Small Software Companies

The technology industry is dominated by major international companies, but there are also many SMEs, SBEs, and micro-companies operating effectively in this industry sector. Maintaining innovation is a key challenge, especially for the small players in this market, and technology transfer to develop new products and services is particularly challenging. This chapter examines four technology transfer projects in small software companies, three of which focused on new product development, and the fourth on a new service provision. All four projects were generally well managed, but effecting this degree of change requires more than good management, especially in such small companies. It is not surprising that some of these projects failed to achieve their objectives in the mid-term.

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tan Owee Kowang ◽  
Amran Rasli ◽  
Choi Sang Long

New Product Development (NPD) is vital in assisting Research and Development (R&D) based organizations to adapt to the changes in markets and technology for competitive advantage. Ensuring the success of new products and optimization of new product performance is critical and essential for Research and Development based organizations.  Hence, this study is carried out to explore does organizational background in term of company’s ownership (i.e. local or multinational companies) and operational scales (i.e. number of Research and Development staffs) affect NPD performance of Research and Development companies in Malaysia. In line with this, 8 New Product Development performance attributes were identified from literature review. These attributes were subsequently formulated into a survey questionnaire and responded by 186 respondents. Thereafter, the effect of organizational ownership and operational scale toward NPD performance are examined separately via Independent Sample t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Finding from the study revealed that the level of NPD performance in multinational R&D companies is higher than local R&D companies. Findings from this research also implied that NPD performance can be further improved by increasing number of R&D staffs.  


Author(s):  
Erik M. W. Kolb ◽  
Jonathan Hey ◽  
Hans-Ju¨rgen Sebastian ◽  
Alice M. Agogino

Metaphors have successfully been used by new product development and design teams to help frame the design situation and communicate new products to stakeholders. Yet, the process of finding a compelling metaphor often turns upon stumbling upon it or a flash of insight from a team member. We present Meta4acle: a Metaphor Exploration Tool for design that suggests possible metaphors to make the process more one of ‘seeking out’ than ‘stumbling upon’ an effective metaphor. The tool takes data about the project in the form of a title, domain and key associations required of the metaphor and returns suggestions from a database of possible metaphor sources. We built a Meta4acle prototype and evaluated it with positive results for three existing design case studies. We present plans for its full implementation and evaluation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 197-206
Author(s):  
Zoran Najdanović ◽  
Natalia Tutek

Successful information management is big challenge for any organization. In this paper the emphasis is on information management in new product development in bank. Under strong pressure from competition and new technological changes, as well as the turbulent changes in the environment, financial institutions must continuously develop new products and services. In order to make the services more interesting to the users, it is necessary to collect data about the users, their wishes and preferences. The data should then be converted into useful information that will result with developing the right product or service that users will recognize as necessary. Products become personalized, user-friendly, and the emphasis is on the importance of long-term company relationships with customers. Only with well-organized information, managers can make the right business decisions and companies can react in time to market changes. When creating their strategy, successful companies analyze and identify elements that significantly contribute to creating a competitive advantage and ensuring long-term growth and development. The paper presents an empirical research of customer preferences which lead to new product development in bank.


Author(s):  
Pasquale Del Vecchio ◽  
Valentina Ndou ◽  
Laura Schina

By contrast, empirical studies show that there are many large and small companies which do not grasp the opportunities provided by the customers’ contribution. This is due to a number of inhibiting factors that represent barriers for the collaborative innovation. This chapter aims firstly to delineate and validate some of these constraints by using the insights coming out from a case study and secondly to suggest a possible solution in order to overpass some of the barriers identified and to exploit the customers’ knowledge acquired on the web.


2004 ◽  
Vol 08 (03) ◽  
pp. 243-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROBERT T. KELLER

Hypotheses derived from a resource-based model of new product development were used to predict five-year later commercial success in the form of profitability and speed to market for a sample of 117 new products from four firms in different industries. The results found marketing capabilities to be the best predictor of profitability, and that technical capabilities and leadership capabilities were also significant predictors. Leadership capabilities were the only significant predictor of which products made it to market, and of speed to market. Implications for models of new product development and for its effective management are discussed.


Author(s):  
Cristina Martin-Doñate ◽  
Fermín Lucena-Muñoz ◽  
Lina Guadalupe García-Cabrera ◽  
Jorge Manuel Mercado-Colmenero

AbstractThe economic environment demands companies to be able of innovating and presenting new products and technologies. However, current industrial environments are composed of big established companies, small or medium family businesses and regional clusters. This business map does not comply with the dynamism required for detecting needs and proposals in form of new products that meet the current customer requirements. The creation of start-ups in the field of engineering is considered as a possibility to cover a growing market in designing high technological products. However, despite the importance and economic impact of the start-ups for less industrialized environments the courses in the engineering field do not include activities that contextualize theoretical knowledge and entrepreneurship. The paper presents the results of creating an entrepreneurial environment focused on the student as entrepreneurial unit. In this context, a series of new activities based on new design proposals have been developed on the basis of new technical solutions for industrial companies. The new designs have been presented as minimum viable products. The technical knowledge required for making the new designs has been complemented with entrepreneurial training. The results show an increase in students' willingness to create small companies based in new products as an employment option at the end of their studies.


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