New product development in new ventures: the quest for resources

Innovation and new product development (NPD) are becoming more important as strategic initiatives. Yet, innovation creates challenges for most existing organisations, thus leading to the emergence of new ventures (NVs) as vehicles to deliver innovation. NVs present owners and management with unique opportunities and challenges. On one hand, the NV can focus its attention on specific innovation(s) without having to compete with other goals and departments for resource access. Resources are critical to the successful development and launch of new products and can come from financial lenders and/or suppliers. However, because they are new and because their only asset of worth is the highly risky innovation, NVs are at a strong disadvantage in securing access to these resources. This study explores the effectiveness of using personal equity investments as a strategy for securing access and for enhancing NPD success. Using signalling theory as the theoretical framework and data from 745 NPD projects representing manufacturing innovations, this study finds that equity investment is particularly successful in its NPD impact although not impactful with suppliers. As a signal, it can be argued that equity is a strong, high-quality signal. Reasons for these findings and directions for future research are provided.     

Multi-generation pricing and timing decisions in new product development

When planning for the introduction of a stream of new products into the marketplace, managers must consider both the timing and dynamic pricing decisions to determine an appropriate entry strategy into the marketplace. Literature in new product development (NPD) typically addresses optimal timing and pricing decisions independently. We develop an analytical model of coordinated product timing and pricing decisions when there are two generations of a new product under consideration. Factors driving the timing and pricing decisions include the unit sales and cost relationships for each generation as well as NPD costs for introducing the next generation of products. We derive analytic results that characterise the optimal timing and pricing strategies for a single product rollover scenario. We analyse several numerical examples to illustrate the interplay between optimal pricing and time-to-market strategies under more general settings.     

The role of relationship promoter in new product development collaboration

Since new product development (NPD) collaborations with external partners have become the next generation in NPD practices, relationship promoters have become especially relevant as key contributors to the success of this type of inter-organisational collaboration. To realise successful outcomes in NPD collaborations, partners face the challenge of effectively integrating the role of relationship promoter into their existing and essential relationships of trust. It is within this context that this paper examines the role of the relationship promoter, by analysing its moderating effect on the relationship between trust and the outcomes of NPD collaboration – including new product competitiveness and partner satisfaction. We test our hypotheses against survey data from 107 innovative firms involved in NPD collaboration with the help of relationship promoters. The results show that, while a non-significant influence can be reported about the presence of a relationship promoter in terms of partner satisfaction, the relationship promotor weakens the influence of trust on new product competitiveness, making trust less important when it comes to creating a competitive new product.     

Role of traditional Chinese philosophies and new product development under circular economy in private manufacturing enterprise performance

The new product development (NPD) process–performance link has been sufficiently studied in academic research. However, recent NPD process is significantly different from the conventional NPD specifically with the inclusion of sustainability considerations under circular economy (CE) context. In theory, NPD with CE considerations (CE-NPD), compared with the conventional NPD, is associated with higher costs and longer development times. This study empirically examines the effect of the CE-NPD process on both time-to-market (TTM) and profit performance in the context of Chinese private enterprises. In addition, the role of traditional Chinese philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism in influencing the CE-NPD process–performance link is also investigated. We find that Confucianism positively moderates the relationship between the CE-NPD process and TTM performance. However, it negatively moderates the CE-NPD-profit link. On the other hand, the moderating effect of Taoism is negative on both the CE-NPD-TTM and CE-NPD-profit links. An interesting finding of this study is that the coexistence of Confucian and Taoist values in NPD workers has the strongest positive impact on the relationship between the CE-NPD process and performance. Our study provides insights on the way in which companies should plan to apply Chinese philosophies during the CE-NPD process to maximise the benefits.     

The influence of different knowledge workers on innovation strategy and product development performance in small and medium-sized enterprises

Despite significant interest on the topic of knowledge workers, the understanding of how they influence certain aspects of firm innovativeness remains limited. In particular, while different types of knowledge workers exist, their particular synergistic effects on new and improved product development within smaller firms has received less attention. Drawing on the knowledge-based view (KBV), we posit that innovation strategy plays an instrumental role in linking the effects of knowledge workers, thereby leading to greater product development outcomes from different types of knowledge workers. Moreover, some suggest that beyond a certain point, there is a diminishing return to increasing the proportion of knowledge workers in an organisation; however, the basis of this finding is within larger firms. This study investigates whether high-level (e.g. engineers and scientists) and low-level (e.g. technicians and machine operators) knowledge workers exert varying effects on performance in terms of new and improved product development. Data from 205 small and medium-sized high-tech manufacturing firms provide support that distinguishing among types of knowledge workers is important given that they impact new and improved product development differently. Furthermore, innovation strategy plays a synergistic role, positively mediating the effects of different types of knowledge workers on innovation outcomes.     

Exploring the impact of organisational,technological and relational contingencies on innovation speed in the light of open innovation

ABSTRACT

Striving for competitive advantage pushes firms to innovate at a high speed along innovation contingencies and resource limitations they face. Yet, little is known about how management of contingencies such as absorptive capacity or technology radicalness can impact the innovation speed of firms. In this explorative study, we provide new empirical evidence to the innovation speed literature. We examine to what extent innovation speed is affected by organisational, technological, and relational contingencies that preoccupy firms with open innovation practices. Taking the firm perspective, we track innovation timeline and emphasise the complex trade-offs that firms encounter while innovating. Our results show that many of the contingencies, emphasised by the literature promoting innovation, could slow down its speed. Thus, strengthening competitiveness by accommodating contingencies can hinder time-critical adaptations. Furthermore, we find that innovation assets and capabilities can become liabilities for technologically innovative firms.     

Supplier involvement in new product development projects: dimensionality and contingency effects

In contrast to previous literature, we hypothesize supplier involvement in new product development (NPD) projects to be multidimensional in nature and test this assumption using data from a large sample of NPD projects. We also test the contingent influence of supplier involvement on NPD project performance. The results supported the claim of multidimensionality of supplier involvement. Three distinct factors–communication and information sharing, design involvement and infrastructure–comprising supplier involvement were found. These factors were significantly related to one or more measures of NPD project performance. The study also found support for the contingent influence of market stability on the supplier involvement–NPD project performance relationships. The results suggest that managers ought to consider adopting different bundles of supplier involvement practices that depend on the level of stability in markets and also on the type of NPD performance objective that is being considered.     

Refurbishment or quality recovery: joint quality and pricing decisions for new product development

Refurbishment and quality recovery, as two important strategies of reverse logistics, have been widely used for consumer durables, especially consumer electronics. This trend is driven by manufacturers’ profit-seeking behaviours and the increasing environmental concerns of society. This study investigates and compares the optimal emergence of these two strategies when product quality is endogenous. Model analyses provide several notable insights. First, we find that the refurbishment strategy dominates the quality recovery strategy when the fraction of the recoverable quality-inducing components in the defective product is low enough. Moreover, when the refurbishment strategy emerges as the optimum, the quality and price of the new product as well as the total realised sales of both new and refurbished products are consistently higher than those with the quality recovery strategy. In addition, when either the refurbishment or quality recovery strategy emerges as the optimum, the overall consumer surplus is also enhanced. Finally, in the model generalisation, we show that a synthetic strategy with which some of the returned defective products are refurbished and others are remanufactured through quality recovery can certainly increase the manufacturers’ profit compared to either one of them when the fraction of the recoverable quality-inducing components in the defective product is moderate.     

An empirical study of firm’s absorptive capacity dimensions,supplier involvement and new product development performance

Firms’ performance in their new product development (NPD) is believed to be positively related with involving suppliers in the process of new product development, and also with the organisation’s capacity and capability to absorb external and internal knowledge, namely absorptive capacity (AC). Addressing a gap in the literature, this study adopts the definition and structure for AC suggested by Tu et al. (2006) to examine relationships between AC’s sub-dimensions with NPD performance, and also their moderating effects on the relationship between supplier involvement and new product development performance, on both financial and nonfinancial aspects. Data from a survey of 161 manufacturing firms are used to test the developed hypotheses using structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression. Direct and contingent effects of supplier involvement and AC on new product development performance are studied. As a result factors determining AC are found of different level of effects on financial and nonfinancial performance of new products, which will have implication for theory and practice.     

Strategic orientations and mass customisation capability: the moderating effect of product life cycle

This study examines the influence of three strategic orientations (customer, competitor and innovation) on mass customisation (MC) capability via the organisational learning process known as customisation knowledge utilisation (CKU). The moderating effect of product life cycle (PLC) is also investigated. Using data collected from 204 manufacturers, we show that all three strategic orientations positively contribute to MC capability, both directly and indirectly through CKU. Further, our empirical findings suggest that the effects of customer, competitor and innovation orientation on MC capability are contingent on PLC. The effects of customer orientation on CKU and the effects of competitor orientation on CKU and MC capability are stronger when a product is in the maturity stage of its life cycle, whereas the effect of innovation orientation on CKU and MC capability are stronger in the growth stage. These findings suggest that to effectively improve MC capability, managers need to leverage external and internal orientations at different stages of the PLC.     

Supply chain risk assessment during new product development: a group decision making approach using numeric and linguistic data

Companies strive to minimise supply chain related risks during new product development as any glitch while developing new products can lead to considerable delay in product launch with severe financial implications. However, many organisations face difficulty in properly assessing the vulnerabilities of their globally dispersed supply chains during the product development stage as no suitable procedure for that purpose seems to be readily available in the literature. The present research is an attempt to fulfil this requirement. A step-by-step approach for supply chain risk assessment during new product development, involving group decision making, is suggested. This approach can use both numeric and linguistic data and helps in determining vulnerability scores for various sub-systems and for each supplier of the most vulnerable sub-system. This is followed by failure mode effect analysis (FMEA) which helps prioritise failure modes of vulnerable suppliers and thus create specific control plans to mitigate supply related failures. Using this approach, organisations can devise control plans to alleviate the supplier related risks during new product development. Although, the methodology is illustrated through an application in aircraft manufacturing, it can also be used in other discrete and process manufacturing industries.     

Knowledge Composition and Its Influence on New Product Development Performance in the Big Data Environment

Product innovation is regarded as a primary means for enterprises to maintain their competitive advantage. Knowledge transfer is a major way that enterprises access knowledge from the external environment for new product innovation. Knowledge transfer may face the risk of infringement of the intellectual property rights of other enterprises and the termination of licensing agreements by the knowledge source. Enterprises must develop independent innovation knowledge at the same time they profit from knowledge transfers. Therefore, new product development by an enterprise usually consists of three types of new knowledge: big data knowledge transferred from big data knowledge providers, private knowledge transferred from other enterprises, and new knowledge developed independently by an enterprise in the big data environment. To find what the influences of different types of knowledge are on new product development (NPD) performance, a model is presented that maximizes the expected NPD performance. The results show that the greater the weight of independent innovation knowledge, the greater the performance of NPD. Enterprises tend to transfer knowledge from the external environment when the research and development (R&D) investment is much higher, and enterprises will speed up independent innovation when independent innovation knowledge is expected to bring a larger market share. The model can help enterprises to determine knowledge composition, the scale of R&D investment and predict the performance of NPD.     

试论企业技术创新的概念和举措

文章探讨两个问题：1. 企业技术创新的概念。在自主研究的基础上，借鉴其他学者的研究成果，概括了企业技术创新的7个特征，给出了一个比较科学全面的企业技术创新定义。2. 企业技术创新的举措：a. 开发新产品，概括了新产品的分类、特征和定义，新产品开发的10个小阶段，新产品的构成要素及新产品开发的一般原则；b. 采用新技术，包括创设科研机构、吸引创新型科技人才，采用新技术，创造新的国际技术标准，更新设备和工艺，推广绿色技术；c. 开辟新的市场；d. 开拓新的原料供应来源；e. 采用新的组织和管理方式。     

客户导向与竞争导向影响运营绩效作用机理研究：基于模块化视角

为了揭示生产实践在市场导向影响运营绩效中的作用,基于模块化视角研究客户导向与竞争导向影响运营绩效作用机理。204份有效样本的实证研究结果表明,客户导向与竞争导向均显著正向影响产品模块化（β=0-21/0-20）,但是对流程模块化均无显著影响;产品模块化显著正向影响流程模块化（β=046）;产品模块化对运营绩效并无显著影响,但是流程模块化显著正向影响运营绩效（β=0-29）;控制变量企业规模和运营年限对运营绩效均未表现出显著作用。结果表明,模块化可以作为企业实施市场导向战略时的一种有效生产实践用于提高运营绩效,但是产品模块化和流程模块化的影响机制存在着差异。     

The performance impact of supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability: the moderating effect of product complexity

Even though research has suggested that supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability are distinct capabilities, little is known about their performance effects and about the contextual conditions under which they are effective. Based on a sample of 143 German firms, we empirically investigate the effects of supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability on cost performance and operational performance using hierarchical regression analysis. We ground our investigation in the dynamic capabilities view and contingency theory. We find that supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability positively affect both cost performance and operational performance. We further find evidence for a mediating role of supply chain agility in the links between supply chain adaptability and performance. Product complexity positively moderates the links between supply chain adaptability and cost performance, and supply chain adaptability and operational performance. The results contribute to the literature by offering a more nuanced understanding of the performance implications of supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability, thereby addressing the crucial question of why their benefits may or may not materialise under varying levels of product complexity.     

德国产品开发专业的教学实践及研究特色

高校受教育者实际能力的培养、高等教育机构及研究部门智
力资源的转化、企业创新素质的提高均是我国亟待解决的问题,未来产品开发的知识需求和研究趋势亦
是我国学者需要研究的课题．介绍了德国产品开发专业相关方面的举措及特色,即校企联合方式、知识
创新及产品开发的研究特色、高校教学和研究团队以及项目研究团队的组织特色,有益于研究机构的知
识创新和技术创新成果与工业实践有机结合,洞悉未来产品开发的发展方向,并提高国民整体的创新素
养．研究结果值得国内高等院校和研究机构借鉴与参考．     

Socio-economic and political barriers to public participation in EIA: implications for sustainable development in the Maldives

Abstract

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a policy process that can lead to more sustainable development by preventing or mitigating the negative impacts of development projects. Public participation in the EIA process, especially one based on the ideals of deliberative democracy, is essential to deliver on the goal of sustainable development that is arguably the primary objective of EIA. This article specifically focuses on a study of public participation in the EIA process of the Maldives. Using a qualitative research design involving an analysis of documents and interviews, it investigates four aspects of a deliberative participatory process: fairness, competence, willingness and capacity. The analysis suggests that the process for public participation in the Maldives cannot be characterized as fully fair or competent. It further identifies several socio-economic barriers that affect the capacity and willingness of the actors to participate including political influence, lack of human and financial capacity, gender gap, loss of community spirit and lack of environmental and procedural awareness.     

Intangible capital,knowledge and new product development competence in supply chains: process,interaction and contingency effects among SMEs

Leveraging the strengths of a firm’s supply chain partners for new product development (NPD) has become essential to satisfy rapidly changing customer demands and to remain competitive. Firms are, therefore, aiming to further their NPD competence, which we define as the ability of the supply chain to improve and generate new products and services, based on the processes and relationships established with suppliers and customers. This study examines how intangible capital and knowledge further the development of NPD competence within the context of a supply chain. A theoretical model, based upon resource-advantage theory, is tested via structural equation modelling utilising survey data collected from 195 small- and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing industry reporting on their primary supply chain. Our findings indicate that more easily transferable capital manifests itself in explicit knowledge and less easily transferable capital manifests itself in tacit knowledge. We further identify complementarities of the two types of intangible capital as influencing knowledge type development. More importantly, we find that the two types of knowledge differ in their ability to influence NPD competence in the supply chain, and that these links are moderated by relationship length. Supply chain management implications for academics and practitioners are presented.     

Leveraging prototypes to generate value in the concept-to-production process: a qualitative study of the automotive industry

Prototypes are important tools in the development and production of new products. In the engineering design literature, prototypes are mainly perceived as tools for validating and verifying aspects of a design in the late stages of the design process. However, several studies have found that prototypes are important in the earlier design stages as well, and it is currently unknown how prototypes contribute to add value within the overall value chains of a business system. Using a case-study approach, we investigate this topic seeking to answer the question of how prototypes and rapid prototyping add value in the various stages of the new product development process in the automotive industry. Based on our findings, we propose that the value of prototypes can be divided into the following three categories: the artefact, i.e. the prototype; the process, i.e. prototyping; or the experiment, i.e. the data generated from experimenting with the artefact. Finally, we argue that prototypes add value to both the production and knowledge value stream.