企业新产品开发中的知识创造过程

知识已成为当今社会最为关键的竞争资源,新产品开发是知识密集型活动,不仅创造新产品,而且创造新知识。新产品开发的过程即是知识创造的过程。探索新产品开发活动中的知识创造过程,了解四个阶段的知识创造环节,有利于更有效地利用和管理知识资源。     

新产品开发合作中优先许可权机制研究

高科技新产品的成功开发常常依赖于创新链和产业链的多方合作，利用比较优势有效提高开发成功率.而在新产品研发早期建立合作关系时，合作将面临较高的技术和市场价值不确定性，难以达成一个具体的利益分配合约.灵活的优先许可权机制不仅允许双方在早期建立合作关系，而且使双方将利益分配决策延迟到不确定性较低的时机.本文建立序列新产品开发合作的博弈模型来研究优先许可权机制.模型包含一个负责前期技术研发的技术发明者和一个负责后期生产推广的市场者.双方围绕一个仍面临技术和市场价值不确定性的新产品进行开发合作.本文采用合同理论框架讨论优先许可权的作用价值，并考虑技术发明者关于新产品的潜在平均市场价值的信息不对称情形.研究表明：当双方合作可以降低研发成本时，优先许可权可提升技术发明者的研发投入，并提升双方合作的总收益.同时，优先许可权的价值随着新产品的潜在平均价值、市场价值不确定性、以及市场竞争程度的增加而上升.在信息不对称情形下，技术发明者可利用优先许可权建立一个筛选模型，使得高价值类型的市场者获得该产品.本文的研究为理解优先许可权的价值作用提供理论支撑，也为创新合作实践提供参考.     

知识管理过程对新产品开发绩效的影响研究

知识管理是高动荡外部环境下影响新产品开发成败的决定性因素,本文构建了知识管理过程对新产品开发绩效影响的理论模型,研究了知识管理的基本过程及其对新产品开发绩效的影响,并考察了产品创新性和环境动荡性的调节作用。利用来自中国十一个省市206个新产品开发项目的问卷调查数据进行实证分析。研究结果表明知识获取和知识整合对新产品开发绩效具有显著影响,环境动荡性正向调节知识获取、创造、整合与新产品开发绩效关系,而知识创造对新产品开发绩效的影响不显著,产品创新性对知识获取、创造、整合与新产品开发绩效之间关系的调节影响均不显著。     

战略联盟中知识管理对企业新产品开发影响的实证研究

本文从企业间战略联盟的视角出发,探讨了企业创新实践活动中的知识管理过程,以及吸收能力对于外来知识创造和新产品开发的作用,并提出了相应的概念模型和研究假设。通过分析127家联盟企业的调查数据,对假设进行了检验,分析结果表明联盟企业间的知识共享有利于成员企业的知识创造,同时知识创造促进了企业的新产品开发;吸收能力在知识管理过程中起到了重要的调节作用,并对知识管理的效率和效果有着显著影响。     

虚拟社区中顾客参与、知识共享与新产品开发绩效

基于顾客参与理论,结合虚拟社区特性,将虚拟社区中顾客参与划分为交互式信息提供和在线参与创造两个维度,研究了不同维度对新产品开发绩效的影响,以及知识共享在其中所起到的中介作用。实证研究表明,交互式信息提供和在线参与创造对新产品的新颖性、上市速度具有显著的正向作用。知识共享在交互式信息提供、在线参与创造和新颖性之间具有部分中介作用,在交互式信息提供和上市速度之间具有部分中介作用,而在在线参与创造和上市速度之间具有完全中介作用。本研究不仅能够丰富顾客参与理论,而且还为中国企业在网络环境下通过虚拟社区实现产品创新提供指导。     

高科技企业新产品开发设想来源的实证研究

有效地管理新产品创新设想来源是提高企业新产品开发能力的关键问题．本文采取实地参与、访谈和问卷调查相结合的方式,对北京中关村地区37家高新技术企业及1家外资企业的53种新产品的研究开发情况进行了详细调查．用大量的案例作为支持,对其新产品开发设想来源作了潭入细致的研究和分析．最后,对如何改进我国高新技术企业新产品开发设想来源的管理提出了一系列建议,以资有关企业参考借鉴     

异质用户参与度下新产品开发策略的演化分析

随着数字经济的快速发展,越来越多的用户参与到企业的新产品开发过程中.由于用户个体在能力、性格和价值观等方面的异质性,本文提出用户参与度的概念,以描述异质的用户参与度对用户参与新产品开发与购买行为的影响,构建了异质用户参与下新产品开发策略演化博弈分析模型.研究发现,只有当企业和用户共同研发的成本与企业独立研发成本差距较小且企业独立研发成本适中时,用户与企业共同研发才有可能是稳定的演化均衡策略;为了促进异质用户参与企业新产品开发,企业除了要努力降低用户与企业共同研发新产品的成本,赋能用户参与、提供用户参与企业新产品开发的工具外,还应当努力提高共同研发新产品对用户的价值增值,提高用户参与度的均值并降低其变异性.本文从用户参与度特征、参与成本与收益的角度为相关行业的企业新产品开发策略决策提供了系统的理论指导.     

新产品开发模式研究

在对新产品开发模式(内包式、外包式、众包式)进行理论回顾的基础上,针对当前新产品开发呈现出的螺旋式发展态势,研究了不同情境下新产品开发方式的特性.以宝洁公司为例,提出了内包、外包和众包式进行组合的方式,并将专有网络和开放网络有机结合,提升新产品的开发速度和市场接受度.     

Trust,partner selection and innovation outcome in collaborative new product development

A key feature of collaboration in general and collaboration for innovation in particular is the existence of trust. Trust is important because it reduces the costs and risks involved in collaboration, while also increasing the overall performance. This article explores the role that trust plays during the selection of suppliers in new product development (NPD), and the outcome that reliance on trust has on the innovation effort. The research involves a case study of two organisations following contrasting approaches to NPD sourcing, but both relying on collaborative, long-term relationships. In both cases, we find goodwill trust as the key variable explaining the reliance on collaboration. We also find that over-reliance on goodwill trust and geographical proximity in selecting NPD suppliers leads to an emphasis on incremental innovation which hampers the ability of both organisations to engage in radical NPD.     

The moderating effect of product complexity on new product development and supply chain management integration

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether product complexity moderates the impact of integration programs in both new product development (NPD) and supply chain (SC) management on operational performance. Results are based on statistical analyses of data collected from an international sample of manufacturing firms through the fifth edition of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS 5). The main findings are that NPD and SC integration do have an impact on performance, while product complexity alone has not. When considering the moderating effect, complexity has no impact on NPD integration, while there is a negative moderating impact on SC integration. This study bridges together different streams of research, showing how both NPD and SC integration allow managing product complexity while improving performance.     

Task partitioning in new product development teams: A knowledge and learning perspective

R&D alliances and outsourcing elements of the new product development process are now commonplace practices among many firms. However, little previous work has examined how these organizational choices influence project knowledge and learning. Based on a comparison of three new product development projects in the software industry, this paper examines how task partitioning in the project influences learning and knowledge development within the firm. The paper suggests that internal development projects encourage synthetic learning and development of architectural and tacit knowledge; in contrast, outsourcing and joint ventures encourage analytic learning and development of component and explicit knowledge.     

Collaborative practices in new product development projects involving suppliers

Abstract

Collaboration with suppliers in New Product Development (NPD) is essential for business competitiveness. However, the management of such collaborative project needs to focus on interactions between team members from different companies since they performed inter-organizational activities. While the impact of collaboration with suppliers on NPD project performance has been widely studied, the investigation of practices to support daily collaborative activities between both teams has received limited attention. This paper aims at developing a framework of operational practices for successful inter-organizational collaboration in NPD. The practices enacted by both project teams in six case studies were examined according to the stages of the collaboration and a knowing perspective. The results revealed some peculiarities linked to the inter-organizational context. Practices interact with each other across stages with a specific dynamic. More particularly, early in the project, practices to justify the collaboration with the suppliers are determinant for practices related to the creation of social interactions between project members and project commitment. The results also show that boundary objects are useful formal socialization mechanisms for supporting the undertaking of collaborative work.     

Interactions in new product development: How the nature of the NPD process influences interaction between teams and management

Effective interaction across organisational boundaries is a critical success factor in new product development (NPD). However, few studies have investigated how different mechanisms enable effective interaction across organisational and particularly hierarchical boundaries.This study explores how the formality of the NPD process influences the nature of interactions across different organisational boundaries and specifically identifies interaction mechanisms used across hierarchical boundaries. Cross-sectional interviews were conducted in nine firms. Findings highlight that in firms with a formalised NPD process, interactions tend to have a transactional/managerial bias. In contrast, in firms where the NPD process is flexible, interactions have a more social objective.     

Modelling collaborative product development using axiomatic design principles: application to software industry

Even though collaborative product development (CPD) is considered as a strategic business plan to maintain competitive advantage, the literature lacks a systematic and detailed model of CPD from a strategic point of view. This article aims to develop a CPD model based on an axiomatic design technique by offering a system perspective in the context of software development (SD). Software industry is characterised by a dynamic and innovative nature and it gives a suitable application area in order to detail the proposed model in industry. Three main dimensions of CPD derived from the literature are defined in strategic level: partnership process, collaboration process and PD/SD. These three dimensions are detailed into hierarchy through business feedback and by experts from software industry. The model is evaluated and verified through two interviews. A case study is then conducted to observe the performance of the model. The conceptual model offers a guideline for CPD practitioners to increase effectiveness in collaborative efforts in the development process. The proposed model incorporates the main success factors of CPD in general, collaborative SD in specific, and it can be used as a performance evaluator in collaborative projects.     

The joint effects of customer participation in various new product development stages

The notion that customers provide distinct inputs that help tackle unique tasks in each new product development (NPD) phase leads firms to engage customers concurrently in various NPD stages rather than involving them only in one NPD stage. Involving customers in diverse NPD stages is based on the belief that the constructive effects of customer participation in each NPD phase could be supplementary. However, little is known about the joint effects of embracing customers in multiple NPD stages such as whether customer participation in a certain NPD stage enlarges or undermines the returns of customer participation in another NPD stage, and whether customer participation throughout the entire NPD process is really beneficial. Drawing upon the knowledge management perspective, this research investigates in which combination of NPD stages (ideation, development, and launch) engaging customers creates a synergistic or destructive impact on new product market performance. The results reveal that involving customers in both ideation and development stages and in both development and launch stages yields synergistic returns, whereas customer participation in both ideation and launch stages does not create any additional gains. Furthermore, customer participation across all three NPD stages does not improve new product market performance beyond the sole and joint effects of customer participation in two NPD stages. These noteworthy findings imply that the joint effects of customer participation do not always lead to synergistic impacts and depend on the value of customer knowledge and the difficulty of knowledge management of transferring and integrating customer knowledge gathered in various NPD stages. In a certain combination of NPD stages, where the difficulty of knowledge management becomes higher, customer participation cannot generate supplementary returns, and thus, firms can achieve a similar level of new product market performance with customer participation in limited NPD stages.     

Modeling market information processing in new product development: An empirical analysis

This research explores the antecedents and consequences of market information processing during the development process of new high-tech products. To this end, we develop and test a conceptual model for market information processing in three generic stages of the new product development (NPD) process (predevelopment, development and commercialization). In addition, we explore the relationships between market information processing, its antecedents, and product advantage and success. We test our model with responses from 166 NPD-managers in Dutch high-tech firms. The findings show that the market information processing variables are related differentially to new product outcomes, even when controlling for product advantage and product newness to the market. In addition, we found that companies can enhance market information processing for new high-tech products by influencing project priority and flexibility to new products, and by reducing interdepartmental conflict.     

Workplace flexibility and new product development performance: The role of telework and flexible work schedules

This paper investigates the effects of telework and flexible work schedules on the performance of teams in new product development projects. Organizations increasingly introduce workplace flexibility practices that provide flexibility with regard to where or when the employee works. The findings of NPD teams in five cases, situated in two telecommunication firms, show that telework has a positive effect on NPD performance through enabling knowledge sharing, cross-functional cooperation and inter-organizational involvement. This improves the speed and quality of product development, provided that face-to-face contact is not completely replaced by virtual contact. A basic level of face-to face contact is necessary to offset the negative effects of telework on the quality of the shared knowledge, which are larger when the knowledge is sticky. Flexible work schedules and unexpectedly hot-desking were found to increase telework usage. This implies for managers that workplace flexibility needs enablers and cannot do without a sufficient level of face-to-face contact.     

Pro-innovation culture,ambidexterity and new product development performance: Polynomial regression and response surface analysis

This study examines the intervening role of organizational ambidexterity in the relationship between pro-innovation culture and new product development (NPD) performance. The results indicate that organizational ambidexterity positively mediates the relationship between pro-innovation culture and NPD performance. The results show that when both exploration and exploitation are increased simultaneously, after an initial decline, NPD performance shows a rising trend. NPD performance tends to decline generally when there is an imbalance between the two though the plateau is at a point where exploitation is slightly higher than exploration. Additionally, pro-innovation culture can increase the gap between exploration and exploitation for exploration-oriented firms, which can lower their NPD performance. Overall, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms that explain why firms with pro-innovation culture have higher NPD performance. Further, it enhances our understanding of the role of pro-innovation culture as an organizational context for building organizational ambidexterity, and provides new insights that can help reconcile the combined and balanced views of ambidexterity in enhancing NPD performance.