scholarly journals IMPLEMENTING BEST PRACTICES TO SUPPORT CREATIVITY IN NPD CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TEAMS

2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (04) ◽  
pp. 537-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
RALUCA BUNDUCHI

The use of cross-functional teams increases creativity in new product development leading to shorter development time and higher product innovativeness. Research in new product development has identified a number of organisational practices associated with supporting organisational creativity in cross-functional teams including frequent and open communication, building organisational slack, attitude to risk and top management commitment. Using a single case study approach, this paper explores the challenges associated with the implementation of such organisational practices in the R&D department of a large telecommunication company. Challenges include sequential involvement of functions in the team, broken communication between different teams, management attitude to resource constraints, and short-term management focus on incremental innovation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinchun Wang ◽  
Xiaoyu Yu ◽  
Xiaotong Meng

Abstract New product development (NPD) performance is a key determinant of a new venture’s success. However, compared with established firms, new ventures often suffer from resource constraints when developing new products. Entrepreneurial bricolage is reported in the literature as an alternative strategic option that enables managers to overcome resource constraints when developing new products. However, because new ventures are often founded by an entrepreneurial team, the effectiveness and efficiency of using bricolage to improve NPD performance might be contingent on how the founding team plays its roles in this process. Using data from 323 new ventures in China, we find support for the critical role of entrepreneurial bricolage in improving NPD success under resource constraints. More importantly, our results reveal that the bricolage strategy is more likely to benefit a venture when the founding team is composed of members with diverse functional backgrounds and is not heavily involved in strategic decision-making.


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenfeng Liu ◽  
Jian Feng ◽  
Jinfeng Wang

Extensive research on resource-constrained innovation has been conducted by scholars and practitioners in recent years. An interesting research avenue is how firms explore the process of the new product development (NPD) and the ideas generation to foster resource-constrained innovation. However, despite the importance of product development and creative ideas under the resource-constraints contexts, innovation methods for applying to the resource-constrained innovation and designers have received comparatively less attention. As a remedy, this paper proposes a resource-constrained innovation method (RCIM) to generate ideas for the NPD. The RCIM is mainly divided into four sections: Developing the resource-constrained innovation approaches, developing the resource-constrained innovation dimensions, generating the creative ideas and evaluating the creative ideas. First, the resource-constrained innovation algorithms are developed based on success factors, characteristics, and attributes of resource-constrained innovation and the TRIZ (Teopия Peшeния Изoбpeтaтeльcкиx Зaдaч in Russian; Theory of Inventive Problem Solving in English) inventive principles via the systematic literature review (SLR). Second, the innovation dimensions are categorized to structure a target technology by means of the morphological analysis (MA) and the Derwent manual codes (DMCs) mapping based on collected patents. Third, the creative ideas are generated for the NPD by combining the innovation dimensions with the resource-constrained innovation approaches. Finally, the creative ideas are evaluated by the frugal criteria. The RCIM will stimulate designers’ creativity for achieving sustainability and innovation within constraint-based scenarios, MA and TRIZ.


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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1066-1085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Cathrine Thore Olsson ◽  
Ulf Johannesson ◽  
Roger Schweizer

PurposeEmphasizing the importance of product cost deviation; the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the new product development (NPD) literature and research on decision making by discussing: How are decisions related to product cost deviations made during a product development project?Design/methodology/approachAn in-depth single case study approach studying the decision-making process of Volvo Cars Cooperation during a car development project is applied.FindingsThe paper suggests that factors influencing how decisions related to cost deviations are made during a NPD are not limited to the classic trade-offs among time, cost and scope, but include managers’ complex cause-and-effect analysis under the influence of values, behaviors and norms. Furthermore, the context is not limited to NPD projects; rather the frame for the decisions and its influencers is at least as wide as the corporate context.Research limitations/implicationsThe common limitations of a single case study apply.Practical implicationsThe study emphasizes the importance of clearly defined targets during a NPD project that need to well communicated, acknowledged and understood by all involved to serve as true business levers. A poor target is likely better than no target. Furthermore, lack of overview or responsibility for the success of the projects, increase the risk for sub-optimization and silo thinking.Originality/valueThe study is pioneering by highlighting the importance of and explaining the implications of decision making related to cost deviations during a NPD project.


2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (11) ◽  
pp. 2373-2387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Santoro ◽  
Demetris Vrontis ◽  
Alberto Pastore

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of external knowledge in the innovation process of firms in the food and beverage (F&B) industry and the effects of two external knowledge sourcing modes on new product development (NPD) performance. Design/methodology/approach The paper applies a quantitative approach, relying on data from 157 Italian firms operating in the F&B industry to test the hypotheses through OLS regression models. Findings Results suggest that the surveyed firms actively engage in open innovation with strong ties with market-based sources. Moreover, the authors found that market-based sources are associated with income from incremental innovation and time to market, while science-based sources are associated with income from radical innovation. Finally, the authors found that the R&D intensity enhances the benefits of the above external knowledge sourcing modes. Originality/value Despite the large amount of studies assessing the effects of external knowledge sourcing on performance in the open innovation field, few studies focused on a specific industry, especially with regard to F&B. Moreover, this paper considers different types of NPD performance measures given that different external knowledge sourcing modes exert different effects.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document