New Product Development Process Research Articles

Two forms of customer involvement and new product development performance in the digital context: The moderating role of new product development stage

Customer involvement plays a critical role in firms' new product development (NPD), especially in the digital context. Prior research has distinguished between two forms of customer involvement: customers as an information source (CIS) and customers as co-developers (CIC). We build on this stream of literature and investigate the impact of CIS and CIC on firms’ NPD performance in the digital context by considering both the benefits and costs of these two forms of customer involvement. Furthermore, we explore the moderating role of NPD stage. Based on survey data collected from 263 informants, we show that whereas CIS has a positive effect on NPD performance, CIC has an inverted U-shaped relationship with NPD performance. More interestingly, the positive relationship between CIS and NPD performance is more pronounced in the ideation stage than in the product development stage, and the inverted U-shaped relationship between CIC and NPD performance is steeper in the product development stage than that in the ideation stage. In our additional analyses, we further divide the NPD stage into four stages and found similar results as our main analyses. Our study enriches the customer involvement literature and offers practical implications regarding whether, how, and when to involve customers in the NPD process.

Customer participation in new product development and the impact of remote work

Purpose The COVID-19 pandemic has presented small-to-medium size enterprises (SMEs) with a massive and unexpected challenge that has caused many to adjust their operational standards. Perhaps the biggest change has been the shift to remote work and away from traditional office spaces. Thus, this study aims to explore the implications of this shift within the context of customer participation in the new product development (NPD) process. Design/methodology/approach Our study surveys 218 small-to-medium size business-to-business firms in the USA on a variety of questions revolving around their NPD processes, customer collaboration and the shift to remote work. The authors use structural equation modeling in the AMOS program to analyze the data. Findings The findings indicate that both customer participation breadth and customer participation depth positively impact new product performance. Furthermore, these relationships are found to be contingent upon whether firms rely on remote work during the collaboration process. The results show that accessing a broader variety of explicit customer insights (i.e., breadth) has become easier in the increasingly remote collaboration environment. However, as face-to-face customer participation in NPD has decreased, the prospect of gaining deep, tacit customer knowledge relevant to product development (i.e., depth) has become more challenging. Originality/value This study contributes to the knowledge-based view of the firm and the customer participation literature, and it also has implications for managers adjusting to the shift to remote work following the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings provide additional evidence that customer participation is an effective strategy for SMEs (Morgan et al., 2018), but remote work has both positive and negative implications regarding the type of external knowledge that is acquired during customer participation in NPD.

Optimizing New Product Development in The Hijab Industry: A House of Risk Analysis on Marketing and Design Process

XYZ Company, a Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) based in Yogyakarta, specializes in producing hijabs but faces challenges in maintaining customer interest due to a misalignment between product designs and consumer preferences. To address this, the company actively engages in new product development (NPD), focusing on trend analysis and model innovation to cater to customer needs better. An essential part of minimizing risks during the NPD process involves evaluating and identifying potential pitfalls, particularly in marketing and design. This study employs the Hazard and Operability Review (HOR) method to assess risks systematically. Initial findings from HOR phase 1 reveal that inadequate competitor information (A3) leads to significant risks in competitor product identification (E3), contributing approximately 70.34% to the total Aggregate Risk Priority (ARP). Subsequently, in HOR phase 2, XYZ Company prioritizes ten mitigation actions, with conducting a comparative study of competitors' products (PA1) being the most critical, reflected by an ETDk value of 540. Keywords: House of Risk (HOR), Hijab Fashion, Hijab Industry, New Product Development (NPD)

Assessing the drivers and capabilities for faster product launch: a scale for time‐to‐market reduction in start‐ups

The acceleration of new product development (NPD) and market introduction is essential for companies to maintain competitiveness, enhance customer base, and achieve financial success. While the existing literature addresses time‐to‐market (TTM) reduction factors in a scattered manner, focusing on aspects like supplier and customer involvement, leadership, and learning, there is a noticeable gap in construct development and measurement validation for TTM reduction, particularly in start‐up contexts. Addressing this gap, our research introduces and validates a comprehensive, hierarchical scale designed to measure both the drivers and capabilities associated with TTM reduction in start‐ups. This innovative scale broadens the scope of traditional constructs, incorporating emerging dimensions such as transformational leadership, experiential learning, agile methodologies, and dynamic marketing strategies. We used our dataset and structural equation modeling (SEM) to validate the proposed scale, comparing the effect of drivers and capabilities on TTM reduction and the role of companies' age on this relationship. This approach confirms the scale's reliability and highlights its versatility. This research holds significant implications for enhancing NPD endeavors in start‐up environments. Introducing a methodologically robust scale equips managers with a powerful tool for setting realistic goals, monitoring progress, and assessing capabilities and contextual factors to refine NPD processes. Furthermore, the scale serves as a benchmarking instrument for start‐ups, aiding them in attracting investments and achieving a competitive advantage. Our study, therefore, stands as an essential contribution to the strategic management of NPD in the dynamic and evolving landscape of start‐ups.

Balanced or imbalanced, that is the question: The effect of R&D/marketing power structure on new product development time

Accelerating new product development (NPD) to gain a first-mover advantage is crucial in today's competitive business landscape. This paper aims to examine the effective power structure in NPD projects through the lens of two divergent theoretical perspectives: Information Processing Theory (IPT) and Resource Dependence Theory (RDT). While IPT suggests the benefit of a balanced decision-making power among various subunits, RDT advocates for a concentrated decision power for faster consensus and efficiency. Our research specifically investigates whether a balanced or imbalanced R&D/marketing power structure is more conducive to accelerating NPD time. This focus stems from the recognition that the interplay between R&D and marketing is critical in shaping NPD outcomes, though we acknowledge the broader context of multifunctional collaboration in NPD, including aspects like manufacturing. The paper tests two competing hypotheses: one advocating a balanced R&D/marketing power structure as per IPT, and the other supporting a dominant R&D/marketing power structure in line with RDT. We surveyed project leaders, R&D, and marketing personnel from 126 NPD projects across 87 Taiwanese firms. The empirical results significantly endorse the balanced R&D/marketing power structure hypothesis, suggesting that a harmonious collaboration between these two key subunits can expedite NPD processes. Our findings contribute to both academic research and managerial practice by offering nuanced insights into optimizing power structures within NPD teams, particularly highlighting the efficacy of a balanced R&D/marketing approach in the context of the prevalent theories.

An empirical study on the factors influencing the new product development process in Indian automobile industries

Automobile manufacturing industries are looking at innovative ways to improve their company processes globally to maintain profitability in an increasingly complicated and competitive global market. There is fierce competition in the automotive business, which is evolving quickly. A crucial constituent of an organization’s success, survival, and vitality in such industries is the process of new product development. Several studies have been conducted to investigate the success factors of the new product development process in the Automobile industry. This research work tested the hypothesis that factors influence the process of new product development in the Automobile manufacturing industries of Maharashtra. The evidence was collected from higher officials of respective industries. The findings show that market orientation, market competition, and organizational culture have a significant impact on the New Product Development Process in the Automobile Manufacturing industry. The result of this study also shows that the role of governance and organization competence and resources do not impact the New Product Development Process. This suggests that management in the Automobile manufacturing industry strategy should focus on all the possible influential factors during the process of product development.

A microfoundational view of the interplay between open innovation and a firm's strategic agility

Open innovation can support firms looking to deploy strategic agility through product innovations during periods of market and technological change. However, existing research lacks a comprehensive understanding of the microfoundations that underlie strategic agility in the context of open innovation. We address this gap using an in-depth analysis of a firm's open innovation activities in support of new product development (NPD). Our analysis reveals that open innovation can help leverage NPD processes to drive technological innovations in response to changing market conditions. Under such circumstances, open innovation enables firms to deploy strategic agility by continually developing the product portfolio. Our study reveals six mechanisms that enable three mutually complementary practices of agility: knowledge-based agility at the firm-environment interface, behavioural agility in the firm's decision-making process, and organisational agility in the internal NPD process. We theorise the interplay between the mechanisms that constitute each practice and, in doing so, shed light on how they contribute to firm-level strategic agility.

An Empirical Investigation of Manufacturers’ Operations Innovations in New Product Development Enabled by E-Commerce Platforms

E-commerce platforms are playing an increasingly important role in influencing manufacturers’ supply chain and product decisions. An emerging supply chain innovation, known as the platform-based consumer-to-manufacturer (PC2M) model, has been initiated by several large e-commerce platforms based on established digital links between consumers and manufacturers. These links enable consumer inputs into manufacturers’ operations, indirectly by capturing consumer preferences from platform-accumulated big data and directly by enabling consumer interaction with manufacturers through the e-commerce platform. Although manufacturers are increasingly integrating PC2M into new product development (NPD), there is little research on operations innovations in connection with the PC2M model and its impact on manufacturers’ new product success. To fill this research gap, we investigate the PC2M model of JD.com, a leading e-commerce platform in China that launched the PC2M model in 2018. We first identify two uses of PC2M by manufacturers to facilitate product development—platform-enabled big data analytics (PBA) and platform-enabled simulated product trials (PST)—and explore how PC2M enables operations innovations in NPD. Next, drawing on the knowledge-based view, we develop research hypotheses and empirically examine whether PC2M adoption improves new product performance using a large-scale, transactional dataset from JD.com. Through a series of carefully executed analyses, our study consistently finds that use of either PBA or PST in manufacturers’ NPD processes improves new product performance. We also explore how these effects vary across product types and markets with varying new product introduction rates. The findings offer important managerial insights for improving new product success in today's data-rich environment.

Design concept evaluation based on cloud rough model and modified AHP-VIKOR: An application to lithography tool manufacturing process

Design concept evaluation is a wide domain of research as the production process of new product development is mainly based on the evaluations of experts. As different types of uncertainties like vagueness, randomness, and diversity essentially exist in the evaluation information, the manipulation models that deal with just one type of uncertainty are not appropriate for ranking the design alternatives. The integration of multiple approaches into a single mathematical model to create an effective framework is more useful for uncertain information manipulation. This paper presents an innovative group decision-making approach to evaluate design concepts by integrating cloud rough numbers, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method to introduce a novel cloud rough AHP-VIKOR model. The concept of cloud rough numbers is utilized by fusing the merits of the cloud model theory and rough approximations in addressing randomness in experts’ judgments and intrapersonal uncertainty for handling consensus inconsistency. Some new modified algebraic operations are introduced to remove the errors in already existing operations of cloud rough numbers. The cloud rough AHP technique is introduced to compute weights of design criteria by computing the cloud rough numbers of linguistic values and their reciprocals. Based on cloud rough values of positive and negative ideals, the individual regret, group utility values and evaluation indices are determined. Using the distance of evaluation indices from minimized cloud rough value, the design alternatives are ranked using different formulae. The significance of the proposed approach is illustrated with a real-world application in lithography tool manufacturing process. The out-performance and reliability of the proposed model is studied by a sensitivity analysis of different parameters in the method, and a comparison analysis with existing approaches.

Regulatory Focus, Ambidextrous Learning, and Opportunity Recognition in New Product Development

This study focuses on individual managers’ ambidextrous learning and examines its psychological antecedents and consequences in the new product development (NPD) context. Specifically, drawing on the paradox theory and the regulatory focus theory, this study examines the relationship between regulatory focus (i.e., promotion focus and prevention focus), ambidextrous learning, and NPD opportunity recognition, from the individual ambidexterity perspective. Based on the survey data of 225 NPD managers in high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises in China, we find that NPD managers’ promotion focus and prevention focus, acting as an enabler and a deterrent respectively, affect their ambidextrous learning, which in turn facilitates opportunity recognition in the NPD process. Further analyses reveal that ambidextrous learning mediates the effects of promotion focus and prevention focus on opportunity recognition in the NPD. Our findings offer new insights on the individual ambidexterity research regarding the unique role of ambidextrous learning, manifested as actionable managerial capability. The findings offer novel insights on the role of NPD managers’ ambidextrous learning in the NPD process, and practical implications for NPD managers to self-regulate their behavior for the benefit of opportunity recognition.

Managing Knowledge Requirements in the NPD Portfolio Selection Process Using Knowledge Clustering and Prioritization: A Case Study of an Australian Train Operator

In recent decades, knowledge-oriented new product development (NPD) has turned into a significant competitive advantage. It largely depends on the proper management of knowledge processes performed by knowledge management (KM). Among different KM processes addressed in the KM literature, knowledge clustering and prioritization (KCP) has received scant attention. However, it has a significant impact on the performance of other KM processes and is an integral part of the NPD process. KCP helps KM and NPD managers identify knowledge areas’ importance, risk, and cost implications in knowledge-intensive industries such as machinery and appliances. This article addresses this issue by introducing a two-phase research approach to cluster and prioritize knowledge areas. In the first phase, the study data, including knowledge areas, characteristics, and comparisons, are collected through an interview. Then, in the second phase, best-worst method (BWM) and K-means algorithm are employed to prioritize and cluster knowledge areas, respectively. The approach is applied to prioritize and cluster ten knowledge areas adopted by the operations team of an Australian train operator. Results revealed that site and construction managements are vital knowledge areas, whereas change management, programming, and cost control are less urgent for the operation teams.

Navigating new product development: Uncovering factors and overcoming challenges for success

New product development (NPD) frequently encounters failures, whether during the development phase or in the subsequent commercialization stage. These failures can often be attributed to root causes originating in the early stages of NPD, known as the front end. This study aims to investigate the factors that contribute to NPD success and the challenges faced by firms throughout the development process. To achieve this objective, an in-depth qualitative approach utilizing interviews was employed to explore the internal and external factors influencing NPD success. Additionally, the study aims to identify specific challenges encountered by firms during the NPD process. The identification of these factors and challenges are crucial for companies as it can lead to long-term cost savings.The findings of this study have broad implications for firms regardless of their product plans. By adopting the derived approach, companies can effectively navigate the product development process and gain insights into the potential challenges associated with introducing a new product into an existing market. As customer preferences evolve with technological advancements, the barriers and challenges faced by new products entering established markets also increase. Therefore, firms that incorporate the results of this study into their product development practices across various industries can avoid pitfalls and achieve greater efficiency in terms of time and costs. This research sheds light on critical areas that contribute to successful product development and provides valuable guidance for firms striving to excel in their NPD endeavors.

Success Sweeter than Sugar: New Product Development Strategies of Successful Independent Bakeries in South Korea

It is widely accepted that successful products lead to a business's success as a whole. Therefore, creating new products, or New Product Development (NPD), must be carefully conducted to minimize the risks of new product failure. Economists often debate the effectiveness of customer-led (CL) approaches, market-oriented (MO) approaches, and the degree of product newness in NPD. Unfortunately, there is little existing research on applying these NPD approach considerations in the food industry, specifically the bakery sector, especially regarding independent businesses. In the ultra-competitive bakery industry in South Korea (Korea), independent bakeries must carefully hone their NPD process to attract customers and maintain a competitive advantage. To uncover the NPD processes of successful bakeries in Korea, structured interviews with five bakery owners of successful bakeries were conducted and analyzed for common themes through a thematic analysis. This study found that both CL and MO approaches were used for most of the five bakeries. Additionally, most of the bakeries tended to prioritize technological novelty over consumer perceptions of uniqueness. Further research is needed on the applicability of this study's results in industries with lower levels of neophobia to see if the NPD processes used by Korean independent bakeries are successful in various environments or solely in the Korean bakery market. The findings of this study may help independent bakery owners develop effective NPD processes based on consumer behaviors in Korea and the strategies of their competitors.

An exploratory investigation of performance criteria in managing and controlling new product development projects: Canadian SMEs' perspectives

PurposeThis paper aims to understand and document evaluation criteria used in the new product development (NPD) process of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to support the management and control of their NPD projects.Design/methodology/approachThis study combines exploratory and explanatory methodology (case studies) involving five Canadian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are successful in NPD. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with nine selected managers and project managers to explore the process and evaluation criteria used to manage and control NPD projects.FindingsThe results highlight that cost, time and quality are key evaluation criteria used by SMEs to make decisions relative to the NPD project's success. Profitability, return on investment, expected sales and customer satisfaction are additional criteria used to evaluate NPD project's success. It has been also found that the SMEs did not consider sustainability issues in the criteria used as their focus are on the needs of stakeholders, mainly customers.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations: The evaluation criteria are extracted from a limited number of SMEs that have successfully carried out NPD projects and may therefore be influenced by some contextual factors. The results cannot be generalized to all SMEs or to all projects, as their characteristics may differ. Implications: This study offers a novel outlook on NPD process in SMEs, by documenting criteria related to constraints in project management. The integration of theory of constraints contributes to increasing theoretical knowledge about the management and control of NPD projects in SMEs. It provides insight into how project managers (and other decision makers) can increase the chances of project success by managing project constraints and criteria.Practical implicationsThe evaluation criteria identified in this study can therefore be of use to SMEs managers and project leaders seeking to improve the management and control of their NPD projects. These criteria can help them better manage their limited resources and skills and allocate them to the most promising projects. They can also help them conduct their NPD process more efficiently to achieve the intended objectives, including the desired project profitability targets.Originality/valueThis paper offers new insight and practical implications about evaluation criteria within the stages and activities of the NPD process that needed to be considered by SMEs' managers involved in NPD projects.

Nextcoa: How and Entrepreneurial University can Transform the Cocoa Industry Towards Circularity

As the economy has evolved from being driven by physical capital to knowledge and entrepreneurship, the role of the university has also evolved over time; besides its responsibility to generate technology transfer and knowledge-based startups, universities have broadened to focus on enhancing entrepreneurship capital and facilitating behavior to prosper in an entrepreneurial society (Audretsch, 2014). This article talks about Nextcoa, an academic spin-off initiative which wants to revolutionize the cocoa industry by modernizing the production and transformation of the fruit to obtain the traditional chocolate, but also using the current waste to produce new goods and services. The research question is focus on how challenging is for a Colombian entrepreneurial university to contribute to circularity, trying to produce sweeteners and biopolymers obtained from cocoa mucilage that can be used to produce and package chocolates, replacing sugar cane and plastic bags, while gives use to a residue that is currently wasted. First, it is explained the development process of new products from Nextcoa since its conception. Then, an analysis of external conditions for the cocoa sweetener and biopolymer is done, using the Porter diamond model. In third place, it is presented an internal capabilities profile of Nextcoa. Finally, the challenges for the new products to be successful in the market are synthesized, thus contributing to the circularity of the cocoa industry. As main results, it is obtained that there is an important technological limitation in obtaining the cocoa mucilage to produce the sweetener and biopolymer as well as in the little knowledge and management of biotechnological processes of those involved in the cocoa value chain. On the other hand, there is a significant demand for plastics and sweeteners for chocolate production and packaging, and a prevailing need to reduce related contamination and consumption of sugar cane for health issues. Also, being produced by an academic spin-off gives good-will to Nextcoa products but, given the bureaucracy typical of a public university in Colombia, it can mean complications for doing business. Finally, cocoa biopolymer and sweetener would have an interesting market, especially if they can be produced at a competitive cost.

Navigating the New Product Development Process: A Case Study of a Startup’s Journey from Ideation to Commercializatio

New Product Development (NPD) is a critical yet challenging aspect of business development, with failure rates ranging from 40% to 80%. This challenge is particularly pronounced in startups, which form the backbone of most developed economies. Despite their importance, startups often struggle with NPD, with some studies suggesting a failure rate as high as 90%. This research paper contributes to the existing literature by examining the NPD journey of a technology startup, Plugable. Plugable, an Irish enterprise in the mobility sector, aims to create a platform similar to Airbnb for private Electrical Vehicle (EV) chargers. The paper traces the journey of two products the company attempted to launch. The first product did not reach the launch stage, leading the business to revise its strategy and develop Plugable. At the time of writing, Plugable is at the prototype stage, having secured €50,000 in external funding and won several national business awards. The case study provides several key learnings for entrepreneurs in the NPD space. It underscores the importance of accurately defining the problem statement, the critical role of validation, and the significance of assembling the right team to develop an effective go-to-market strategy. These findings contribute to the emerging body of knowledge on NPD within the startup context, providing practical insights into the application of established NPD models. Furthermore, the study offers valuable insights into technology startups' unique challenges during the NPD process.

New Product Development from the Perspective of Creating a Competitive Advantage

Abstract It is acknowledged that achieving product-based competitive advantage is a key task for a company. However, there is still a research gap in determining those specific actions in the process of developing new products that arise from companies’ efforts to achieve product-based competitive advantage. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the specific actions in the new product development (NPD) process that result from companies’ intention to introduce a new product to the market, enabling the achievement of a competitive advantage. The primary research method used in this study is deductive reasoning, supplemented by a literature review. The result of the study is the proposal of three types of actions: a) evaluating an opportunity in terms of its potential to generate a competitive advantage; b) creating a new product with high economic value; and c) assessing both the planned new product and the new product introduced to the market in terms of achieving a competitive advantage. The latter two types of actions can be undertaken at various stages of the NPD process and can pertain to the product concept itself and to specific product forms (e.g., prototypes, pilot products). These proposed actions are significant because attaining a product-based competitive advantage contributes to the achievement of other objectives related to new products (e.g., revenue generation). Therefore, it is recommended that companies incorporate these actions into their NPD process. This study contributes to the field of management by proposing few specific actions in each phase of the NPD process, which arise from a company's intention to achieve a product-based competitive advantage, addressing a previous gap in the literature.

Challenges and Changes to the Product Development Process for Fashion Omnichannel Retailers

This paper focuses on the relatively limited research activity for Fashion Product Development (FPD). This work aims to challenge the traditional FPD theoretical process model within existing academic literature and presents a revised version which is underpinned by the concept of “robust management” derived from the New Product Development (NPD) literature and industry discussion. This new theoretical process model is a more accurate reflection of current practice within the fashion industry. The development of this research is influenced by critically investigating the product development process used by high street omnichannel retailers that develop “own label” fashion clothing, and which distribute products through high street stores and online sales channels as well as having integrated or overlapping service domains. The research examines the process inputs and outputs as well as the planning and management of the process overall and in so doing intends to capture the holistic nature of current industry FPD for omnichannel retailers. The empirical research proceeded using a qualitative approach using semi structured indepth interviews conducted with key informants from market leading retailers. The major findings of the research indicate that a new theoretical contribution to the academic literature field of FPD may be appropriate. The work illustrates the current product development process, documenting the challenges, changes and solutions that have influenced it, specific to omnichannel retailers, whilst identifying the links and parallels from NPD process model structures. This research explores the necessity of product development theoretical models that are specific to business and retail types within the fashion industry and contributes to the nascent theory that has a specific focus on fashion product development.

To learn or not to learn from new product development project failure: The roles of failure experience and error orientation

New product development (NPD) project leaders' learning varies after experiencing project failure, as not all failure experience equally promotes learning and not all project leaders equally learn from failure. Drawing on the sensemaking and error management perspectives, this study focuses on two research questions: to what extent does project failure experience (i.e., the percentage of project failures in the overall project portfolio managed by a project leader and the time elapsed since last project failure) affect NPD project leaders' learning from failure? To what extent does a project leader's error orientation (i.e., error competence and error strain) moderate the effect of project failure experience on NPD project leaders' learning from failure? Based on survey responses collected at two distinct time points from 237 NPD project leaders in high-tech ventures, our results show that the percentage of project failures negatively affects learning from failure, and their negative relationship is weakened as error competence increases. In contrast, the time since project failure positively affects learning from failure, and their positive relationship is weakened as error strain increases. Our findings emphasize that a simplistic approach to learning from failure fails to uncover the transformative mechanisms involved in turning failure into learning in the NPD process. Instead, we suggest a customized approach to comprehending how project leaders can capitalize on project failure considering their failure experience and error orientation to learn from NPD project failure.

Organizational unlearning: A process of tension imposition, integration, and splitting

AbstractOrganizational unlearning plays a vital role in facilitating new product development (NPD); however, the microprocesses of unlearning (i.e., how to unlearn) remain unclear. We aim to open this black box by investigating how two important dimensions—beliefs and routines—change during the unlearning process, using a longitudinal case study approach. Through a case study of Geely Auto, we identified specific cognitive and behavioral practices in the unlearning process and categorized them into three stages according to their time of occurrence and consequences. By adopting a tension lens, we demonstrate that unlearning involves three sequential steps: tension imposition, integration, and splitting. Our case study demonstrates that unlearning NPD processes involves a complex interweaving of changes in beliefs and routines. We advance the literature on learning by revealing the microprocesses that underlie organizational unlearning, and we open a broad avenue for future research to explore the microfoundations of organizational unlearning.