Technology Management for New Product Development

Abstract

In this chapter, the authors explore the technology management capability (TMC) in new product development (NPD) of Chinese manufacturing firms from the perspective of knowledge. Firstly, insights from TMC and NPD literature are utilized, through which NPD and TMC are connected by knowledge. The effects of TMC and its elements in different NPD stages are then theoretically analyzed by taking knowledge issues as a bridge. Secondly, data of TMC and NPD are collected from Chinese manufacturing firms and analyzed by regression technique to verify the theoretical findings. Thirdly, a typical Chinese manufacturing firm is selected for further verifying the findings and illustrating their application. The results show that TMC has a significantly positive relationship with NPD performance: searching capability and selecting capability exert greater impacts on NPD performance in the idea development stage; implementation capability and learning capability exert greater impacts in technical implementation stage; and searching capability and learning capability exert greater impacts in commercialization stage. These findings not only benefit managers in China and the West by deepening their understanding of the mechanism of TMC affecting NPD, but also provide managers with a practical and effective tool of analyzing problems in NPD—NPD problem analysis sheet.