Source Of New Product Ideas Research Articles

Organisational adoption of the lead user method: a follow-up study on intentions versus actions

Users have been shown to be a source of new product ideas, and some users also develop their own solutions. This is not a marginal phenomenon and innovating users - so-called lead users - can be found in all fields. The lead user method (LUM) has several documented advantages, but it has gained far less ground as an everyday approach among companies than more traditional user research methods. In this article, we examine the reasons why LUM is not adopted in an organisation after a successful pilot project. We use rich, longitudinal data from two case companies and find that despite stated intentions and enthusiasm, LUM is not applied repeatedly. Staff turnover, the time and effort required to conduct LUM and the difficulties of adjusting LUM to a specific context were found as reasons why LUM use did not continue. Most importantly, LUM adoption requires the transfer of the evaluative and procedural knowledge of how to conduct it, which appears to be difficult and effortful to transfer to and within the organisation.

Organisational adoption of the lead user method: a follow-up study on intentions versus actions

Users have been shown to be a source of new product ideas, and some users also develop their own solutions. This is not a marginal phenomenon and innovating users - so-called lead users - can be found in all fields. The lead user method (LUM) has several documented advantages, but it has gained far less ground as an everyday approach among companies than more traditional user research methods. In this article, we examine the reasons why LUM is not adopted in an organisation after a successful pilot project. We use rich, longitudinal data from two case companies and find that despite stated intentions and enthusiasm, LUM is not applied repeatedly. Staff turnover, the time and effort required to conduct LUM and the difficulties of adjusting LUM to a specific context were found as reasons why LUM use did not continue. Most importantly, LUM adoption requires the transfer of the evaluative and procedural knowledge of how to conduct it, which appears to be difficult and effortful to transfer to and within the organisation.

Focusing the Sources of New Product Ideas and Its Implications for New Product Development Management in Credit Finance Companies

Focusing the Sources of New Product Ideas and Its Implications for New Product Development Management in Credit Finance Companies

The Benefits and Challenges of Collaborating with User Communities

OVERVIEW:User communities are potentially rich sources of new product ideas and innovations. However, accessing these communities brings significant challenges, including how to identify users, how to engage with them, how to integrate user innovations into corporate process, and how to manage intellectual property and other aspects of the relationship. The LEGO Group's experience engaging with user innovators, explored in a longitudinal study of the firm's interactions with independent and corporate-sponsored user communities, illustrates both the challenges and the rewards of collaborating with user communities.

The Value of Crowdsourcing: Can Users Really Compete with Professionals in Generating New Product Ideas?

Generating ideas for new products used to be the exclusive domain of marketers, engineers, and/or designers. Users have only recently been recognized as an alternative source of new product ideas. Whereas some have attributed great potential to outsourcing idea generation to the “crowd” of users (“crowdsourcing”), others have clearly been more skeptical. The authors join this debate by presenting a real‐world comparison of ideas actually generated by a firm's professionals with those generated by users in the course of an idea generation contest. Both professionals and users provided ideas to solve an effective and relevant problem in the consumer goods market for baby products. Executives from the underlying company evaluated all ideas (blind to their source) in terms of key quality dimensions including novelty, customer benefit, and feasibility. The study reveals that the crowdsourcing process generated user ideas that score significantly higher in terms of novelty and customer benefit, and somewhat lower in terms of feasibility. However, the average values for feasibility—in sharp contrast to novelty and customer benefit—tended to be relatively high overall, meaning that feasibility did not constitute a narrow bottleneck in this study. Even more interestingly, it is found that user ideas are placed more frequently than expected among the very best in terms of novelty and customer benefit. These findings, which are quite counterintuitive from the perspective of classic new product development (NPD) literature, suggest that, at least under certain conditions, crowdsourcing might constitute a promising method to gather user ideas that can complement those of a firm's professionals at the idea generation stage in NPD.

Cross-category innovativeness as a source of new product ideas: Consumers’ perceptions of over-the-counter pharmacological beverages

The borders between food and beverage, pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare industries have become increasingly blurred concurrent to the development of ‘radically innovative’ health-enhancing foods and beverages within the health and wellness market. This research investigated consumers’ attitudes and perceptions towards cross-category innovations, and applied it to the design and strategic marketing of novel over-the-counter (OTC) pharmacological beverages. Fifty-eight consumers participated in 10 in-depth interviews and six focus groups. Following this, 286 respondents evaluated hypothetical OTC pharmacological beverage concepts through conjoint analysis. The research revealed that the functional benefit attribute accounted for over 33% of consumers’ purchase intent for OTC pharmacological beverages, with age and OTC-related purchase behaviours strongly related to cluster membership. Consequently, as companies move towards the extremes of the diet-health continuum, branding, product efficacy and product positioning strategy issues become extremely critical considerations for companies seeking new product opportunities with medicinal-oriented products such as OTC pharmacological beverages.

New Product Development Process Used in the Consumer Product Manufacturing Units in Nepal

This study focuses the technical process steps for new product development used in the manufacturing units and indicates that feasibility report preparation practice is regular in the consumer product industry. Consultants are used to develop new products. Top level, line managers, and food technicians are the main decision taking, supervising, and controlling authorities in the product development process. Consultants and market are the main sources of new product ideas. Joint meeting among research and development (R&D), production and marketing staff and inter-communication system are perceived to be useful for co-ordination of activities.
 
 Journal of Nepalese Business Studies Vol.1(1) 2004 pp.14-22

Commercial Innovations from Consulting Engineering Firms: An Empirical Exploration of a Novel Source of New Product Ideas

Industrial firms interact with many outside organizations such as the customers, suppliers, competitors, and universities to obtain input for their new product development (NPD) programs. The importance of interfirm interactions is reflected in a large number of interdisciplinary studies reported in a wide variety of literature bases. As a result, several sources of new product ideas have been investigated in the extant literature. Yet given the growing complexity and risks in new product development, there seems to be a need for managers to obtain input from new and unutilized sources. Apparently, one source that industry has not tapped adequately for its NPD efforts is the consulting engineering firms (CEFs).To fill the aforementioned gap in the literature, this article explores the roles and suitability of CEFs in new product development by conducting a rigorous in‐depth case research of new product idea generation in a large Australian firm manufacturing a variety of industrial products. To generate ideas for the sponsoring firm, longitudinal field interviews with 64 managers and engineers from 32 large CEFs were conducted over a one‐and‐one‐half year period. The findings of the field interviews were combined with the documentary evidences and the archival data. This longitudinal data collection enabled the author to generate new product ideas over real time and to gain access to the information that otherwise might have been difficult to obtain.The results suggest that CEFs are a rich source of new product ideas of potential commercial value. However, industry is making little use of CEFs, which underscores the need for industrial firms to collaborate and to establish an effective idea transfer relationship with them. Moreover, the services of CEFs are not restricted to idea generation but can stretch across the entire NPD process. These findings of the study encourage product managers to conceptualize NPD as a highly synergistic mutually interdependent process between CEFs and industrial firms rather than simply an arm's‐length consulting transactions. Given the dearth of research on idea generation with CEFs, this study highlights the findings that are novel and that go beyond the techniques of new product idea generation established in the extant literature.

Characteristics of innovating users in a consumer goods field: An empirical study of sport-related product consumers

Empirical findings illustrate that users in industrial markets often play a dominant role in invention of new products. However, little is known about the innovation activities of end users in the field of consumer goods. The author reports on a survey of the innovation activities and characteristics of 153 users of outdoor-related consumer products. He finds a high level of innovation by these consumers. The results also reveal that innovating users can be reliably distinguished from non-innovating ones by characteristics such as the benefit they expect from using their innovations and the level of expertise they have in the use of the products. Taken together, these two findings—frequent innovation by consumers and the possibility to identify efficiently those who innovate—imply that innovation by users can be an important source of new product ideas for consumer goods companies. Effective utilisation of this resource will require significant changes in methodologies for customer-driven idea generation.

Characteristics of innovating users in a consumer goods field: An empirical study of sport-related product consumers

Abstract Empirical findings illustrate that users in industrial markets often play a dominant role in invention of new products. However, little is known about the innovation activities of end users in the field of consumer goods. The author reports on a survey of the innovation activities and characteristics of 153 users of outdoor-related consumer products. He finds a high level of innovation by these consumers. The results also reveal that innovating users can be reliably distinguished from non-innovating ones by characteristics such as the benefit they expect from using their innovations and the level of expertise they have in the use of the products. Taken together, these two findings—frequent innovation by consumers and the possibility to identify efficiently those who innovate—imply that innovation by users can be an important source of new product ideas for consumer goods companies. Effective utilisation of this resource will require significant changes in methodologies for customer-driven idea generation.

Characteristics of Innovating Users in a Consumer Goods Field: An Empirical Study of Sport-Related Product Consumers

The author reports on a survey of the innovation activities and characteristics of 153 users of outdoor-related consumer products. He finds a high level of innovation by these consumers. Thirty-seven percent report that they have developed ideas for new or improved products. The results also reveal that innovating users can be reliably distinguished from non-innovating ones by characteristics such as the benefit they expect from using their innovations and the level of expertise they have in their sport. Taken together, these two findings - frequent innovation by consumers and the possibility to identify efficiently those who innovate - imply that innovation by users can be an important source of new product ideas for consumer goods companies. Effective utilization of this resource will require significant changes in methodologies for customer-driven idea generation.

Sources of new product ideas and creativity practices in the UK textile industry

The purpose of this paper is to examine how UK companies in the textile sector obtain ideas for innovations. The trend towards the production of commodity textiles in low wage cost countries is forcing the closure of many UK textile companies. A number of these UK companies have moved away from commodity textiles, and now specialise in niche markets with highly technical products which are based on high performance synthetic fibres. The ability to develop innovative new products can be a source of competitive advantage for these companies and the generation of ideas for new products or ‘creativity’ is the first step in this innovation process. An exploratory survey is used to examine the profitability of different sources of new product ideas that are currently used by companies that consume high performance synthetic fibres. Based on the key literature themes, and the survey findings, an exploratory multiple case study approach is adopted involving eight organisations. The case findings reveal many discrepancies between actual and recommended practice in the support of creativity.

Organizational Culture for Small Textile and Apparel Businesses in Guatemala

The organizational culture of small Guatemalan businesses that produce textile and apparel products for export to the U.S. was a) profiled using field research and case study methods and b) compared with past research describing the cultures and management practices of apparel businesses located in the U.S. and abroad. The overall profile of organizational culture included improved family well-being as a motivating force for initiating and sustaining business. Cooperative management provided mutual respect and fairness among all members. Little organizational risk-taking was evident, yet joining the group was an indicator of individual initiative. The objective of creating a successful business required new product development with wholesale customers serving as the primary source of new product ideas. Having a central workplace enhanced group communication and product quality. Similarities among the Guatemalan and other apparel and craft businesses were noted in terms offinancial need, importance of family, geographic marketing focus, product development strategies, and risk in ownership. Variables for consideration by development planners are identified.

New product development: using the salesforce to identify opportunities

The development process for new products is critically dependent on customer‐generated new product ideas. Although several conduits exist for identifying and communicating these ideas, by far the most productive one is the organization’s salesforce. While the integral role of salespeople as the linkage between buyers and sellers is generally acknowledged by many researchers, little empirical evidence exists which explores this role. This paper explores the role of the salesforce as an information source in the opportunity identification phase of the new product development process. It presents results of an empirical study of 223 sales managers concerning actual use and effectiveness of the salesforce as a source of new product ideas and proposes specific recommendations concerning improved utilization of the salesforce as a source of new product ideas generated from customers.

Principles of new product management: Exploring the beliefs of product practitioners

Conventional wisdom might lead us to conclude that the various disciplines involved in product development and management are often at cross-purposes. For example, practitioners from R&D and engineering have been known to suggest that marketing fails to understand the technical trade-offs involved in product management decisions. Conversely, marketing professionals sometimes complain that their technology-oriented colleagues pursue product development initiatives without adequate market awareness. And practitioners from both sides of this debate have asserted that research on new product development tends to be of the ivory tower variety, with little or no relevance for industry. Are such complaints valid? Perhaps it is time for a reality check. By searching academic literature on product development, Roger J. Calantone, C. Anthony Di Benedetto, and Ted Haggblom have compiled a list of 40 fundamental principles of new product development. This list forms the basis for a survey of new product practitioners from marketing and technical disciplines. The study provides a means for assessing whether practitioners agree with the fundamental principles of new product development that are identified in current academic literature. By obtaining responses from both marketing and technical professionals, the survey also sheds light on whether those two groups hold fundamentally different beliefs regarding new product development. The survey results reveal strong overall agreement among practitioners regarding these fundamental principles of new product management. Managers believe that 80% of the principles are either usually or almost always true. In other words, the survey results support the idea that the academic community is pursuing research issues that are relevant to practitioners, and that they are reaching valid conclusions. There are only a few cases in which the responses from the technical and marketing practitioners differ. Those disagreements probably result from differences in the basic orientations of the two groups. For example, it is not surprising that marketing managers would be more likely to agree that product users and the marketplace form the most important source for new product ideas, while technical managers more strongly support the idea that radically new technologies constitute an important source of new product ideas. The respondents noted overall disagreement with only a few of the 40 principles. In many of these cases, the academic literature has reached mixed conclusions. In other words, these principles might actually be oversimplifications, and further research is probably needed before we can fully understand the issues involved.

Principles of New Product Management: Exploring the Beliefs of Product Practitioners

Conventional wisdom might lead us to conclude that the various disciplines involved in product development and management are often at cross‐purposes. For example, practitioners from R&D and engineering have been known to suggest that marketing fails to understand the technical trade‐offs involved in product management decisions. Conversely, marketing professionals sometimes complain that their technology‐oriented colleagues pursue product development initiatives without adequate market awareness. And practitioners from both sides of this debate have asserted that research on new product development tends to be of the ivory tower variety, with little or no relevance for industry. Are such complaints valid? Perhaps it is time for a reality check.By searching academic literature on product development, Roger J. Calantone, C. Anthony Di Benedetto, and Ted Haggblom have compiled a list of 40 fundamental principles of new product development. This list forms the basis for a survey of new product practitioners from marketing and technical disciplines. The study provides a means for assessing whether practitioners agree with the fundamental principles of new product development that are identified in current academic literature. By obtaining responses from both marketing and technical professionals, the survey also sheds light on whether those two groups hold fundamentally different beliefs regarding new product development.The survey results reveal strong overall agreement among practitioners regarding these fundamental principles of new product management. Managers believe that 80% of the principles are either usually or almost always true. In other words, the survey results support the idea that the academic community is pursuing research issues that are relevant to practitioners, and that they are reaching valid conclusions.There are only a few cases in which the responses from the technical and marketing practitioners differ. Those disagreements probably result from differences in the basic orientations of the two groups. For example, it is not surprising that marketing managers would be more likely to agree that “product users and the marketplace form the most important source for new product ideas,” while technical managers more strongly support the idea that “radically new technologies constitute an important source of new product ideas.” The respondents noted overall disagreement with only a few of the 40 principles. In many of these cases, the academic literature has reached mixed conclusions. In other words, these “principles” might actually be oversimplifications, and further research is probably needed before we can fully understand the issues involved.

New product development process: An investigation of success and failure in high-technology and non-high-technology firms

Numerous studies have examined new product success and failure in an attempt to reduce failure rates. Because they share some common themes, the previous studies were categorized into the following five groups: (1) studies focusing on causes of new product successes/failures; (2) studies examining new product development processes; (3) studies investigating new product development strategy and performance relationships; (4) studies focusing on building models to predict new product performance, and (5) studies focusing on a single factor relating to new production success/failure. To fill some of the gaps in earlier studies, and include variables that have not been linked to new product success/failure before, 151 companies were surveyed in two industries, the medical instrument technology and food processing industries. The survey contained questions on the importance of six new product idea sources: (1) final customers; (2) R&D department; (3) marketing executives; (4) other executives in the firm; (5) competitors; and (6) free-lance investors. Seven factors that were proposed to relate to new product success/failure were: (1) competition; (2) product performance; (3) marketing; (4) price competitiveness; (5) product absolescence; (6) limited number of distributors; and (7) customer switching costs. In addition, an attempt was made to investigate the effects of technology and following new product development plans and procedures on new product success/failure. Survey results indicate that using customers as the sources of new product ideas ranks number one in terms of importance for businesses in both the medical instrument technology and food processing industries. Similarly, executives who are in charge of new product development rare poor product performance as the essential cause of new product failure in the food processing industry, followed by poor marketing and pricing. In the medical instrument technology industry, however, the most important cause of new product failure was considered to be customer switching costs followed by poor product performance. This is probably because of the high investments typical for products in the medical instrument technology industry (i.e.hospital equipment). New product failure rates also differed between the two industries studied. Companies from the food processing industry, on average, had an almost 8% higher new product failure rate than companies in the medical instrument technology industry (40.18%vs.32.43%).The level of technology (medical instrument technology—high tech vs.food processing industry—low tech) may account for the difference in the new product failure rate. Results also showed that following new product development plans and procedures relates to new product success in the food processing industry, but not in the medical instrument technology industry. Using company R&D departments and free-lance inventors as sources of new product ideas is related to new product success in both industries investigated. In the food processing industry, price, competition, customer switching costs, and access to distribution channels influence new product success. Those firms that consider these variables important have higher new product success rates. Similarly, in the medical instrument technology industry, customer switching costs, access to distribution channels, product performance, product obsolescence, and marketing are important influences of new product success. Thus, firms that consider these variables when entering markets with new products may be more successful. It is possible to eliminate some causes of new product failure by entering markets earlier than the competitors. For example, early market entrants often have advantages over later entrants in selecting distribution channels. Early market entrants are also likely to create new customer switching costs for later entrants, however, this may not occur if the product introduced is not a technological breakthrough. Of course, not every new product introduced can be a technological breakthrough (e.g., many food products), but they can be new, reflecting the definition of new products.

Developing a Framework for Sources of New Product Ideas

Describes a study reviewing recent histories of new product ideas in order to devise a framework of their sources. Proposes a classification of sources for new product ideas through laboratory, management, company situation, distribution, supplier, consumer, marketplace, foreign products, and government regulations. Surmises that successful innovation requires an understanding of the sources of new ideas, and that the proposed framework is more effective than other paradigms.

The Early Stages of New Product Development in Entrepreneurial High‐Tech Firms

This study examines the most valuable sources of new product ideas and the criteria used to screen potential new products in entrepreneurial, high‐tech firms. Teresa Pavia explored the practices of 118 small, young, high‐tech firms. Her findings complement a variety of existing studies of the new product process in large firms and the few existing studies of the process in entrepreneurial, high‐tech firms. The firms participating in this study rely on informal techniques to generate new product ideas. They place heavy reliance on input from their customers and often develop new products in response to problems articulated by these customers. Although the annual strategic plan is not used by most firms as a new product identification tool, it is highly rated by the most successful firms. Successful firms also actively engage in environmental scanning. The majority of the respondents do not use financial measures as a screening criterion, preferring to evaluate new products by “gut feel.” However, the firms that have experienced the fastest growth in sales employ financial hurdles for project selection. The educational background of the key GO/NO GO decision‐makers was also evaluated. Two thirds of the firms reported having a key decision‐maker with an educational background in business. The educational background of the key decision‐makers had little impact on the aspects of the new product process studied here.

BRAIN WRITING FOR NEW PRODUCT IDEAS: AN ALTERNATIVE TO BRAINSTORMING

Among the many different methods used to generate new product ideas, group brainstorming has been one of the most popular. However, brainstorming has fallen into disfavor with many practitioners and researchers on the basis of such factors as the necessity for a skilled group leader, the potential for conflicts among members which can disrupt the process, and the possibility of one or more members dominating the discussion. Brainwriting, which is the silent, written generation of ideas by a group, is proposed as an alternative to brainstorming. Six different group brainiwriting techniques are described and suggestions given for the most appropriate use of each. It is concluded that both brainwriting and brainstorming will be useful in different situations and should be viewed as supplemental rather than primary sources of new product ideas. Furthermore, it is noted that idea generation is only part of the process. The best ideas in the world will be of little value if they are not implemented successfully.