New Product Development Knowledge Research Articles

Assessing Knowledge Configuration of New Product Development Teams and Performance

In order to better understand how team composition is related to performance, this research investigates new product development (NPD) team composition and performance based on the individual team member’s knowledge rather than the function to which he or she is currently assigned. A survey of 174 technology firms in Korea, rated as “excellent” companies, shows that the inclusion of multi knowledge members with both marketing and technological knowledge in NPD teams significantly improves innovativeness and time efficiency in comparison to NPD teams without such diverse membership. These findings help illuminate previous contradictory findings in the NPD literature and show the important role of multi knowledge members in NPD performance for senior managers to consider when staffing such teams.

A systematic review of knowledge management and new product development projects: Trends, issues, and challenges

This research aims to show that knowledge management is integral to business strategy and can lead to more efficient new product development in high-tech companies. Organizations have been increasingly focused on knowledge management methods as they have realized how important it is to manage knowledge to stay competitive in their marketplaces. Knowledge Management (KM) is responsible for a company's efficiency, effectiveness, and innovation. Project outcomes, individual outcomes, and organizational outcomes are linked to knowledge in New Product Development (NPD). More than 28,548 KM papers published in the previous 22 years were examined in this research using Scopus and Web of Science; the original sample was narrowed down to items that contributed to KM literature. The R Studio and VOS Viewer software executed the descriptive statistics and scientific mapping approaches using co-citation analysis. The descriptive analysis involved studying publishing patterns over time, the geographical localization of the contributing institutions, journals, the most prolific authors, the top-performing institutions, and the most-cited papers. Scholars and practitioners have been paying close attention to knowledge management and organizational performance in recent years. Once implemented, the integrated approach may significantly influence organizational processes and performance. This study examines both KM ideas in NDP initiatives. Several intriguing discoveries are presented, with extensive explanations of their future direction, a conceptual framework for the study, and practice based on the literature.

Factors influencing knowledge sharing in new product development in high-tech manufacturing firms

Knowledge sharing is considered an important promotor of new product development (NPD) performance. However, studies have shown that making experts share knowledge in new product development (NPD) projects is often a challenging task. Consequently, this topic has attracted substantial attention in academic research. However, although studies have produced valuable insights, more detailed accounts of the mechanisms shaping knowledge sharing processes in NPD projects are sparse. To add to the knowledge on this topic, this study conducts a series of interviews with NPD professionals at manufacturers of high-tech industrial products to identify ‘factors influencing knowledge sharing’ (FIKS). The identified FIKS are explained through the socio-physiological theory, the ‘reasoned action approach’ (RAA). This involves several contributions. First, the study provides a detailed explanation of the role of FIKS by describing how they affect the behaviour of knowledge providers and receivers in NPD processes. Second, by identifying 161 FIKS in NPD processes, organised under 18 categories, the study offers the so far most extensive account of FIKS in NPD processes. Third, the findings suggest a special characteristic of knowledge sharing in NPD contexts concerning the relatively high importance of knowledge receiver behaviour.

Knowledge Reuse during New Product Development: A Study of a Swedish Manufacturer

AbstractAs organisations grow, consequences of poor knowledge management are evident for new employees in product developing companies. The problem of leveraging existing knowledge between development projects and departments is still relevant. This paper presents an industrial case study of a traditional manufacturing company and extends prior research addressing the reuse of organisational knowledge in new product development. The paper outlines barriers that hinder effective reuse of codified engineering knowledge and suggest means to overcome those barriers by using A3-reports in the PLM-system.

Developing firm capabilities to utilise social media for the fuzzy front end of innovation

ABSTRACT Despite the growing importance of using social media to leverage external knowledge for new product development (NPD) in innovation, few studies have examined firm capabilities that underpin this knowledge acquisition route. This paper provides an empirical examination of firm capabilities that leverage external knowledge, utilising social media for the fuzzy-front-end (FFE) phase of the NPD process. With evidence from 27 interviews conducted with executives’ from large fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms, a thematic analysis using NVivo 12 is used to develop a conceptual framework capturing the key capabilities for using social media in the FFE. The findings reveal that the utilisation of social media is an ongoing process of experimenting with new technologies within the NPD phase of a firm’s innovation efforts. Hence, the results of the study suggest FMCG firms may consider developing the following capabilities to help effectively acquire external knowledge via social media: use staff specialised in social media for external knowledge identification; dedicate an independent department for social media knowledge acquisition; and encourage an open innovation culture.

When change is all around: How dynamic network capability and generative NPD learning shape a firm’s capacity for major innovation

AbstractHow can firms shape their capacity to engage in major innovation when change is all around? Drawing on dynamic capability theory, we argue that a firm needs to be able to sense, seize, and transform network relationships for new product development (NPD). Referred to here as a “dynamic network capability,” this facilitates generative NPD learning, whereby the firm both (1) unlearns and (2) engages in exploratory new learning. In turn, we argue that generative NPD learning is strongly associated with a firm's capacity for major innovation. Our theorizing is supported by a study of 184 small‐ and medium‐sized, U.S. manufacturing firms. A moderated mediation analysis suggests that when external dynamism is high, generative NPD learning mediates the relationship between dynamic network capability and major innovation capacity. This indicates that the firm's ability to “relearn” is critical. This mediating effect is further strengthened when internal dynamism is also high. Our results provide empirical evidence that the higher‐order concept of a dynamic capability influences the reconfiguration of resources such as NPD knowledge. The findings also signal the combined influence of external (environmental) and internal (organizational) dynamism on this relationship.

Building capabilities for external knowledge sourcing: Training and Innovation in Small firms

We study how an increase in a firm's internal human capital can support new product development. By adopting training practices, we expect firms to increase the benefits of external knowledge. These benefits may differ between market- and institution-based knowledge sources because each provides distinct expertise to the firm. The study relies on the Community Innovation Survey that tracks firms from twelve European countries in multiple industries in 2006-2014. We find that small firms - those with fewer than 50 employees - attain higher returns to external knowledge when they invest in human capital through training. However, these results only hold for external knowledge that is market-based. Our study links the innovation and strategic human capital literature by illustrating how training helps firms extract the value of external knowledge for new product development.

DIMENSIONS OF KNOWLEDGE IN PROTOTYPING: A REVIEW AND CHARACTERISATION OF PROTOTYPING METHODS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO DESIGN KNOWLEDGE

AbstractWhilst prior works have characterised the affordances of prototyping methods in terms of generating knowledge about a product or process, the types, or ‘dimensions’ of knowledge towards which they contribute are not fully understood. In this paper we adapt the concept of ‘design domains’ as a method to interpret, and better understand the contributions of different prototyping methods to design knowledge in new product development. We first synthesise a set of ten dimensions for design knowledge from a review of literature in design-related fields. A study was then conducted in which participants from engineering backgrounds completed a Likert-type questionnaire to quantify the perceived contributions to design knowledge of 90 common prototyping methods against each dimension. We statistically analyse results to identify patterns in the knowledge contribution of different methods. Results reveal that methods exhibit significantly different contribution profiles, suggesting different methods to be suited to different knowledge. Thus, this paper indicates potential for new methods, methodology and processes to leverage such characterisations for better selection and sequencing of methods in the prototyping process.

A two-phase decision-making model for product development based on a product-oriented knowledge inventory model

PurposeOver the past years, many studies have explored the role of knowledge management (KM) in companies. KM is concerned with the measurement of knowledge to manage knowledge efficiently. On the other hand, the intangible nature of knowledge makes its measurement challenging. Furthermore, there is no standardized method to measure knowledge, and it is chiefly measured based on the subjective judgment of researchers. Moreover, New Product Development (NPD) departments in many companies strive to assess their knowledge in terms of company products and knowledge workers. Hence, this study aims to propose a product-based two-phase technique that measures the company knowledge inventory.Design/methodology/approachIn the first phase, the value of knowledge is quantified relative to products, knowledge workers and the entire company using two concepts of knowledge width and depth. Then, a three-dimensional knowledge asset map (knowledge, products and knowledge worker dimensions) is designed to assess and audit knowledge workers. Finally, this technique recruits an integer linear programming model with a cost minimization objective function to optimize the supply of NPD knowledge requirements in the second phase.FindingsThis model enables managers to determine what type of knowledge can be supplied by existing knowledge workers, whether within the company or by other external sources.Originality/valueAmong existing knowledge measurement methods, only a few use a product-based measuring technique. However, they fail to offer suitable scenarios for managers' decision-making process and consider cost structures in measurement techniques. Hence, this paper attempts to overcome these drawbacks.

Knowledge recommendation for product development using integrated rough set-information entropy correction

New product development is knowledge intensive as it needs the work teams and design engineers located at various locations to constantly share, update, and re-use knowledge. As such, improving the efficiency of acquiring knowledge and coping with the challenge of frequently retrieving related knowledge have become a key factor to managing knowledge in new product development. This paper combines rough set theory and information entropy to establish a new knowledge recommender technique to address the issue of knowledge reuse for new product development. Our method enhances knowledge acquisition and reuse, as it provides a realistic framework for knowledge acquisition and reuse, encompassing the entire process from what the design and work teams need, to recommending what they should have. To validate the proposed approach, we perform experiments on a case study to demonstrate the benefit and performance.

Pricing Method for Big Data Knowledge Based on Two-part Tariff Pricing Scheme

Nowadays big data knowledge is being bought and sold online for market research, new product development, or other business decisions, especially when customer demands and consumer preferences knowledge for new product development are needed. Previous studies have introduced two commonly used pricing schemes for big data knowledge transactions (e.g., cloud services): Subscription pricing and pay-per-use pricing from a big data knowledge provider’s standpoint. However, few studies to date have investigated a two-part tariff pricing scheme for big data knowledge transactions, albeit this pricing scheme may increasingly attract the big data knowledge providers in this hyper-competitive market. Also, little research has been done from the perspective of the knowledge recipient firm which is an important and integral part of big data knowledge transactions. This study constructs a two-part tariff pricing decision model for big data knowledge transactions from the perspective of the knowledge recipient firms. The model is a more generalized pricing scheme decision model and can be used to compare the profitability of three pricing schemes: Subscription pricing, pay-per-use pricing, and two-part tariff pricing. It shows that the influence of free knowledge on new product development performance of knowledge recipient firms cannot be ignored, and the pay-per-use pricing scheme is the best solution for knowledge recipient firms.

Enablers of NPD financial performance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine new product development (NPD) financial performance enablers through examining the roles of NPD capabilities improvement, NPD knowledge sharing and NPD internal learning in manufacturing organisations in Jordan.Design/methodology/approachBased on relevant literature review on NPD performance, a structured questionnaire was developed to collect data related to NPD performance measures. Questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 558 manufacturing organisations in Jordan, out of which 355 were returned and valid for the analysis. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to reveal NPD performance success dimensions that manufacturing organisations use to assess NPD performance success. Then, path analysis was employed to examine the research model and test its hypotheses.FindingsThe study’s findings reveal that manufacturing organisations use a multidimensional construct for assessing NPD performance success, which consists of NPD financial performance, NPD internal learning, NPD capabilities improvement, NPD knowledge sharing, and NPD marketing performance. NPD capabilities improvement exerted a positive and significant effect on each of NPD internal learning, NPD knowledge sharing, and NPD marketing performance, respectively. NPD knowledge sharing exerted a positive and significant effect on each of NPD internal learning NPD marketing performance. Each of NPD internal learning and NPD marketing performance exerted a positive and significant effect on NPD financial performance. The structural findings also indicate that 38.1 per cent (R2 is 0.381) of NPD financial performance is explained by the path of NPD capabilities improvement, NPD knowledge sharing and NPD marketing performance, which is the strongest path in the empirical model.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper’s focus on manufacturing organisations limits its contribution to the manufacturing sector only. The services sector is a rich field for understanding NPD financial performance enablers in various service industries. Further, the paper focusses on only five dimensions of NPD performance success, other dimensions of NPD performance success might add more insights to their effect on NPD performance success measures especially their effect on organisational performance.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study provide managers of manufacturing organisations with empirical insights related to the multidimensionality of NPD and their complex relationships to enhance NPD financial performance. The empirical findings assist managers to assess their NPD strategies, processes and implementation based on a results-oriented approach. The major contribution of the study is identifying the strongest paths of NPD financial performance enablers which reveals the complexity and criticality of NPD capabilities improvement, NPD knowledge sharing and NPD marketing performance on NPD financial performance. The rationale is NPD financial performance is still the most important NPD performance success dimension amongst manufacturing organisations.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper stems from developing and testing a multidimensional model of NPD financial performance enablers for the first time in emerging markets, Jordan. NPD financial performance is a function of other areas of NPD performance dimensions, namely; NPD capabilities improvement, NPD knowledge sharing and NPD marketing performance. This empirical evidence is provided to managers for the first time by this study.

A framework for capturing and applying design knowledge in new product development

The large amount of information that permeates the various activities of the new product development process (NDP) has become increasingly common in many organisations. Under these conditions, there are difficulties in sharing and reusing design knowledge, especially by the fact that this knowledge is available within the company in different formats and locations. Due to this, design engineers often fail to use such information. To ensure a better use, it is important to organise and integrate the available knowledge in a collaborative manner. Through KBE concepts, the current study aims to develop a set of tools for assisting decision making, by storing and providing useful information in a timely manner. Such solution should meet the needs of its users (i.e., designers), as well as improve the quality of design activities along the NDP. The application of the present proposal, still under development, is expected to facilitate the access to information, significantly reduce the number of engineering change requests, as well as allow acquired knowledge to be used in subsequent projects.

A framework for capturing and applying design knowledge in new product development

The large amount of information that permeates the various activities of the new product development process (NDP) has become increasingly common in many organisations. Under these conditions, there are difficulties in sharing and reusing design knowledge, especially by the fact that this knowledge is available within the company in different formats and locations. Due to this, design engineers often fail to use such information. To ensure a better use, it is important to organise and integrate the available knowledge in a collaborative manner. Through KBE concepts, the current study aims to develop a set of tools for assisting decision making, by storing and providing useful information in a timely manner. Such solution should meet the needs of its users (i.e., designers), as well as improve the quality of design activities along the NDP. The application of the present proposal, still under development, is expected to facilitate the access to information, significantly reduce the number of engineering change requests, as well as allow acquired knowledge to be used in subsequent projects.

An overview of knowledge sharing in new product development

This paper provides an overview of some of the issues in knowledge management related to the sharing of knowledge in new product development. Previous research and concepts reported by international researchers and examples of the research projects carried out by the authors will be introduced. The paper first provides an overview of the history and importance of innovation and challenges in manufacturing. Then, the importance of new product development in the sustainable success of manufacturing enterprises in the globalised business operations is discussed. The formalisation and modelling of product development processes will also be introduced. The concept and different definitions of knowledge management by previous researchers are then introduced, with further discussion on knowledge sharing. At this point, the authors’ research in knowledge sharing is also introduced. Finally, the trend of using social media and Enterprise 2 technologies in knowledge management and sharing is introduced using the recent research projects of the authors as examples.

Leveraging internal resources and external business networks for new product success: A dynamic capabilities perspective

Internal resources such as technological and human capital, together with a firm's business network, are vital sources of knowledge for new product development. Previous studies largely assume that a firm's internal resources and its external resources embedded in a business network are complementary in new product development. This study draws on the dynamic capabilities perspective to take the existing literature one step further. Our hypotheses were tested using a sample of 130 Chinese manufacturing firms in high-technology industries. Interestingly, the findings reveal a more complex picture of resource interplay between internal resources and external resources embedded in a firm's business network. More specifically, the findings show that a firm's power in its business network influences the effect of its internal resources on its ability to sense and seize opportunities, a vital dynamic capability. More importantly, the findings suggest that such dynamic capability plays a pivotal role in translating the benefits of resource-interplay into new product success.

How Knowledge Management Capabilities Help Leverage Knowledge Resources and Strategic Orientation for New Product Advantages in B-to-B High-Technology Firms

ABSTRACTPurpose: Current understanding of how new product development (NPD) teams use knowledge management capabilities to acquire, disseminate, and apply knowledge resources to achieve competitive advantages is limited by a lack of compelling theory supported by empirical evidence. This study provides a theoretical framework and empirical validation for how an NPD team manages knowledge resources and strategic orientation to enhance its knowledge management capabilities, which, in turn, lead to business-to-busienss (B-to-B) new product advantages.Methodology/approach: A total of 100 sets of data was collected from B-to-B firms in U.S. high-tech industries. In order to validate the proposed hypotheses, we estimated the main effects using path analysis in AMOS, and tested for interaction effects using interaction term regressions.Findings: Our findings show that the two dimensions of NPD knowledge management capabilities—acquisition and application—are important but differential drivers of product quality superiority and product differentiation. In testing whether NPD management capabilities matter for two product advantage constructs, we confirmed that product quality superiority can be enhanced by both NPD knowledge acquisition and application capabilities, whereas product differentiation can be increased strongly by NPD knowledge acquisition capabilities.Research implications: Our research confirms the importance of strategic orientation as a driver of NPD knowledge management capabilities, which enhances understanding of how strategic factors operate under a resource-based view. Our results further provide direct empirical support for the knowledge-based view of firms, in that an NPD team’s abilities to manage and deploy knowledge-based resources by acquiring and applying NPD knowledge lead to competitive advantages, for outcomes of quality superiority and differentiation.Practical implications: Our findings have relevance for managers in three ways. First, NPD knowledge acquisition and application capabilities have differential impacts on product quality superiority and differentiation. Second, in exploring NPD resource factors as antecedents, managers should manage levels of NPD market intelligence, resource tacitness, and NPD resource deployment differentially to directly improve NPD teams’ acquisition and application capabilities. Third, managers should not underestimate the importance of market and technological orientations in enhancing NPD knowledge management capabilities. Market orientation drives both NPD knowledge acquisition and application capabilities; technological orientation drives NPD knowledge application capabilities.Originality/value/contribution of the paper: An NPD team’s knowledge management capabilities generally, but differentially, mediate the relationships of knowledge resources and strategic orientation factors with new product competitive advantage. However, simply enhancing NPD knowledge management capabilities is not a panacea for developing product competitive advantage in B-to-B settings, because of their differential effects.

Firm’s knowledge creation structure for new product development

AbstractKnowledge has many different characteristics and scholars in epistemology, economics and management have dealt with them ever since knowledge has emerged as the leading source of firms’ competitive advantages. New product development requires new ideas and new ideas are stemming from knowledge. Knowledge originates from tacit knowledge. Therefore, firms need to enact tacit knowledge. Enactment takes different forms depending on the context of knowledge and organizational characteristics. This paper conducts an in-depth literature review on the nature of knowledge and knowledge creation structure and investigates how The Dow Chemical Company uses a knowledge creation structure to elicit tacit knowledge and exploit knowledge for new product development. The Dow Chemical Company is known as one of the leading innovative firms in the world. We believe that this case enriches research on knowledge creation and new product development although it has limitations in generalizing its findings and practice...

Managing the Unexpected Across Space: Improvisation, Dispersion, and Performance inNPDTeams

Organizations are increasingly moving toward a team‐based structure for managing complex knowledge in new product development (NPD) projects. Such teams operate in an environment characterized by dynamic project requirements and emergent nonroutine issues, which can undermine their ability to achieve project objectives. Team improvisation—a collective, spontaneous, and creative action for identifying novel solutions to emergent problems—has been identified as a key team‐situated response to unexpected challenges toNPDteam effectiveness. Geographic dispersion is increasingly becoming a reality forNPDteams that find themselves needing to improvise solutions to emergent challenges while attempting to leverage the knowledge of team members who are physically distributed across various locations. However, very little is known about how teams' improvisational actions affect performance when such actions are executed in increasingly dispersed teams. To address this gap in the literature, this paper draws on the emerging literature on different forms and degrees of team dispersion to understand how team improvisation affects team performance in such teams. In particular this paper takes into account both the structural and psychological facets of dispersion by considering the physical distance between team members, the configuration of the team across different sites, as well as the team members' perception of being distant from their teammates. Responses from 299 team leaders and team members of 71NPDprojects in the software industry were used to analyze the relationship between team improvisation and team performance, as well as the moderating effect of the three different conceptualizations of team dispersion. Results of the study indicate that team improvisation has a positive influence on project team performance by allowing team members to respond to unexpected challenges through creative and timely action. However, increasing degrees of team member dispersion (both structural and psychological) attenuate this relationship by making it difficult to have timely access to other team members' knowledge and by limiting real‐time interactions that may lead to the development of creative solutions. The results of this research offer guidance to managers about when to balance the desire to leverage expertise to cope with unexpected events. Moreover, the present paper provides directions for future research on improvisation and team dispersion. Future research is encouraged to investigate factors that may help highly dispersed teams to overcome the shortcomings of team dispersion in dealing with emergent events.

Identifying Technology Commercialization Opportunities: The Importance of Integrating Product Development Knowledge

New product development (NPD) is a knowledge‐intensive activity, perhaps even more so in recent years given the shift toward more open innovation processes, which involve active inward and outward technology transfer. While the extant literature has established that knowledge is critical for NPD performance, knowledge generated through NPD can have an additional impact on external technology exploitation—as when firms go beyond pure internal application of knowledge to commercialize their technologies, for example, by means of technology outlicensing.Grounded in the knowledge‐based view of the firm, this paper examines how the integration of domain‐specific knowledge, procedural knowledge, and general knowledge generated through NPD affects a firm's proficiency in identifying technology commercialization opportunities. Additionally, analysis of how technology opportunity identification relates to technology commercialization performance is provided. Empirically, the paper draws on survey data from 193 Swedish medium‐sized manufacturing firms in four industries active with NPD, and regression analyses and structural equation modeling were used to test the hypotheses.The results highlight the importance of integrating domain‐specific and general NPD knowledge to proficiently identify technology licensing opportunities. The empirical findings also provide strong support for a subsequent link between technology opportunity identification and technology commercialization performance. Altogether, these results point to strong and previously unexplored complementarities between inward and outward technology exploitation, that is, between NPD and technology licensing. As such, the results provide important theoretical implications for research into the fields of knowledge integration, technology exploitation, opportunity identification, and technology markets.Moreover, the results have significant managerial implications concerning how knowledge generated through NPD can help firms to achieve both strategic and monetary benefits when trying to profit from technology. In particular, to set up proficient technology commercialization processes, it appears beneficial for firms to integrate knowledge that is gained through the ordinary activities of developing and commercializing products. Specifically, the integration of domain‐specific knowledge and general knowledge helps firms to match their technologies with new applications and markets, which is often the critical barrier to successful technology commercialization activities. Managers are thus encouraged to integrate domain‐specific knowledge and general knowledge from NPD to reap additional benefits in profiting from investments in innovation and technology.