New Product Development Activities Research Articles

Shared Mental Models and Boundary Management Activities in New Product Development: A Perspective on Multiteam Systems

Multiteam systems (MTSs) have been increasingly adopted as an organizational form to manage large-scale projects. However, new product development (NPD) in the MTSs structure entails challenges with respect to achieving efficiency due to interteam coordination challenges. Shared mental models (SMMs) within a single team have been found to facilitate intrateam coordination; however, further exploration is needed as to whether SMMs within MTSs can improve interteam coordination among component teams and, if so, what mechanisms underlie this. The present article examines the theoretical underpinning of the impacts of SMMs among component team leaders on MTSs’ NPD efficiency, and further considers the impact of external conditions of requirement uncertainty, the most common external situation during NPD. Using survey data from 110 information technology development MTSs and drawing on boundary management perspective, the results reveal that SMMs among component team leaders positively affect NPD efficiency by managing the MTSs boundary, i.e., through boundary entrainment and boundary buffering activities at the system level. In addition, we find that requirement uncertainty plays a vital role in determining the nature of this relationship. Taken together, our findings highlight the importance of the role of SMMs among component team leaders in facilitating NPD efficiency in MTSs settings.

Human Factors, Innovation and Technology, and Cluster Strategies as Triggers of New Product Development

This paper reports the results of a cross-sectional investigation into the organizational factors that influence the development of new products in Mexican organizations. We examine the degrees of complexity to determine the influence of three organizational levels, divided into four variables, on New Product Development (NPD) activities. The first level is related to Human Factors (HF), which focuses on the internal members involved in the NPD activities and their functions. The second level is related to Innovation (Inn) and Technology (Tec), which corresponds to the level of processes established in the organization and during NPD. The final level corresponds to the Cluster Strategies (QS) employed by the organizations, which focuses on their ability to work collaboratively with other organizations outside of their current internal boundaries. The influences of the proposed variables are then analyzed with results showing that QS, Inn, Tec, and HF explain, in a range of 58.8%, the emergence of successful NPD based on R2. The study's findings provide a basis for future research through advanced statistical methods.

How can firms locate proactive strategic flexibility in their new product development process?: The effects of market and technological alignment

ABSTRACT This study examines proactive decision-making and design flexibilities in new product development (NPD) as critical forms of strategic flexibility. The conceptual framework identifies market and technological alignment as drivers of proactive strategic flexibility, and examines their association with strategic NPD performance and fit with market demands. The model is tested using data collected from a sample of 103 European manufacturing firms. The results suggest that market and technological alignment are important in developing proactive decision-making and design flexibilities, which in turn have significant effects on strategic NPD performance and NPD fit with market demands. Overall, the study will help managers develop a better understanding of key similarities and differences in proactive strategic flexibility practices and decide how to allocate resources to achieve market and technological alignment supporting their NPD activities. The paper provides novel insights into proactive strategic flexibility in NPD, its alignment with market and technological environments, and its effects on product development performance.

Proactive market orientation and business model innovation to attain superior new smart connected products performance

PurposeSmart connected products (SCP) are the new archetype of products evolving. SCP are subtly changing the product-centric business to system-centric. Development and monetization of new SCP is an uphill task, it necessitates unique market orientation and business models. The purpose of this study is to establish a framework of variables influencing new smart connected products performance (NSCPP) at the market place, suggest methods to operationalize the framework.Design/methodology/approachThe study identified key variables influencing NSCPP from existing literature. Conceptualized unique theoretical frameworks of these variables and empirically validated structural relationships. The study performed structural equation modeling using the data collected from 163 respondents having managed the development and monetization of 138 new SCP launches.FindingsThe study established structural relationships among selected variables proactive market orientation (ProMO), new product development proficiency (NPDPro) and business model innovation (BMoI). It revealed that the effect of ProMO is manifested through NPDPro. BMoI and NPDPro significantly influence NSCPP.Practical implicationsThe study presented “ProMO Canvas” to plan and operationalize ProMO integrated with new product development (NPD) stage-gate activities. The study suggested the practitioners to execute ProMO activities preceding NPD activities and execute NPD, business model development activities in parallel to attain superior NSCPP.Originality/valueThis study is a novel effort to derive a unique empirical framework of variables ProMO, NPDPro and BMoI to attain superior NSCPP.

New Product Development Process Design for Small and Medium Enterprises: A Systematic Literature Review from the Perspective of Open Innovation

New product development (NPD) is essential for large, as well as small and medium, enterprises (SMEs). Despite its importance for the economy, challenges remain in the NPD in SMEs. Product success is related with the NPD process, so it is important for SMEs to be able to design their NPD process. This paper aims to identify SME’s NPD research topics, the characteristics of the NPD process in SMEs, and important aspects to be considered for NPD process design. The literature review is done with the analysis of 99 selected academic articles from Scopus and ScienceDirect. Content analysis, bibliographic analysis, and clustering method (based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient) are used to conduct the identification. Less-formal processes, informal strategic planning, limited resources, need technology support, and lack of capabilities in certain fields are some of the characteristics of SME’s NPD. Collaborative product development, competitive advantage, information and communication technology (ICT), concurrent engineering, quality function deployment, and continuous improvement are important keywords based on previous research in SME’s NPD. Design activities in NPD, collaboration and source of innovation, and process modelling, tools, and techniques appear to be important aspects related with the SME’s NPD process.

Social media and the new product development during COVID-19: An integrated model for SMEs

Despite Multinational Enterprises’ growing interest in New Product Development (NPD), research into the use of social media in the NPD process in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is lacking. In response, we propose and test an integrated model of the NPD process using social media. Data was collected from SMEs across industry sectors in India during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research applies structural equation modeling (SEM) to achieve a detailed understanding of the issue. The findings reveal that Integrated Social Media Interaction (ISMI) depends on Customer-Centric Focus (CCF), Customer Engagement Focus (CEF), and Customer Empathy Focus (CEmF). Based on the literature and our analytical research, it is revealed that the use of social media networks as a source of knowledge for NPD ventures is a systematic component of the NPD process for SMEs during the COVOD-19 pandemic. To support their NPD initiatives, SMEs may depend on this hypothesized integrated model. The analysis concludes with SME managers' realistic and managerial guidance. This study provides useful insights for managers who wish to enhance NPD activities for SMEs through social media, and offers useful guidance to SMEs and innovation scholars, encouraging further research in this area.

Research on the Relationships Among Customer Participation, Knowledge Integration and New Product Development Performance

Under the background of the knowledge economy, business managers have gradually realized that improving innovation performance requires breaking organizational boundaries to obtain knowledge, technology and other resources from the outside. As one of the important external subjects of new product development (NPD), customers actively participate in NPD activities become an effective way to acquire customer knowledge. However, there are still divergent studies on the effect of customer participation (CP) on NPD performance. In view of this, this research explores the relationship between customer participation, knowledge integration, absorptive capacity, and NPD performance, and this paper empirically studied the influence of CP on NPD performance through a large sample questionnaire survey, and focused on the analysis of the mediating role of knowledge integration and the moderating effect of absorptive capacity. The results show that CP has a significant positive effect on knowledge integration and NPD performance; knowledge integration has mediating effect between CP and NPD performance; Absorptive capacity positively moderates the relationship between CP and knowledge integration, but has no significant moderating effect on CP and NPD performance. From the perspective of knowledge management, this study links customer participation with NPD performance, and the research results not only have important theoretical implications for the in-depth study of customer participation, NPD performance, knowledge integration and absorptive capacity, but also have important practical significance to improve the success rate of NPD and promote high-quality development.

Exploring the link between uncertainty and project activities in new product development

Uncertainty is central to engineering design and new product development (NPD). While there has been substantial focus on dealing with uncertainty in technical systems and design information, how engineering designers react to and manage uncertainty is also critical to performance. However, an important gap remains in understanding what activities NPD teams engage in based on the specific uncertainty types they face. This gap is investigated via a conceptual framework detailing four uncertainty types (technical, organisational, resource and market) and three project activities (information, knowledge sharing and representation). Evidence is presented from two engineering design cases with 45 interviews, observations, and secondary data. Based on this, specific links are described between uncertainty type and project activity as follows: technical uncertainty drove representation activity, organisational uncertainty drove knowledge sharing activity, resource uncertainty drove knowledge sharing activity, and market uncertainty drove information activity. These findings are developed into a number of propositional relationships between the four uncertainty types and specific project activities, which form the basis for a number of implications for engineering design research and practice.

The interplay between entrepreneurial orientation and control mechanisms on decision-making and new product performance

PurposeThis study aims to investigate whether an organization that is entrepreneurial oriented can benefit from having a formal control structure and process in new product development (NPD). This study investigates two well-known control mechanisms in NPD, namely, stage-gate system (SGS) and project management (PM), as well as decision-making comprehensiveness (DMC), reflecting the amount of information processing and investigative activities undertaken.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 238 Australian small and medium enterprises. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings of this study suggest that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) directly impacts new product performance and indirectly does so through DMC. While both control mechanisms positively impact DMC, they affect the EO–DMC relationship differently. While SGS positively moderates the EO–DMC relationship, PM negatively does so. However, the use of SGS and PM enhances the effect of EO on DMC.Practical implicationsThis research provides managers with insights into the design of structure and process in NPD to support interfunctional coordination and firm strategy. The findings of this study suggest that managers should be amenable to the application of control mechanisms and DMC. The calibration of the right mix of control systems is required to ensure that EO can contribute to decision-making in the NPD process.Originality/valueOn the surface, the implementation of EO requires flexibility while the control mechanisms and extensive information processing are seen as restricted structures for NPD activities. However, rather than viewing EO and control structure as counterintuitive elements in NPD, the results suggest that appropriate use of control structure can support organizational strategy and decision-making activities, which subsequently enhance NPD outcomes.

Gains or pains? Investigating effects of R&D collaboration intensity and technological diversification on new product development

ABSTRACT Research and development (R&D) collaboration plays a vital role in the development of new products. As both external knowledge sourcing and internal knowledge base contribute to new product development (NPD), this study examines how a firm’s R&D collaboration intensity and internal knowledge base properties (i.e. related and unrelated technological diversification) affect its NPD performance. To test the proposed model, we manually collect multi-source data such as patents and new product announcements in the Chinese automobile industry. The empirical analysis reveals that the relationship between R&D collaboration intensity and NPD performance is inverted-U-shaped. Moreover, an increase in a firm’s related technological diversification steepens the inverted-U relationship, while an increase in unrelated technological diversification flattens the curve. This study contributes to the literature on R&D collaboration and NPD by elaborating the contingent roles of related and unrelated technological diversification. As NPD activities are usually knowledge-oriented, firms should commit more seriously to their internal knowledge-based properties when making the decision of R&D collaboration solutions.

The contribution of IT-leveraging capability for collaborative product development with suppliers

This paper investigates how Information Technology (IT) leveraging capability supports buyer-supplier collaboration in New Product Development (NPD). IT-leveraging capability is defined as the ability to effectively use IT functionalities to support IT-enabled NPD activities. We consider three dimensions of this capability: effective use of Project and Resource Management Systems (PRMS), effective use of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) and effective use of Cooperative Work Systems (CWS). We consider the dynamics between these three dimensions, which have usually been treated as equal. Using an in-depth case study approach, we show that effective use of KMS and CWS are key dimensions to support collaboration, creating a unique source of competitive advantage. On the other hand, while effective use of PRMS does not help to create differentiation it is important to support the coordination of KMS and CWS. Furthermore, the three dimensions have different intensities of contribution depending on the NPD stage and supplier involvement configuration.

New Product Development During the Last Ten Years: The Ongoing Debate and Future Avenues

Research on new product development (NPD) has grown considerably over the last 30 years interweaving with serval fields of study such as strategy, marketing, supply chain management, and project management. This article offers an overview of the development of the NPD management literature published over the last ten years (2008 to 2018) in 1226 peer-reviewed articles. By applying bibliometric analysis, we have discovered the existence of five research clusters focused on the following main thematic areas: the NPD process, the integration of diverse knowledge sources for NPD optimization, the relationship between NPD and corporate strategy, the role of users and consumers in the NPD process, and the supplier involvement in the NPD activities. In respect of each area, we selected and reviewed the most relevant contributions and presented the emerging theoretical approaches and best practices. Also, the analysis has helped us to uncover the existence of promising research areas that have been scarcely explored. As a result, we formulated some suggestions for further research to fill in the existing gaps.

Uncertainty and Activity Selection in New Product Development: An Experimental Study

Uncertainty drives project activity in new product development (NPD), and its resolution is crucial to project performance. However, there is a major gap in understanding the causal links between different uncertainty types and the project activities they trigger. Engineering managers lack guidance on how best to respond to different uncertainty types. We close this gap by experimentally contrasting responses to two uncertainty types central to NPD: technical and organizational uncertainty. We describe responses with respect to core engineering project activities: representation, information, and knowledge sharing. We present evidence from an experiment involving 50 professionals and 74 master's students. The results show that uncertainty type has a significant effect on activity response, and that there is a significant ordering effect within this response. Based on the identification of a new response type, change of situation, our findings show that technical uncertainty drives change of situation and representation activity, while organizational uncertainty drives information- and knowledge-sharing activities. This provides the basis for three main contributions of this article. First, we identify “change of situation” as a new type of response to uncertainty in NPD. Second, we describe different responses to technical and organizational uncertainty. Third, we characterize an ordering effect in responses to uncertainty.

Entrepreneurial and alliance orientation alignment in new product development

Given different strategic logics and implications of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and alliance orientation (AO), this study develops an integrative model of an alignment between EO and AO in the context of new product development (NPD) and articulates the results of a study designed to examine its effects on a firm's NPD activities and performance outcomes. The authors empirically investigate the model through a cross-sectional survey of 141 Taiwanese electronics firms. Drawing from the coalignment perspective, these firms are distinguished into four strategic groups labeled as EO (high EO and low AO), AO (low EO and high AO), EA (high EO and high AO), and CO (low EO and low AO) firms. Empirical results suggest that the four groups of firms significantly differ in terms of NPD process characteristics (decision-making flexibility, market-focused learning, and internally focused learning), program characteristics (product program meaningfulness and newness), and performance outcome (new product success). Theoretical and managerial implications of the results are demonstrated.

Building Circular Products in an Emerging Economy: An Initial Exploration Regarding Practices, Drivers and Barriers

The circular economy (CE) is an important approach and current trend in environmental sustainability. The implementation of the CE depends on the adoption of sustainable practices from the planning stages of new product development (NPD). Although the literature recognises the need to apply CE practices into NPD, few studies have tried to provide support for the issues based on real case studies. This article aims to identify and analyse practices, barriers and drivers to the development of circular products. To achieve this objective, a multiple case study was carried out in three medium and large Brazilian companies that have environmental concerns and, at the same time, are continuously involved in NPD activities. The results show that the companies’ circular product designs already foresee waste and recycled components as raw materials. In addition, it was found that infrastructural aspects and low awareness of customers regarding sustainability are challenges to overcome. Finally, for the adoption of CE practices, regulatory legislation stood out as a significant driver. This article contributes to theory and practice by providing empirical evidence of how companies have planned to build circular products by incorporating circular practices into the NPD process.

Designing Risk Management: Applying Value Stream Mapping to Risk Management

AbstractRisk management (RM) in new product development (NPD) is often implemented as a standardized framework and ends up being carried out as a tick the box, non-value adding activity. To avoid this problem, RM needs to be tailored to the organization and NPD project. This paper identifies a gap in both understanding and facilitating tailoring, i.e. design of RM systems in NPD. To understand how to design RM systems, we must better understand how RM adds value to NPD activities. We applied Product Development Value Stream Mapping (PDVSM) to RM and conceptualized a Risk Value Stream Mapping (RVSM) framework to support design. Through a state-of-the-art literature review, we identified typical categories of value and waste in RM as well as approaches to model the RM in NPD. We developed and tested components of the RVSM framework based on PDVSM in three case companies. In this paper, results are presented regarding waste, value and potential ways to model the value stream in RM. The framework enables a diagnosis of the current state of RM in companies and supports future design activities pertaining to RM systems. This paper is positioned at the intersection of design, lean thinking and RM

Flexibility and control in managing collaborative and in-house NPD

PurposePrior literature provides little insight on how management control systems have responded to the growth of collaborative new product development (NPD). The purpose of this paper is to contrast the use of budgets to manage collaborative and in-house NPD and to consider the implications for enabling flexibility.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports on the findings of a case study company in the medical devices industry that uses two different business models for its NPD activities. While the company engages in in-house NPD for its own products, it also engages in collaborative NPD services with a range of customers.FindingsThe study illuminates how two types of budgets (annual and project) can have very different impacts on flexibility under different business models. The annual financial budgets imposed rigid constraints on in-house NPD and resulted in reduced flexibility, whereas in collaborative NPD, they had little impact on flexibility. Project budgets created hard operational constraints in collaborative NPD which generated a highly pressurised yet highly creative environment, whereas project budgets had little impact on flexibility in in-house NPD.Originality/valueThe study contributes detailed empirical insights into the control systems used to manage collaborative NPD from the supplier perspective, where creativity is largely responsive and contrasts these with the management of in-house NPD where creativity is largely expected. The authors also contribute an analysis of the key control systems and other factors that sustain flexibility in this highly pressurised open innovation environment.

Exploring the digital innovation process

Purpose Previous research has highlighted the digitization of innovation processes and outcomes especially with regard to the impact of information technology (IT) on new product development (NPD). Instead of analyzing generic IT usage in the NPD, the purpose of this paper is to explore the influencing factors on the adoption of specific software tools to support innovation management methods, called innovation management software (IMS) and their specific functionality. Design/methodology/approach The authors used an online questionnaire and gathered data from 99 innovation managers of German industrial firms to explore which functionalities embedded in the tools such as aided innovation methods and activities influence the adoption of IMS. Findings This study’s results indicate in contrast to the previous assumptions in the literature that the likelihood of IMS adoption by innovation managers is positively influenced if the IMS tools offer support functionality for idea evaluation and portfolio management but decreased for idea generation and scenario management. Therefore, this paper can show, that the digitalization of the innovation process though IT tools is more finely nuanced than a “the more – the better” logic often promoted in the digitalization context and proposed in the literature on IMS before. Originality/value These findings advance the understanding of technological and organizational drivers of the transformation toward the digitalization of the innovation process from the perspective of innovation managers, who intend to do so by successfully introducing and using IMS in their NPD. Additionally, suppliers of IMS get valuable empirical-based indications from the user perspective that potentially supports their development and sales activities. From a theoretical perspective, this study extends prior research on IT usage and digitalization in the innovation process by expanding to an under-researched category of digitization for the innovation manager perspective aspects of the NPD activities.

OUTSOURCING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FOSTERED BY DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION: A DECISION-MAKING MODEL

Several studies in the literature have addressed the issue of outsourcing in relation to New Product Development (NPD) or R&D processes. However, the issue of how the outsourcing decisions in the NPD process are best undertaken by the firms has not been fully addressed. Understanding factors influencing the decision of innovation outsourcing more likely remains a need within the current research stream. As it stands, the existing literature takes account of neither a complete set of decision making dimensions, nor the specificity of the NPD process, especially when a disruptive technology fosters product innovation. Although these studies have analysed the antecedents of the innovation outsourcing, the decision-making dimensions are not considered in an integrated multidimensional decision-making model, that considers the inter-related effects of their contemporaneous consideration. There are, therefore, significant gaps in the literature, which this article intends to fill. Our study aims to understand how organisations approach outsourcing decisions relating to NPD activities in technology intensive industries, and the performance implications of these decisions. The context of the study is that of aircraft industry. Therefore, this article discusses the findings of an empirical research that explores an embedded and in-depth longitudinal case study, namely, the Boeing 787-8 programme (the first model of the B787 Dreamliner programme). This new aircraft is a disruptive technology product innovation within the industry because it adopts new material technologies that make it possible to meet future customer needs. The programme has radically changed the partnership model adopted in the industry’s supply chain. The aim of the empirical research is to verify how the proposed model works to investigate outsourcing strategies related to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner programme. The research question that we aim to answer is: which strategic dimensions in a decision-making model are able to extensively and thoroughly address the outsourcing decisions relating to NPD activities given the hypothesis that a disruptive technology fosters product innovation?

Effects of IT-based supply chains on new product development activities and the performance of computer and communication electronics manufacturers

PurposeSome studies have suggested that a supply chain augmented with information technology (IT) has a positive effect on performance in the marketplace. However, these studies have not explained how the IT-based supply chain achieves this superior performance. This study aims to reveal some of the mediating influences at play: the new product development (NPD) activities of product launch, product innovativeness and product development capability.Design/methodology/approachTaking the electronics manufacturer’s perspective, this study took a resource-based view to propose that NPD activities are affected by IT advancement and that IT-based supply chain architecture is a critical resource that ultimately affects new product performance. Thus study focuses on product launch, because this is the most expensive and risky stage of NPD; product innovativeness, because it plays a substantial role in achieving a competitive advantage; and product development capability, because it leads to superior product performance. A questionnaire was used to collect data from managers of projects, products and supply chains of computer and communication electronics manufacturers; 235 valid questionnaires were returned. These data were subsequently analyzed using a variety of statistical methods.FindingsThe results support that manufacturers’ IT resources enable them to enhance NPD activities effectively with their suppliers, and that NPD activities play a key role in moderating the relationship between IT-based supply chains and new product performance.Originality/valueThis paper provides an empirically tested model of how IT-based supply chain architecture can lead to superior new product performance through product lean launch, product innovativeness and product development capability.