makes three main contributions to the existing literature. The first contribution is the empirical-tested concept of product platform competence based on key elements suggested by Robertson and Ulrich. The second contribution is the development of constructs specifically for platform development based on previous studies. Relating to this is the third contribution: the development and validation of measurement items related to key drivers to platform development, the three aspects of platform development competence, and the performance measurements. These measurement items can be used by practitioners as guidelines to identify areas for improvement as well as the level of capability in platform development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in the field of new products management has advanced considerably since the first issue of JPIM was published in 1984. It may be helpful at this point in our profession's development to consider modest steps toward creating a research agenda that, at least in part, will strive to inform choices of topics that will help us continue to advance professional practices. This article is based on prior presentations to the Product Development and Management Association in 2008 and extended for PDMA's Inaugural Doctor Consortium, sponsored by the University of Illinois at Chicago and held in 2011. The topics herein help to establish a foundation for the latest efforts developed during the Consortium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technologies from different industries are increasingly being combined to create new products and services. A fundamental challenge for the successful development of these interindustry innovations is to combine the previously unconnected technologies in an entirely new product architecture. The development of the required architectural knowledge is especially challenging in an interindustry setting. For instance, specialists from the different industries are likely to have different routines and no prior ties. Given these considerations, this paper explores the conditions for the successful organization of the development process of interindustry architectural innovations. This study adopts a multiple case study design. Based on document analysis and semistructured interviews, three development projects were studied and compared. These projects involved the development of mobile communication applications for services that were already being provided by traditional means in other industry, that is, television, banking, and payment. To increase the likelihood of finding relevant theoretical insights, the three projects were selected based on their different organizational setups, that is, a contractual alliance of two large firms, an informal alliance of two large firms and one small firm, and an independent start-up together with its suppliers. The results show that development projects for interindustry architectural innovations are likely to benefit from an organizational form (1) that includes specialists from the relevant industries; (2) that facilitates intense coordination integration between these specialists; and (3) that facilitates timely decision making and conflict resolution. Interestingly, these organizational dimensions influence project performance jointly rather than individually. Hence, these results lay the ground for the development of a configurational theory. This is a clear contribution to the new product development literature because configurational theories in this field of research are underdeveloped. Configurational theories offer valuable insights for managers who have to make multiple decisions simultaneously rather than in isolation. In particular, this study shows how multiple organizational dimensions can be aligned to produce a synergistic effect, while taking into account the specific characteristics and challenges of interindustry architectural innovations. In particular, this study proposes intense collaborations between specialists from the different industries in which one of these specialists takes the lead. Of course, specialists should be responsible for their areas of expertise, but architectural decisions should be made by consensus and-whenever needed to speed up the process-by fiat. At the same time, the findings suggest that going it alone by start-ups as well as fifty-fifty collaborations between incumbents do not work well for this type of innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry is increasingly aware that sustainability combines environmental, societal, and economic considerations in product development and that this linkage, while driving improved performance, can pose both a business opportunity and a challenge. On one hand, innovations make good business sense by bringing new products to supply a growing market demand for sustainable goods. On the other hand, new regulatory standards demand cleaner, less-toxic products, which can be difficult to develop economically, and require an agreed-upon infrastructure to demonstrate compliance, which can also be difficult and expensive. In this article, we discuss how measurements, standards, and data, being developed and deployed worldwide by national metrology institutes (NMIs) and standards-developing organizations (SDOs), are helping industry enable the sustainable use of materials. Examples include bio-based polymers, lightweight automobiles, fly-ash-based concrete, and lead-free solders. Measurements, standards, and data also support energy efficiency and renewable energy and ease industry compliance with new and emerging regulations, including those that demand less-toxic components. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Now the customers are not passive, they are highly networked and connected with companies. Some companies take advantage of these features to innovate products from customer contributions. Co - creation like collaborative model to the innovation is characterized from being divided into interrelated stages in order to capture client's contributions in an appropriate way. The ability to assess and rank the contributions of the actors involved in this collaborative process is a crucial organizations task. The present paper proposes a fuzzy system that allows valuation for agent's contributions that participate in a collaborative way in products and services co - creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms accumulate knowledge through product development activities such as efficient product design, various experimental data, and know-how of project management. By exploiting this knowledge, firms are able to improve product quality, reduce cost, and shorten the development lead time. The more firms accumulate knowledge, the more they are able to gain competitiveness by exploiting their knowledge. However, because of efficiency gained by exploitation, firms can sometimes excessively exploit their knowledge, thus making their products too similar to and less attractive than earlier products and, as a result, lose competitiveness. In this paper, we employ a time series analysis to show that excess exploitation of know-how reduced product creativity in the Japanese video game industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While scientists are stepping up their efforts to develop new technologies, the ability of firms to determine the value of their technologies by identifying potential applications has become a major challenge. This article focuses on a particular phase of technology development: the emergence phase. When a promising new technology first sees the light of day in a fundamental research laboratory, its target markets often seem plentiful but are ill-defined. The inability to produce prototypes or to identify potential users makes it difficult to explore potential commercial applications. On the basis of four micro-nanotechnologies case studies conducted within a multi-partner innovation project, this article aims to theoretically explain why the identification of applications from emerging technologies is not a trivial problem. That research analyses how technologists and non-experts interact during creative investigations into new applications. It shows that the technologists are victims of a form of cognitive fixation. Indeed, their beliefs and activities are guided by a stable cognitive representation of their technology: the presumed identity of technology. Based on a recent design framework, C-K Design Theory, the technological exploration process followed in our four case studies is modelled, and mechanisms to dismantle the presumed identity and to design an extended identity of technology are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shares a platform of apparel design that considers ethical implications within the product development process, which were incorporated into a senior level apparel design course during Spring 2009 and expanded upon inSpring 2010. In a problem-based learning format, students were challenged to develop ethical fashions from design development through final fashion garment in collaboration with the Fair Labor Association (FLA), Gildan Activewear and El Instituto Politecnico Centroamericano (IPC) in Honduras. The project demonstrates a broad range of considerations that should go into designing and producing a garment that is defined as ‘ethical’, including choice of materials that benefit the environment, choice of suppliers with verifiable fair labour practices, and responsible interactions and exchanges between the buyers/designers and suppliers. Use of communication and apparel industry-specific technology was essential in this project with international partners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study of decision-making practice in the context of media production has been dominated by social accounts focused on the interaction of the individual, group, institution, and wider society. Cognitive perspectives on such decision making have received relatively less attention. This article attempts to balance the existing focus on the social with an exploratory investigation of the efficacy of cognitive models of decision making developed in other fields to the study of media production.It argues that researchers should pay as much attention to the cognitive processes of decision makers as to the analysis of the character of overt decision-making behavior in groups, which has characterized much of the work on media production (particularly in ethnographic studies), if a full understanding of such decision making is to be developed. It suggests that perspectives developed in other fields may offer the prospect of greater insight into such cognitive processes.This article focuses on a specific decision-making context (i.e., producers and their teams working in the television sector on the selection of ideas to feed the product development process). It proposes the operation of at least 2 different modes of decision making, and uses naturalistic decision-making models as a way of exploring cognitive process in 1 of them. In doing so, it attempts to more precisely address the rather crudely defined concept of “gut instinct,” and speculates on how it might be operationalized and, hence, studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past, Caribbean nations have attempted to offset their vulnerability by negotiating Special and Differential Treatment for their products and by advancing the process of regional integration. Neither is likely to be successful in the future. An alternative way to reduce vulnerability would be for the region to become more technologically advanced. This paper advances a strategy to encourage well-educated members of the Caribbean diaspora to return home to help the region to become more technologically progressive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The success of new product development (NPD) depends on a team's abilities to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competences and the flexibility to address rapidly changing environments. To develop innovative products it is desirable that these processes should not be constrained by current beliefs and routines. NPD teams therefore need to engage in an unlearning process to overcome any resistance to new ideas and to facilitate a fresh approach. The paper recognizes that the controlled experience of stress plays a part in unlearning (e.g., confusion about technology or market change can encourage changes) and argues that teams should systematically reflect on the progress they are making in projects and in unlearning. The fairness of procedures used by the management moderates the proposed relationships. Two hundred and ninety eight team members and 77 NPD team leaders participated in the study. The results indicate that team reflexivity positively influences unlearning and product innovation, while team stress has a negative effect. The perceived fairness of management procedures strengthens the positive effects of team reflexivity on unlearning and product innovation, and reduces negative effect of team stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the research reported here is to contribute to the ongoing development of R&D project leadership studies by applying a distributed leadership perspective in the analysis of a product development project in a small biotechnology venture. A distributed leadership perspective implies that leadership is studied as a process of social interaction, involving several individuals who continuously construct leadership activities together. From a case study of a bio-tech venture, we conclude that leadership work in R&D projects implies construction of issues, responsibilities and identities. That is, what people do - seen from this perspective - when performing leadership activities in this project is that they gradually move the project and the organization forward by processing issues, resolving ambiguities concerning responsibility, and develop their understandings on the identity bases involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When developing products such as computers, machinery and automobiles, interdependent components developed by different first-tier suppliers must fit together and perform as expected in the final product. Applying information processing theory and social network theory, this research explores three approaches that buyers can use to manage the interface between interdependent first-tier suppliers during product development. These are (1) using an interactive team, (2) making a supplier-supplier connection by encouraging first-tier suppliers to communicate, coordinate and mutually adjust and (3) using a modular design. Data were gathered in an online survey of buying firms in manufacturing industries and hypotheses were tested using hierarchical moderated regression. Results show that interactive teams increase the quality of the component system and that modular designs increase product development efficiency. Interactive teams are more beneficial for system quality when the technology used for components are new to suppliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]