Organizational New Product Development Research Articles

Two paths to organizational effectiveness – Product advantage and life-cycle flexibility

Successful organizations develop marketplace advantages over rivals. To do so, many companies strive to develop processes and routines that allow them to regularly develop innovative offerings. However, due to marketplace dynamics, product advantage is often fleeting. To cope, some organizations concentrate on developing an ability to quickly modify existing products in response to marketplace changes (i.e., life-cycle flexibility). Both new product development (NPD) and product adaptation provide ways in which organizations can deliver value to consumers. However, research suggests that they may require different sets of resources. As a result, managers are faced with a formidable task—how to use their limited resources to develop new market offerings and to adapt existing ones to changing environments. We propose that an organization's NPD capability provides a mechanism by which firms can improve both product advantage and life-cycle flexibility. To examine this thesis, we develop and test a model, using data from over 180 hotels, that hypothesizes two routes by which an organization's NPD capability enables it to improve organizational effectiveness, i.e., by improving its product advantage and its life-cycle flexibility. The findings provide support for the hypothesized role of NPD capability.

Integrating Customers in Product Innovation: Lessons from Industrial Development Contractors and In‐House Contractors in Rapidly Changing Customer Markets

Successful product innovation has increasingly been recognized as an outcome of integrating customers into the new product development (NPD) process. In this paper, we explore customer integration by investigating the continual consideration of customer contributions throughout the product innovation process. Through a comparison of the customer integration practices by development contractors with those of in‐house developers, we find that the iterative and adaptive innovation process structures of the development contractors facilitate the realization of the full customer contribution potential throughout the product innovation process. We also find additional support for the incorporation of open innovation into an organization's NPD activities. Our findings are based on in‐depth case studies of the NPD activities of in‐house developers and product development contractors.

The establishment of project-oriented and cost-based NPD performance evaluation

Effectively managing and measuring the product development process is widely seen as a means of ensuring business survival through reduced time to market, increased quality and reduced costs. This article establishes a cost-effectiveness based performance measurement system for new product development (NPD). The purpose is to provide a methodology for integrating NPD teams and manufacturer capabilities through a common goal – “profitability improvement” – based on lowering the total cost of products. The merits of measuring NPD performance using total costs analysis include: (1) a common measurement language – money; (2) very simple and visible numbers along with direct and indirect ratios to help management and employees understand the importance of “doing things right the first time”. This study investigated the interactions and mutual movements among the three groups of organization: “NPD-manufacturer-customer”, integrated the results from events of poor quality caused by NPD in different stages: in developing process, in internal customer's process, and in customer's field. An equivalent total-costs (ETC) analysis along with the principle of Management By Objectives (MBO) were developed and utilized in planning and establishing this evaluation system for NPD project performance focused on satisfying customers, both internal and external, which leads to the best value for investing in organization's NPD team.

Determinants of integrated product development diffusion

Integrated product development (IPD) is an approach for developing new products focused on the early and active involvement of design, manufacturing, marketing and other key new product development (NPD) stakeholders in order to achieve cross‐functional integration and concurrent execution of various NPD activities. The benefits of IPD are well known in both the academic literature and popular press, including significant reductions in NPD cycle time and costs. However, in spite of these benefits, for the majority of manufacturing organizations, IPD is not used on 100% of NPD projects. This research develops a model of the organizational contextual factors influencing the diffusion of IPD in organizations. Results of surveying 269 NPD managers indicate that the complexity of certain IPD practices and support for IPD directly influence IPD diffusion, while an innovative organizational climate and the complexity of the organization's NPD activities indirectly influence IPD diffusion through IPD support.

Organizational contextual determinants of cross‐functional NPD team support

Purpose – This research aims to identify various organizational‐level factors influencing support for cross‐functional new product development (NPD) teams. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 2,500 questionnaires where mailed in 2003 to managers of product development from Canadian and US manufacturing organizations operating in the machinery, computer, electronic product, electrical equipment, and transportation equipment manufacturing industrial sectors. A total of 269 usable questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 11.1 percent. Findings – Results of performing regression analysis indicate that the quality of communication between the functional disciplines involved in NPD activities, perceived risks and complexity of using cross‐functional NPD teams, and the complexity of the organization's NPD activities all influence organizational support for cross‐functional NPD teams. Based on the qualitative data, additional reasons why cross‐functional NPD teams may not be supported in organizations are identified and discussed. Research limitations/implications – The major limitation of this study is that the respondents are NPD managers. These managers commented on the extent that support for cross‐functional NPD teams exists at the team, departmental, and senior management levels. Future research should focus on gauging organizational support for cross‐functional NPD teams by directly surveying team members, functional managers, and senior managers. Practical implications – This study identifies various organizational‐level factors influencing support for cross‐functional NPD teams. Originality/value – This research is of value to managers using or implementing cross‐functional teams, as it indicates potential organizational‐level factors that may facilitate or hamper the usage of such teams. To researchers, it provides a starting point in studying the determinants of support for cross‐functional NPD teams, and cross‐functional teams in general.

Web‐Based Product Development Systems Integration and New Product Outcomes: A Conceptual Framework

In hopes of improving the effectiveness of their new product development (NPD) processes, many firms increasingly are eager to adopt integrated web‐based NPD systems for NPD. However, few would argue that the mere use of web‐based NPD systems substantially will improve the NPD process. But we know little about how and when these systems can be used for enhancing NPD.An organization desiring to employ the web in its NPD process can use it at varying levels of functionality and sophistication, ranging from a tool for automating manual tasks and exchanging data to a means of integrating various intra‐ and interorganizational NPD functions and processes. At higher levels of technology sophistication or integration, an organization's NPD processes will get more integrated internally, i.e., between different stages of the NPD process and with the processes of its suppliers, technology providers, etc. Such integration of both internal and external NPD processes is considered important for successful innovation. Thus, on the surface, higher levels of web‐based systems integration may seem universally desirable. However, each increasing level of integration brings with it higher costs—not only the costs of expensive technology but also costs of implementing a complicated system, redesigning intra‐ and interorganizational processes, disrupting the status quo, and spending management time and energy during implementation. Therefore, it may not be wise for firms to jump blindly on the web‐based NPD bandwagon. High levels of web‐based NPD systems integration may be created when low levels of integration may not deliver the desired results. Further, if such systems are installed without appropriate conditions within and outside the firm, it may not be possible to exploit their full potential. As such, it is important to know how much web‐based NPD systems integration is suitable for different conditions.In this article, we develop a conceptual framework that focuses on how web‐based NPD systems integration can influence the outcome of NPD and how the relationship between systems integration and outcomes can be affected by various contextual factors. For this purpose, we draw on research in areas such as NPD, web‐based information systems, and organization theory and on many discussions we had with professionals and software vendors who deal with NPD and web‐based NPD systems. The contextual factors of interest in this framework are strategic orientation of the firm, product‐related factors, business environment, organizational factors, information technology factors, and partner‐characteristics. Managerial and research implications of the framework are discussed.

New product developments

Concurrent development activities and strategic supply chain management have become staples of the new product development (NPD) process over the last 15 years. Although this is beneficial, often the advice given comes in a “generic” form, based on the assumption that the similarities among NPD efforts are more important than the differences between them. However, variation in the radicalness of projects can make a significant difference in the way that they should be managed. This paper explores the processes associated with the development of radical new products. Based on interviews with project managers and engineers in the United States and Japan, this paper puts forth three propositions, which we summarize in a model aimed to help managers decide whether the “degree of radicalness” of the product may require changes in the organization's NPD process.

A Radial Basis Function Neural Network Multicultural Factors Evaluation Engine For Product Concept Development

In recent years, new product development (NPD) has become more and more competitive and globalized. In order to succeed in the global marketplace, it is imperative to take multicultural factors into serious consideration during the stage of product concept development. Generally, the voice of customers has been treated as a starting point to downstream product definition and design metrics determination in developing new product concepts. As a result, the elicitation, representation and management of customer requirements will determine the success level of an organization's NPD efforts. Therefore, multicultural factors, also known as the ‘macro’ perspective in the business environment, are the most significant imperatives for organizations to handle, especially in the current trend of globalization. In practice, there are few holistic and promising systems for multicultural factor evaluation in customer requirements. This work aims at realizing a prototype system that combines the strengths of the laddering technique and the radial basis function neural network for customer requirements acquisition and multicultural factor evaluation. The performance of the prototype system is illustrated by using a case study on the design of a refrigerator. The results obtained from the case study are discussed.

Concurrent development and strategic outsourcing: Do the rules change in breakthrough innovation?

Concurrent development activities and strategic supply chain management have become staples of the new product development (NPD) process over the last 15 years. Although this is beneficial, often the advice given comes in a “generic” form, based on the assumption that the similarities among NPD efforts are more important than the differences between them. However, variation in the radicalness of projects can make a significant difference in the way that they should be managed. This paper explores the processes associated with the development of radical new products. Based on interviews with project managers and engineers in the United States and Japan, this paper puts forth three propositions, which we summarize in a model aimed to help managers decide whether the “degree of radicalness” of the product may require changes in the organization's NPD process.