Organizing for Effective New Product Development: The Moderating Role of Product Innovativeness

1995 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric M. Olson ◽  
Orville C. Walker ◽  
Robert W. Ruekert
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Empirical Test ◽  
New Product ◽  
Coordination Mechanism ◽  
Product Development Process ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Product Concept

Marketing and sales personnel are frequently called on to work with—and sometimes to lead—specialists from other functional areas in the development of new products and services. Such cross-functional interactions can be structured and coordinated in a variety of ways, from bureaucratic approaches to more decentralized participatory mechanisms. Recently, cross-functional team structures have received a great deal of positive press. However, this paper questions whether teams are a universal panacea for shortening development times and improving success rates across all types of projects. It presents a contingency model based on resource dependency theory, which suggests that more participative structures are likely to improve the effectiveness and timeliness of the development process when the product being developed is truly new and innovative. However, the model also predicts that more bureaucratic structures may produce better outcomes on less innovative projects, such as those involving line extensions or product improvements. An empirical test involving 45 projects from 12 firms in widely varying industries substantially supports the model's predictions. The findings indicate that the better the fit between the newness of the product concept and the participativeness of the coordination mechanism used the better the outcomes of the development process in terms of (1) objective measures of product and team performance, (2) the attitudes of team members toward the process, and (3) the efficiency and timeliness of the new product development process.

Toward the development of new product ideas: asymmetric effects of team cohesion on new product ideation

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 855-866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanawat Hirunyawipada ◽  
Audhesh K. Paswan ◽  
Charles Blankson
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
Development Process ◽  
New Product ◽  
Product Development Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Development Teams ◽  
Task Cohesion ◽  
Relational Aspect

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate asymmetric effects of team cohesion and team members’ relational qualification on the creativity of new product ideas. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modeling was conducted on survey data collected from 195 new product development practitioners in various US high-technology industries. Findings – The study suggests that creative and potentially successful product ideas include three dimensions – usefulness for customers, and novelty for customers and usefulness for the firms (i.e. enhancement efficiency and effectiveness of companies’ new product development process). By focusing on a relational aspect of new product development teams, the study shows that team task cohesion mediates the relationship between the antecedents (team members’ organizational commitment and social competency) and the three outcome dimensions of a successful product idea (novelty, usefulness to customers and usefulness to the firm). The team members’ interpersonal relationship has no positive association with task cohesion and the desirable qualifications of product ideas. Research limitations/implications – An ideation team’s socially competent members who identify with their organization are likely to be attracted to a given task. This task cohesion, in turn, enhances the creativeness of the development of product ideas. Practical implications – To generate fruitful product ideas using a team approach, companies should make sure that their new product ideation teams achieve a sense of mutual commitment to the given ideation tasks, develop a feeling of belongingness and ownership toward the firms and include members who have good social and interpersonal skills. However, the possession of strong social cohesion is not essential for the teams. Originality/value – This study provides novel insights concerning the relational aspect of product development teams assigned to the initiation phase (front end) of a new product development process.

A CLIMATE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY ENHANCES THE SUCCESS OF FRONT END TEAMS

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (02) ◽  
pp. 1550027 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANN-MARIE I. NIENABER ◽  
VERENA HOLTORF ◽  
JENS LEKER ◽  
GERHARD SCHEWE
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Psychological Safety ◽  
New Product ◽  
Product Development Process ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Front End ◽  
New Product Development Process

This paper contributes to the discussion about initiative in teams at the front end of new product development processes (innovative teams). In contrast to the general opinion presented in the literature, this study points out that unstructured innovative teams are as much initiative in developing new ideas or in finding quick solutions when compared to structured innovative teams. Therefore we analyse the relationship between teamwork quality and team initiative in structured and unstructured teams at the front end of a new product development process and, in particular, we focus on a climate of psychological safety. To examine this relationship, data were collected by surveying 100 team members from different departments in a multinational company. It has been pointed out in the literature previously that where a team leader provides little structure at the micro level for team members there is a negative effect on the displays of initiative in the very early stages of the innovation process. However we can demonstrate that this effect can be reduced by a climate of psychological safety. Thus, it can be stated that unstructured teamwork combined with a climate of psychological safety is the way for teams at the front end of a new product development process to be successful.

Reliability and Accuracy of Bootstrap and Monte Carlo Methods for Demand Distribution Modeling

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swithin S. Razu ◽  
Shun Takai
Keyword(s):  
Monte Carlo ◽  
Product Development ◽  
Conjoint Analysis ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
Demand Uncertainty ◽  
New Product ◽  
Product Development Process ◽  
Choice Data ◽  
Product Concept ◽  
Demand Distribution

Estimation of demand is one of the most important tasks in new product development. How customers come to appreciate and decide to purchase a new product impacts demand and hence profit of the product. Unfortunately, when designers select a new product concept early in the product development process, the future demand of the new product is not known. Conjoint analysis is a statistical method that has been used to estimate a demand of a new product concept from customer survey data. Although conjoint analysis has been increasingly incorporated in design engineering as a method to estimate a demand of a new product design, it has not been fully employed to model demand uncertainty. This paper demonstrates and compares two approaches that use conjoint analysis data to model demand uncertainty: bootstrap of respondent choice data and Monte Carlo simulation of utility estimation errors. Reliability of demand distribution and accuracy of demand estimation are compared for the two approaches in an illustrative example.

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