Product Market Success Research Articles

More than money: exploring the role of investment advisors for sustainable investing

Purpose– Investment advisors play a significant role in financial markets, yet the determinants of their behavior have not been explored in detail. The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants of how actively advisors communicate about sustainable investing with their clients, and differences in the preferences of advisors compared to investors.Design/methodology/approach– Based on a survey with 296 retail and private banking investment advisors, this study employs an ordinary least squares regression model to explore the determinants of advisors activity in communicating about sustainable investing (SI) with their clients, differences in the aspects that matter to advisors and investors, and the role of the complexity of sustainability.Findings– Advisors activity in communicating about SI relates to their expectation of SI regarding financial return, real-world impact, and the fuzziness and trustworthiness of SI. Advisors appear not to be influenced by expected risk and their personal values, which runs against prior research findings and the interest of investors.Research limitations/implications– Future research should assess cultural differences and explore asymmetries between advisors and investors in regard to the role of volatility, values, impact measurement, and complexity.Practical implications– Investment advisors underweighting aspects related to risk and self-transcendent values relative to their clients might limit the suitability of clients ' portfolios, skew capital allocation, and depress the role of SI in financial markets. Generalized to salespeople this behavior might depress the market success of products related to sustainability at large.Social implications– The findings and their generalization indicate that salespeople might systematically deviate from their clients’ interests in regard to social responsibility. Advisors and salespeople in their mediating role might be an important barrier to sustainable development.Originality/value– This is the first quantitative study that explores the decision-making by investment advisors in the context of SI, and as such answers to specific calls in literature to explore the micro-foundations of decision making in regard to SI and social responsibility, and on the relationship between private investors and investment advisors. This study is based on unique and original empirical data on advisors that work with retail and wealthy private investors.

Success factors of product concepts for convergence products in the telecommunications, internet, media, and entertainment industries

The convergence of the Telecom, Internet, Media and Entertainment (T.I.M.E.) markets has been taking place for decades, but many convergence products designed and marketed by experienced corporations have failed. We propose that the problems associated with newly developed convergence products are often the result of poorly defined product concepts. Specific research on product development and product concepts that is focused on convergence in these industries has so far been largely lacking. In this empirical study, we derived 18 hypotheses on the success factors of convergence products based on information attained from a literature review and interviews with industry experts. We tested these hypotheses using a large scale survey conducted in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. We identified 13 success factors as being relevant for product market success, seven of them being of particular importance. The findings expand on the existing findings on success factors for product development as well as convergence research and practice.

Exploring the Nonlinear Impact of Organizational Integration on New Product Market Success

This article explores the nonlinear relationship between organizational integration and new product market success (NPMS). The concept of organizational integration was measured by assessing the degree of integration among various groups of people involved in the development of new products including new product development (NPD) teams that are typically the focal points of NPD efforts. New product market success was measured by examining four often‐used measures of NPD success. The mail survey research approach was used to gather empirical data from NPD managers in three major industries. The data gathered from this survey process were used as the basis from which to extract information to address this study's major research questions, which include: (1) How is the degree of new product market success related to the nonlinear degree to which groups of people (including NPD teams) integrate during NPD processes? and (2) How is the degree of new product market success related to the nonlinear degree to which separate groups of people (e.g., customers, suppliers, and functional departments) integrate during NPD processes? This study found that high levels of organizational integration (overall organizational integration and supplier organizational integration) during NPD processes are associated with high levels of new product market success. Additionally, this study found that the relationship between new product market success and organizational integration (customer organizational integration and functional organization integration) during NPD processes exhibit nonlinear, U‐shaped relationships. Therefore, the first important finding of this study confirms that various forms of organizational integration impact in a positive way the market success of new products. This suggests that management responsible for all NPD projects should consciously integrate important groups of people to support such developments. This study's findings also confirm and imply that new product developers in the studied industries should integrate marketing and research and development (R&D) over the duration of the NPD process. This suggests that new product managers must be proactive to assure that members of NPD teams are actively engaged with groups of supporting people within and outside new‐product–producing organizations. Unlike prior research, a major finding of this study suggests that the association between organizational integration and new product market success does not form inverted U‐shaped relationships. Data from this research imply that new product market success is linearly influenced by overall and supplier organizational integration. However, this study's data suggest that new product market success is nonlinearly influenced by customer and functional organizational integration. This study's data suggest that when customer organizational integration and/or functional organizational integration is increased, new product market success can be increased at a rate which is greater than a linear rate.

New Product Market Success for Bio-Tech Industry

The role of organizational integration as an antecedent of new product performance has been extensively documented in the literature. A leading corporation must either develop new successful products to sustain its business competence or keep growing in global markets. Organizational integration has attracted ever-increasing interest because of the publication of seminal works and is a strategically valuable resource for successful new product development (NPD). This article focuses on NPD projects in the Taiwanese bio-tech industry. In particular, this study examines the mediate relationship between Organizational integration and new product market success through innovation capability. We propose our research model and then test it by applying structural equation modeling based on the partial least squares (PLS) methodology. The results show that organizational integration not only can achieve new product market success directly but can also increase new product market success through innovation capability.

Exploring the dimensions of product quality: implications for marketing and R&D management

The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between Garvin's (1987) product quality dimensions and new product market success. To pursue this study, the following research questions were investigated: 1) Which product quality dimensions have the greatest influence on the perception of overall product quality? 2) What product quality dimensions have the greatest impact on dimensions of new product market success? The study data suggest that the product quality dimensions that influence overall perceived product quality are not the same dimensions that impact new product success. Additionally, not all quality dimensions impact new product market success measures to the same extent. This research suggests that to increase customers' new product purchase intentions, marketing & R&D need to assure customers' needs for desired product features are fulfilled and that marketing personnel must collaborate with R&D to assure that new products perform in a manner that significantly solve customers' problems.

R&D Partnerships and Innovation Performance: Can There Be Too Much of a Good Thing?

R&D collaboration facilitates pooling of complementary skills, learning from the partner as well as sharing risks and costs. Research therefore repeatedly stressed the positive relationship between collaborative R&D and innovation performance. Fewer studies addressed potential drawbacks of collaborative R&D. Collaborative R&D comes at the costs of coordination and monitoring, requires knowledge disclosure and involves the risk of opportunistic behaviour by the partners. Thus, while the net gains from collaboration can be high initially, cost may start to outweigh those benefits if firms engage in multiple collaborative projects simultaneously. This study explicitly considers a firm’s collaboration intensity, that is, the share of collaborative R&D projects in the firms’ total R&D project portfolio. For a sample of 2,891 firms located in Germany, active in abroad range of manufacturing and service sectors and of which 86% are SMEs, we indeed find that increasing the share of collaborative R&D projects in total R&D projects is associated with a higher probability of product innovation and with a higher market success of new products. While we can confirm previous findings in terms of gains for innovation performance, we also find that collaboration has decreasing and even negative returns on product innovation if its intensity increases above a certain threshold. Consequently, the relationship between collaboration intensity and innovation has an inverted-U shape. In particular, costs start outweighing benefits if a firm pursues more than about two thirds of its R&D projects in collaboration. This result is robust to conditioning market success to the introduction of new products and to accounting for the selection into collaborating.

R&D Partnerships and Innovation Performance: Can There Be Too Much of a Good Thing?

R&D collaboration facilitates pooling of complementary skills, learning from the partner as well as sharing risks and costs. Research therefore repeatedly stressed the positive relationship between collaborative R&D and innovation performance. Fewer studies addressed potential drawbacks of collaborative R&D. Collaborative R&D comes at the costs of coordination and monitoring, requires knowledge disclosure and involves the risk of opportunistic behaviour by the partners. Thus, while the net gains from collaboration can be high initially, cost may start to outweigh those benefits if firms engage in multiple collaborative projects simultaneously. This study explicitly considers a firm's collaboration intensity, that is, the share of collaborative R&D projects in the firms' total R&D project portfolio. For a sample of 2,891 firms located in Germany, active in abroad range of manufacturing and service sectors and of which 86% are SMEs, we indeed find that increasing the share of collaborative R&D projects in total R&D projects is associated with a higher probability of product innovation and with a higher market success of new products. While we can confirm previous findings in terms of gains for innovation performance, we also find that collaboration has decreasing and even negative returns on product innovation if its intensity increases above a certain threshold. Consequently, the relationship between collaboration intensity and innovation has an inverted-U shape. In particular, costs start outweighing benefits if a firm pursues more than about two thirds of its R&D projects in collaboration. This result is robust to conditioning market success to the introduction of new products and to accounting for the selection into collaborating.

Exploring the moderating influence of product innovativeness on the organizational integration‐new product market success relationship

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate the moderating impact of product innovativeness on the new product market success‐organizational integration relationship. Design/methodology/approach – A mail survey research approach was used that gathered 131 completed survey instruments from NPD managers in the electrical products, medical devices, and the heavy construction equipment industries. Findings – This research confirmed that organizational integration during NPD processes and the innovativeness of new products are associated with new product market success. This study also discovered that product innovativeness does not moderate the organizational integration‐new product market success relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThis study's findings may not be generalizable to industries beyond those studied, the studied relationships may change when new product projects are appended to one another, and it may be necessary to take into account several dimensions of product innovativeness to ascertain the relationship between product innovativeness and new product market success.Practical implicationsThis study's results imply organizational integration can be increased to increase the market success of new products; new product developers should integrate marketing and R&D during NPD projects; and the innovativeness of new products can be increased without affecting the organizational integration‐new product market success relationship. Originality/value – The investigation of the following research questions contributes to NPD knowledge. How is new product market success related to NPD organizational integration? How is new product market success related to a product's innovativeness? To what extent does the innovativeness of new products moderate the relationship between new product market success and organizational integration?

Approaches for Identifying Consumer Preferences for the Design of Technology Products: A Case Study of Residential Solar Panels

This paper investigates ways to obtain consumer preferences for technology products to help designers identify the key attributes that contribute to a product's market success. A case study of residential photovoltaic panels is performed in the context of the California, USA, market within the 2007–2011 time span. First, interviews are conducted with solar panel installers to gain a better understanding of the solar industry. Second, a revealed preference method is implemented using actual market data and technical specifications to extract preferences. The approach is explored with three machine learning methods: Artificial neural networks (ANN), Random Forest decision trees, and Gradient Boosted regression. Finally, a stated preference self-explicated survey is conducted, and the results using the two methods compared. Three common critical attributes are identified from a pool of 34 technical attributes: power warranty, panel efficiency, and time on market. From the survey, additional nontechnical attributes are identified: panel manufacturer's reputation, name recognition, and aesthetics. The work shows that a combination of revealed and stated preference methods may be valuable for identifying both technical and nontechnical attributes to guide design priorities.

PolyOne forecasts colour trends, launches iPad app

PolyOne Corp has delivered its first forecast of future colour trends with the release of Color Inspiration 2014. This collection of six colour palettes provides ‘insights about global colour experiences’ looking ahead to 2014, the company says. The purported aim is to help product designers and developers to increase the market success of products through the selection of ‘on-trend’ colours, and to reduce the time to market by condensing the development cycle.

REFINING THE NPD/INNOVATION PATH TO PRODUCT MARKET SUCCESS WITH PARTIAL LEAST SQUARES PATH ANALYSIS

In this paper, a refinement of the NPD/innovation process and its relationship with new product success is explored. Through a review of the literature, a rationale for a research model and the associations among its constructs were developed. In this study, a factor analysis was performed on data describing the proficiency by which major, traditional NPD/innovation process activities were performed. This analysis led to the development of seven parsimonious NPD/innovation process activities. This research evaluated new product success by employing four measures: profit, sales, successfully opening new markets, and successfully entering existing markets with new products. Respondents to a mail survey process directed to NPD managers in the medical instruments, heavy construction equipment, and electrical products industries provided the study's empirical data. The research model was examined by performing a Partial Least Squares (PLS) path analysis on the study data. PLS path analysis was employed to provide an answer to the research question: How does the proficiency with which new product development activities are performed relate to the market success of newly developed products? The factor analysis and subsequent PLS path analysis suggest that (1) there are seven important NPD/innovation activities that form the basis for a prudent view of new product development/innovation, (2) there is a parallel path to new product success much of which occurs after new product commercialization, and (3) NPD proficiency continues to significantly influence the market success of new products. Implications from this research are provided.

An investigation of the moderating influence of NPD speed on the organisational integration-new product market success and NPD process proficiency-new product market success relationships

This paper examines the moderating influence of new product development (NPD) speed on the organisational integration-new product market success and the NPD process proficiency-new product market success relationships. The mail survey research approach was used to gather data from NPD managers in the electrical products, medical devices, and the heavy construction equipment industries. The data gathered from this process was used as the basis from which to extract information to address this study’s major research questions which include: 1) to what extent does NPD speed moderate the new product market success-organisational integration relationship?; 2) to what extent does NPD speed moderate the relationship between new product market success and the proficiency with which NPD process activities are performed?; 3) which moderation situation has the greatest impact on new product market success? It was confirmed that organisational integration and NPD process proficiency are significantly related to new product success. This study agreed with the research of Ittner and Larcker (1997) in that NPD speed and new product market success are not significantly related. NPD speed neither moderates the organisational integration-new product market success relationship nor the NPD process proficiency-new product success relationship. Managerial implications are provided and research directions are suggested.

Examining the simultaneous impact of market newness and product innovativeness on the organisational integration-new product market success relationship: a moderation study

This paper examines the moderating influence of market newness and product innovativeness on the organisational integration–new product market success relationship. Data from the electrical products, medical devices, and the heavy construction equipment industries were studied. The major research question studied is to what degree do market newness and product innovativeness simultaneously moderate the relationship between new product market success and the degree of NPD organisational integration? It was found that in the studied industries market newness was found to have a greater moderating impact on the organisational integration–new product market success relationship than product innovativeness when the effects of both moderators were simultaneously investigated. Implications of this research are provided.

Structuring oils without highly saturated fats – how far are we?

Eckhard Flöter The interest to structure oil-based products with materials different from highly saturated fats has increased significantly during the time when ‘fat technologists’ were busy to find solutions to reduce and widely eliminate trans fatty acids from our food products. Next to the trans fatty acid elimination the reduction of saturated fatty acids has become a generally acknowledged target. This is expressed in the FAO/WHO goal to limit the energy intake from saturated fatty acids to 10%. The motivation to develop alternative structuring technologies for soft-solid lipid phases could increase beyond current ‘low SaFA’-claims through ongoing discussions on the taxation of saturated fats in products as currently present in Denmark and additionally the risk that the application of natural saturated fatty acids, with palm oil as primary source, becomes more complicated. The latter could be either due to availability issues driven by competing usages or developments of the public opinion with regard to the consumption of tropical oils. As an alternative to replace saturated fats organogelators are now of considerable interest. In simple terms the desired organogelators are to vegetable oils the analogue of what gelatine and other biopolymers are with respect to the structuring of water. These structurants, preferentially applied at low concentration levels, deliver semi-solid lipid phases that have practically the same lipid nutritional profile as liquid oils. Oil structuring or organogelation is not new and the field of organogels outside food is highly active. Non-food applications cover optical materials, drug delivery systems, oil spill recovery techniques, and home and personal care products. Even though the limitation to edible applications reduces the number of candidate structuring materials the size of the haystack for searching some magic needles is still sizable. The scientific efforts of the past decade have not yet delivered a true breakthrough and hence the door for broad food applications of organogels is still closed. The structuring systems that have been studied can arbitrarily be categorized in three classes. First, there are the obvious one component systems familiar to the products considered such as waxes, fatty acids, fatty alcohols and mono- and diacylglycerols. These seem to deliver only limited, if at all, benefits over triacylglycerols. However, in this category of single structurants, materials such as ceramides and 12-hydroxystearic acid offer a clear SaFA benefit compared to structuring vegetable oils by fat crystals. Second, there is a class of composed structuring systems. These usually binary systems such as β-sitosterol and oryzanol, or fatty acids and fatty alcohol, the combination lecithin and sorbitolesters are unfortunately very prone to losing their structuring potential in product applications. This is for example due to either the presence of an oil-water interface or the formation of hydrates that tend to deplete the self-assembled structure in at least one of its components. Third, there is oil structuring through components that are alien to the products considered and mostly deliberately synthesized. Here, ethylcellulose and protein fibrils have to be mentioned. The field of edible oil structuring and the current status of different approaches has been reviewed and discussed repeatedly 1-3. Undoubtedly substantial progress has been made with respect to the number of different structuring systems and the comprehension of their mechanism of action. However, the step from gelling oil on the laboratory bench to deliver a robust structured lipid phase in a food product appears to be quite big. At first some structuring systems are just too costly or the availability of the necessary material is limited. Secondly, food products and their manufacturing processes appear to be quite hostile for oil structuring systems because oil–water interfaces, water activity levels or shear during manufacturing can be critical for the organogels. Additionally, the perceivable properties of gelled oils are different from conventional semi-solid lipid phases. Typically there will be no cooling sensation and also other product disintegration characteristics will change. This is understandably a major obstacle in any product development effort. However, the time might be ripe to selectively move oil structuring from the laboratory bench towards product development. Recently a good example of a successful product application was reported by Zetzl et al. 4. Here the domains of animal fat in Frankfurter sausages were substituted by pieces of ethylcellulose structured vegetable oil. Since it is unlikely that a single oil structuring system will be a general substitute for fat crystals one can expect different application specific structuring solutions varying from hybrid systems, combinations of saturated TAG and organogelators, to full replacement of the structuring fat. Finally, the future market success of organogel-based products will not only depend on the technical ability to formulate acceptable products, which is certainly easier for completely new ones without any reference perception, but also on the ‘consumer digestible’ communication concerning the structuring materials. Eckhard Flöter Editor

AN EMPIRICAL EXPLORATION OF THE NEW PRODUCT PROCESS PROFICIENCY–NEW PRODUCT SUCCESS RELATIONSHIP

This study explores the relationship between new product market success and the proficiency with which various stages, as opposed to individual activities, of the new product development (NPD) process are performed. Therefore, this research addresses three major research questions: (1) During which stage(s) of the NPD process does R&D/manufacturing have the greatest impact on new product market success? (2) During which stage(s) of the NPD process does marketing have the greatest impact on new product market success? (3) How do the contributions of R&D/manufacturing and marketing align in the development of new products? The study sample consists of 131 new product projects from the medical devices, electrical equipment, and heavy construction equipment industries. This study was based on a random sample of the firms operating in these three industries. Study data suggest that R&D/manufacturing and marketing impact new product success at different times during the NPD process. This data supports the need for cross-functional integration between R&D/manufacturing and marketing. Recommendations are provided for NPD managers based on study findings.

Network effects and new product success: strengthening product advantage, overcoming customer uncertainty?

Prior research on whether network effects outweigh product advantage in determining the market success of new products is mainly theoretical with little empirical evidence. This paper dissects the network effects phenomenon, and discovers that different network effect dimensions exert conflicting moderating influences on product performance. Examining survey data on 272 new product launches, the results indicate that product advantage matters regardless of network effects. Further, while some components of network effects can be leveraged to help customers overcome their uncertainties towards new product adoption, some create additional anxieties that harm product performance. Implications for marketing practitioners as well as academia are discussed.

An examination of the moderation effects of NPD resource allocation and product innovativeness on the NPD stage process proficiency-new product market success relationship

This study examines the relationships between new product success and the proficiency with which three major New Product Development (NPD) stages are executed, and the moderation of these relationships by product innovativeness and the allocation of NPD resources. This research demonstrates that NPD stage process proficiencies are significantly related to new product success, that the proficiency with which the commercialisation stage is performed is more important to new product success than the proficiency with which other stages are performed, and that NPD resource allocation moderates the NPD process proficiency–new product success relationship. Study implications for managers and scholars are offered.

Antecedents and Results of Emotional Capability in Software Development Project Teams*

Emotional capability is considered an emerging phenomenon in the group behavior literature. However, little attention is given to the role of emotional capability in heterogeneous work groups in general and cross‐functional product development teams in particular in an empirical context. In this study, the antecedents and results of the emotional capability in software development project teams using Huy's (1999) dynamics of encouragement, displaying freedom, playfulness, experiencing, reconciliation, and identification constructs were investigated. By studying 95 software development project teams in the IT departments of 52 firms, it was found, on the basis of using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method, that the dynamics of encouragement is positively related to the speed‐to‐market, and the dynamics of encouragement and experiencing is positively related to the market success of new software products. In addition, it was demonstrated that team autonomy has a positive influence on the dynamics of encouragement; collaboration among team members has a positive impact on the dynamics of encouragement and experiencing; and team experience has a positive effect on the dynamics of experiencing. This study has several theoretical and managerial implications. In terms of theoretical implications, this study enhances the empathy concept by operationalizing it at the team level, i.e., collective empathy, and tests its impact on the project performance. This study also highlights the roles of collective hope, joy, and enthusiasm in a project's performance by empirically demonstrating the benefits of working in a fun environment. Further, this study empirically shows that team emotional capability mediates the relationship between collaboration among team members and market success of the software products, indicating that management and regulation of the emotions acts as a platform to actualize the joint behavior toward some goal of common interest for the successful products. In terms of managerial implications, this study suggests that managers should enhance the team's emotional capability to enhance the project performance. In particular, managers should promote courage, joy, and hope, and increase communication among people to develop collective empathy and the “liking” of one party for the other. Managers should also promote collaboration and mutual interaction among team members; give autonomy to project team members to make important decisions about the software product; keep control of the project's process to some level; and encourage people to use their previous experience during the projects to increase the team's emotional capability.

Exploring the NPD strategy development proficiency – new product market success relationship: a study of mediation and moderation

This research examines the impact of New Product Development (NPD) strategy development proficiency on new product market success. We obtained data from firms in three industries to evaluate five research questions that address the associations among four salient NPD constructs, including NPD strategy development proficiency, R&D/technical proficiency, new product market success and market dynamism. We found that R&D/technical proficiency significantly mediates the strategy development proficiency – new product market success relationship. We also found that market dynamism neither moderates the NPD strategy development proficiency – new product market success relationship nor the R&D/technical process proficiency – new product market success relationship. We provide managerial implications from our research.

Role of open innovation in the short- and long-term market success of new products: evidence from the Dutch food and beverages industry

Innovative companies increasingly use resources from outside the company in order to speed up the innovation process. Building and maintaining an external network has become vital to an innovative company's strategy for survival and growth. The study takes a new approach by not only investigating the role of the innovation network on the product's performance soon after market launch, but also after seven years. We focus on the external network involved in the innovation process of a product, and not of the company as a whole. We analysed the role of technology-related and market-related actors in the networks for new and improved products separately as we expected significant differences between the two product groups. Based on an analysis of data on 129 products in the Dutch food and beverages industry we found that the involvement of specific technology-related actors (research institutes, companies providing training, companies supplying machinery and equipment) and market-related actors (customers, competitors, marketing companies) related significantly positively to both short- and long-term market performance of new products, but not of improved products.