The Influence of Complexity in Determining New Product Development Strategies

10.26686/wgtn.17003644 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Holger Spill

Keyword(s):

Product Development ◽

New Product Development ◽

New Product ◽

Sequential Process ◽

High Complexity ◽

Software Products ◽

Entrepreneurial Skills ◽

Innovation Model ◽

Iterative Software ◽

Huge Variety

<p>How does complexity influence new product development (NPD) strategies? There are many ways of managing the challenge of new product development. This is especially true for new software products where a huge variety of approaches is possible. This study examines how successful New Zealand tech companies manage their NPD and how innovation complexity influences this. The new products are all software-intensive and have the additional pressure of being built for commercialisation. The study found that while there is considerable variation within NPD, the level of innovation complexity determined the approach companies were taking. Companies with complex innovation challenges had more iterative software development; flexible internal processes; nimbleness in decision-making and re-prioritisation. Lower levels of complexity in innovation were linked to more formal and sequential approaches to NPD; less reviewing of process or product experimentation. Overall there were also lower levels of strain. The Cyclic Innovation Model (A. J. Berkhout, Hartmann, & Trott, 2011) provides a useful description of how complexity in innovation is situated within a network of markets, customers, products and science and how innovation is not a linear, sequential process. The study additionally suggests that strong entrepreneurial skills are essential to managing high complexity.</p>

Download Full-text

Measurement of Integration between NPD and Marketing Employees: Case of a Software Product Development Company

Journal of Technology Management for Growing Economies ◽

10.15415/jtmge.2010.12014 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 87-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Mary Mathew ◽

Manasi Joglekar ◽

Pradeep Desai

Keyword(s):

Product Development ◽

New Product Development ◽

Information Flow ◽

New Product ◽

Current Level ◽

Concerted Effort ◽

Software Products ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Software Product ◽

The Relationship

The relationship between marketing and new product development (NPD) is of great significance. It has been widely accepted that it also affects the success of the project or product to a large extent. But yet, this integration is not an easy task and presents lots of challenges to an organization. One of the major barriers is considered to be differences in the perceptions of marketing and NPD employees about each others’ tasks and the way they are supposed to cooperate. The study described in this paper is aimed at diagnosing these differences for a particular software products organization. The study has tried to capture these differences for integration behaviors between marketing and new product development (NPD) employees engaged in software product development. The study revealed that there was a significant difference between perception of marketing and new product development (NPD) employees over the current level of information flow from marketing to NPD as well the improvement required in the same. The priorities of marketing and NPD employees for improvement also seem to be quite different which is a serious concern as it can lead to lack of concerted effort in a particular direction. The paper describes these findings on the integration behaviours between marketing and NPD employees.

Download Full-text

Getting New Things Done

10.11126/stanford/9780804760508.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

David Obstfeld

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Product Development ◽

Knowledge Sharing ◽

New Product Development ◽

Organizational Innovation ◽

New Product ◽

Strategic Orientations ◽

Innovation Model ◽

Knowledge Articulation ◽

Innovation Support

Mobilizing people to pursue action that “gets new things done” depends critically on the effective orchestration of social networks and knowledge sharing. This orchestration is vital to the pursuit of innovation, especially in a world increasingly reliant on collaborative projects that assemble actors with diverse interests, abilities, and knowledge. This book offers a framework—the BKAP innovation model—for conceptualizing how social networks and knowledge sharing combine to influence success for innovation in general, but especially where innovation is not tied to preexisting routines, as in the case of projects where, for example, an entrepreneur launches a new innovation or venture. The BKAP innovation model asserts that innovators exercise brokerage activity (“B”) and knowledge articulation (“KA”) within networks to mobilize action either in support of routine innovation (e.g., new product development) or, increasingly, in support of nonroutine innovation, that is, creative projects (“P”). Brokerage activity employs a combination of three strategic orientations: (1) conduit (or knowledge transfer); (2) tertius gaudens (or bridging while maintaining separation); and (3) tertius iungens (or connecting people, departments, and companies together). Alongside brokering in networks, innovators orchestrate knowledge through knowledge articulation to increase understanding and enlist innovation support. The BKAP model is applied to organizational innovation and other areas as diverse as artistic movements, entrepreneurship, and collective action.

Download Full-text