Ambidexterity in collaborative new product development processes

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Sundtoft Hald ◽  
Chiara Nordio

PurposeThe objective of the present research is to explore how firms, when engaged in collaborative new product development (NPD) activities, may be understood to be successful or unsuccessful in achieving ambidextrous processes. The study explores the organizational and managerial practices inside the firm and in the supply chain that enable or constrain the firm in reaching a balance between exploitation and exploration when engaged with NPD.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach was adopted with the ambition to develop new theoretical insight. Insights from multiple NPD projects in a single highly innovative firm were collected and coded.FindingsThe analysis shows how the organization of the NPD projects, alignment strategies, approaches to reward structure, supplier integration willingness and absorptive capacity were all formative in the firms' abilities to achieve ambidexterity in the NPD processes.Originality/valueThe presented research expands knowledge of how ambidextrous NPD processes can be reached. It demonstrates how a complex combination of factors and practices internal to the firm and concerning its supplier management strategies and practices enables or constrains ambidexterity in NPD processes. The results allow managers to devise more informed strategies and design decisions to enable NPD processes that reach adequate and simultaneous concerns for exploitation and exploration.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrett Lane Cohee ◽  
Jeff Barrows ◽  
Rob Handfield

Purpose Each year, the US defense industry outsources nearly $400 bn of domestic goods and services through competitive bids. These procurement activities are quite often complex and specialized in nature because of a highly regulated federal acquisition contracting environment. Ongoing calls to improve supplier management and drive innovation in the defense industry offers an opportunity to adopt Early Supplier Integration (ESI) initiatives that have proven successful in the private sector. This paper identifies critical ESI activities and acquisition practices that the defense industry should adopt to ensure enhanced effectiveness in new product development. Design/methodology/approach Leveraging a conceptual ESI model derived from the research, an in-depth case study of 12 product development projects from a major defense contractor was performed. In the context of project performance, critical ESI activities and moderating effects were assessed. Findings Three key ESI activities have the greatest impact on aggregate project performance: system design involvement, design adjustment opportunities and design for manufacturability/assembly/testability involvement. Use of formal supplier agreements also significantly impacts project performance during the development phase. In addition, project complexity and product team maturity were identified as environment moderators; higher complexity projects tended to negatively moderate the impact of ESI upon performance, and higher team maturity levels tended to positively moderate the impact of ESI upon performance. Originality/value The results provide a sound framework for empirical validation through future quantitative studies and defense industry analyses. In addition, insights and recommendations for interpretation and adaptation of federal acquisition regulations to allow increased utilization of ESI within the defense industry are substantiated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 671-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanzhu Zhan ◽  
Kim Hua Tan ◽  
Leanne Chung ◽  
Lujie Chen ◽  
Xinjie Xing

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to investigate how social media can provide important platforms to facilitate organisational learning and innovation in new product development (NPD) process.Design/methodology/approachUsing a multiple case-study approach, this study assesses qualitative data collected via 56 interviews from 13 world-leading Chinese companies in the high-technology industry.FindingsThe study identified three distinct types of organisational learning mechanisms for firms to extract potential innovation inherent in social media. It further determined various organisational enablers that facilitate the connections between these mechanisms and NPD performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis research contributes to the emerging literature on digital product development and organisational learning. The cases were conducted in the Chinese context, hence, the results may not be fully generalisable to other organisations, industries and countries without appropriate re-contextualisation.Practical implicationsThe empirical evidence showcases the various mechanisms adopted by managers in different NPD phases. It identifies several technological and organisational adaptations that managers can apply to smartly scale their social presence and facilitate NPD.Originality/valueDespite the exponential growth of social media use in identifying and interacting with external stakeholders, managerial practice and academic research have paid little attention to how social media can be leveraged for NPD. The value of this research comes from applying a qualitative method to gain in-depth insights into the mechanisms for leveraging social media to facilitate innovation in NPD.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ganesh Tanpure ◽  
Vinod Yadav ◽  
Rakesh Jain ◽  
Gunjan Soni

PurposeThe Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system has found varieties of deployments in various domains of product-based industries. Current study aims to provide a framework for the adoption of PLM systems in manufacturing organizations to meet the actual requirements of industries.Design/methodology/approachFirst, a systematic review of extant literature was performed, and further, the case study approach is opted to study the process of New Product Development (NPD) in a manufacturing organization. Triangulation methodology was adopted wherein the interview results, actual observations, and authorized documentations were used to validate the result and provide conclusions.FindingsA conceptual framework and implementation architecture for PLM is derived. The complete ecosystem for digital footprint is mapped for New Product Development (NPD) activities.Practical implicationsThe study could be helpful for Techno-Functional Managers. For individuals with only functional/technical knowledge, additional training might be required to adopt the framework in actual practices.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the existing literature by providing a framework and demonstrating the feasibility of implementation through the case study.


Author(s):  
Filippo Emanuele Ciarapica ◽  
Maurizio Bevilacqua ◽  
Giovanni Mazzuto

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of technical and management practices of a new product development (NPD) project on the project success in terms of observed value-added time. The authors address the research questions: “How do the product innovation aspects, information process, suppliers integration and project team aspects influence the success of NPD projects in terms of observed value-added time?” Design/methodology/approach – Specific hypotheses are posed based on literature research and semi-structured interviews with project managers used for the pilot study. In total, 40 projects carried out by multinational corporation, concerning NPD, are analysed, comparing product and project features with results obtained in terms of performance indexes usually used in “Lean Production” sector: “waste time”; and “type of wastes”. Findings – This research highlighted that “over-processing” is the most important waste made in the projects when the product concept is Completely New. Great support has been found for the hypothesis that a clear definition of products’ concept can reduce waste time. Unexpected result has been obtained analysing “Information process aspects” category where the more frequent use of support systems (i.e. quality function deployment, computer-integrated manufacturing, computer-aided design, etc.) tended to increase waste time. Important connections have also been found between project team aspects and low waste time. Practical implications – The identification of sources of waste can help managers to assess their current innovation practices, identify gaps between their current practice and best practice, and define action plans to close those gaps. Originality/value – In literature, researches exploring the effects that both organizational and managerial factors have on value-added has received only scant attention. This study attempts to bridge this gap, and takes a first step to investigate the role of product innovation aspects, information process, supplier integration and project team aspects in “value-added time” in a NPD project.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 1005-1015
Author(s):  
Ruchi Mishra ◽  
Onkar Nath Mishra

Purpose A significant amount of work has been done on new product development (NPD); however, studies on the flexibility aspect in NPD are scant. This study aims to investigate the relationship between NPD flexibility and five infrastructural factors, namely, marketing and manufacturing integration practices (MMIPs), advanced human resource practices (AHRPs), supplier integration practices (SIPs), operational improvement practices (OIPs) and advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs). Design/methodology/approach The study applies a questionnaire-based survey approach to examine the proposed relationships between different variables and NPD flexibility. Using a 39-item questionnaire, 262 valid and usable responses were collected from Indian manufacturing firms. Data were analysed using principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Further, structural equation modelling was applied to examine the contribution of different infrastructural factors to NPD flexibility. Findings In light of the empirical evidence produced in this study, the study suggests that MMIPs, AHRPs, SIPs, OIPs and AMTs have a direct, positive and significant influence on NPD flexibility. Among all the predictors, SIPs are the strongest predictor of NPD flexibility, followed by OIPs and AMTs. Research limitations/implications The findings extend prior studies of NPD by broadening the theory related to NPD flexibility. Practitioners should take a macro approach and focus on several practices to enhance flexibility in NPD. Originality/value Unlike earlier studies that provide limited empirical evidence on NPD flexibility and deal with the concept in isolation, this empirical study applies a systematic approach to understand factors influencing NPD flexibility.


2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 418-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehran Salavati ◽  
Milad Tuyserkani ◽  
Seyyede Anahita Mousavi ◽  
Nafiseh Falahi ◽  
Farshid Abdi

Purpose The principal aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between technological, marketing, organizational and commercialization risk management on new product development (NPD) performance. Design/methodology/approach Based on questionnaire, the data were collected from a sample of general automotive industry in Iran. Based on theoretical considerations, a model was proposed and descriptive statistic and hierarchical regression were used to measure the relationship between risk management factors and NPD performance. Findings Data analysis revealed that if organization can amplify their knowledge and information about risk and main factors that affect NPD process, not only can they do their work better but can also increase their ability to predict future happenings that affect performance. Research limitations/implications First, due to the relatively small sample size, caution should be exercised when interpreting the results. Second, the data were collected from automotive producer in Iran, which may restrict to some extent generalizability of the findings. Practical implications The results suggest that managers should consider more attention to risk management. If managers spread the risk management in all aspects of the NPD project, total performance will be increased and it can develop the probability of NPD success. Also organizations should perform great market research due to best commercialization. Originality/value Past researches have presented complete information about NPD process. But identifying and considering the effect of the risk management parameters that are connected to the NPD process were the main thrusts to perform the study. In this paper, based on past research about risk management of NPD, the extra aspect of process that can improve total performance of NPD has been examined.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilert Puriwat ◽  
Danupol Hoonsopon

PurposeThis study is to compare the impact of organizational agility and flexibility on performance of each type of product innovation (radical vs incremental innovation). Additionally, the moderating effect of technological turbulence on the relationship between the two types of organization is examined.Design/methodology/approachBased on gaps in the existing literature, the survey data are collected from managers who are in charge of developing new products in three industries: food and beverage, chemical and machinery (N = 431). Confirmatory factory analysis is used to verify measurement items and regression analysis is used to test hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that organizational agility increases performance in radical innovation both in a certain situation and an environment with technological turbulence. In contrast, the impact of organizational flexibility is limited to increasing performance in both radical and incremental innovation performance in a certain situation.Originality/valueOur study extends the knowledge of organizational agility and flexibility in the domain of product innovation. Adaptation of organization to respond the technological turbulence will stimulate creativity of new product development teams to produce new useful ideas and transform these ideas to product innovation. The different types of organizing a new product development team to handle technological turbulence will provide different results in product innovation performance. In addition, the findings provide a recommendation on how the organization of a new product development team can improve performance in each type of product innovation under technological turbulence.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanderson César Macêdo Barbalho ◽  
Gladston Luiz Silva

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how new product development (NPD)-based project management offices (PMOs) work, their drivers to deliver performance and their project success impact.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a survey of 35 Brazilian and multi-national companies that identified the effort to perform a list of PMO functions, some PMO drivers in the company and five project performance perception indicators. The authors apply a specific set of statistics to uncover the relations between these dimensions of interest.FindingsThe factorial analysis allows us to find the main functions influencing each other. The project teams’ perception of project management (PM) performance is suggested as a success factor that drives PMOs when working on portfolio management issues, managing project files and promoting PM over the company.Practical implicationsThis paper contributes to a contingency approach for designing a project machine involving PMOs to support NPD projects. Managers can set the most suitable PMO functions avoiding mimicry when structuring their NPD efforts.Originality/valuePMOs have impacted team satisfaction and control of project data but not indicators related to triple constraints.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Shen ◽  
Yu Gao ◽  
Chuan Liu ◽  
Xiangru Chen

Purpose Integrating the coopetition perspective with institutional theory, this study aims to determine how balanced patterns (BPs) and combinative patterns (CPs) of coopetition impact firms’ new product development (NPD) and how these effects are contingent on the various types of interactions between firms and the institutional environments in which they are embedded. Design/methodology/approach To test the hypotheses, 303 firms in China were surveyed. Based on the responses, the proposed model was estimated using structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis. Findings The findings indicate that CP of coopetition enhances NPD but a BP of coopetition impedes NPD. Further, the results suggest that obtaining government support positively moderates the effect of the CP on NPD but negatively moderates the effect of the BP. Conversely, influencing government policy negatively moderates the effect of the CP but positively moderates that of the BP on NPD. Research limitations/implications The findings indicate that different patterns of inter-firm coopetition may have different effects on NPD, thus, providing a holistic and dynamic understanding of the contingent value of coopetition for NPD. The findings also suggest that the complex effects of coopetition on NPD are influenced by institutional interactions, introducing further contingencies to the process of coopetition-based innovation. Practical implications This study provides guidelines for managers seeking to fully understand and capitalize on the dual nature of coopetition: they should be cautious about the different patterns of competition – cooperation interaction and manage their interactions with institutional environments to increase the benefits and avoid the potential damage that different types of coopetition may bring. Originality/value This study offers direct insights into the balanced nature of coopetition and opens up an avenue for further exploration of the specific effects of cooperation dominance and competition dominance on firm performance in the business-to-business context. Moreover, the proposed contingency model offers a potential interface between institutional and coopetition research on NPD in marketing and strategic fields.


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