bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Equality: From Marxism to Liberalism (and Back Again)
Authors: Sypnowich Christine
Published: September 2003

G. A. Cohen casts doubt on the extent to which Marxism can contribute to a theory of equality. This essay affirms Cohen's critique. The historical materialist approach to social change, the privileged role ascribed to the proletariat, and Marx's assumption that scarcity can be abolished: these three themes account for the impatience of classical Marxists with moral commitments and normative argument, an impatience which now seems utopian. Marx was wrong about how social change comes about, and that error made it very difficult for the goal of equality to be formulated, let alone realised.

‘The egalitarian turn’ in liberalism suggests that it is liberal political theory, not Marxism, which can inform debates about equality. The insistence on neutrality about the good in much left-liberal argument, however, has forestalled consideration of the kinds of lives to which human beings should aspire, something that must be considered if we are enable individuals to live well, as Marx understood with his critique of alienation. This paper argues that questions of human flourishing are essential to questions of equality, and that Marx's perfectionist vision of the equal society ought to be retrieved.
Factors Affecting New Product Forecasting Accuracy in New Firms
Authors: Gartner William B. , Thomas Robert J.
Published: September 2003

This study identifies factors that seem to influence a new firm's ability to accurately forecast new product sales. William Gartner and Robert Thomas present a conceptual model and develop hypotheses that specify antecedent factors prior to new product launch, such as the founder's expertise and the marketing research methods used, as well as environmental factors occurring after product launch, such as competitive factors and market volatility, that influence new product forecasting accuracy. The hypotheses were tested with data collected from a survey of 113 new U.S. software firms. Some tentative guidelines for improving sales forecast accuracy among new firms are offered. Directions for future research are discussed.
Explaining Competitive Reactions to New Products: An Empirical Signaling Study
Authors: Heil Oliver P. , Walters Rockney G.
Published: September 2003

This article develops a conceptual model to help explain the strength of competitive reactions to new product introductions and presents the findings from a preliminary empirical investigation of this model. Being able to explain the strength of competitive reactions to new product introductions is important, as such reactions often determine a product's success or failure in the marketplace. To explain these reactions Oliver Heil and Rockney Walters investigate competitive market signals associated with new product introductions and the reactions of competing firms to the signals. The authors empirically test the hypothesized linkages among three market signals—hostility, consequences and commitment—and competitive reactions using primary data collected from a large number of US corporations. The empirical results show that the market signaling variables explain a significant portion of the variance in the perceived strength of competitive reactions to new product introductions. The study has implications for managers introducing new products and for researchers studying new product introductions and competition.
Five Modern Lessons from a 55‐Year‐Old Technological Forecast
Authors: Schnaars Steven P. , Chia Swee L. , Maloles Cesar M.
Published: September 2003

The first comprehensive forecast of technological trends and social implications by the U.S. government was published by the National Resources Committee in 1937. It focused on 13 major innovations. In their article, Steven Schnaars, Swee Chia and Cesar Maloles examine the accuracy of those forecasts and draw some conclusions based on their review of that report.
Major New Products: What Distinguishes the Winners in the Chemical Industry?
Authors: Cooper R. G. , Kleinschmidt E. J.
Published: September 2003

What makes a new product a winner? This empirical study looks at success factors in product development in the chemical industry of four countries. The 103 projects studied in both North America and Europe were substantial ones and all were undertaken by large firms; about two‐thirds of these projects succeeded. Robert Cooper and Elko Kleinschmidt identified the key project success factors by comparing the winners to the losers. Product differentiation was the most importance influence on success. Synergies had only moderate influence on project outcomes, as did order of enter (innovator versus follower) and stage of product life cycle. Surprisingly, important aspects of the external environment, including both market attractiveness and competitive situation, were not strong determinants of success. Although focused on one industry, the results of this study likely have broader applicability to wide variety of industries.
Metrics for Measuring Product Development Cycle Time
Authors: Griffin Abbie
Published: September 2003

As global competitive pressure increases and product life cycles compress, many companies are trying to shorten their product development cycles. Firms are implementing a wide variety of different techniques, management processes and development strategies in their quest for shorter development cycles. We read anecdotal accounts of some efforts that herald great success stories but seldom hear about any failures. Unfortunately, some of the companies changing their development processes do so without any a priori basis for determining whether the process change will have helped or hindered them. The firm implements the new process without having a cycle time performance baseline against which to compare results from the new process. In this article, Abbie Griffin presents a method for obtaining product development cycle time performance baselines. She also demonstrates how to use them to either forecast expected project duration, given that you have not changed your development process, or determine whether a process change has actually decreased development cycle times.
Accelerated Product Introductions and Emerging Managerial Accounting Perspectives: Implications for Marketing Managers in the Technology Sector
Authors: Rabino Samuel , Wright Arnold
Published: September 2003

Rapid changes in manufacturing and design technologies coupled with increased competition domestically and internationally have led to shorter product life cycles and compressed lead times for product introductions in the technology sector. Traditional cost accounting systems, which assume labor to be the major cost component in the production process, have resulted in distortions in cost information. Samuel Rabino and Arnold Wright describe emerging cost accounting approaches that more adequately address the changing competitive and technological environments and facilitate an improved evaluation of product launch programs.
The Co‐Diffusion of Complementary Innovations: Supermarket Scanners and UPC Symbols
Authors: Bucklin Louis P. , Sengupta Sanjit
Published: September 2003

Co‐diffusion is the positive interaction between the demands for complementary innovations that have separate adoption tracks. This interaction is of growing importance to business strategy because a firm can facilitate the diffusion of an innovation by supporting and participating in the development and commercialization of related complementary technologies. This phenomenon is of special importance where connectivity among products is central to end‐user value. Louis P. Bucklin and Sanjit Sengupta report results of their empirical investigation of the co‐diffusion of laser scanners in supermarkets and Universal Product Code (UPC) symbols printed on the packages of stocked items. Their results show asymmetric two‐way co‐diffusion effects between these innovations. Co‐diffusion effects are found to be stronger than innovation effects. Finally, the analysis reveals differential co‐diffusion effects across major market segments.
The Risk Pyramid for New Product Development: An Application to Complex Aerospace Hardware
Authors: Souder Wm. E. , Bethay David
Published: September 2003

All new product developments are inherently characterized by risk, as a result of various uncertainties that surround them. Risk assessment techniques can be used to help clarify these uncertainties, as a basis for systematic decision making and organizational consensus. This article develops the risk pyramid, a new approach to risk assessment that dynamically combines concept assessments with multi‐dimensional risk evaluations. William Souder and David Bethay illustrate the use of the risk pyramid with an application to SPACEHAB, a commercial space habitat module designed to enhance NASA's manned space program. The application illustrates the utility of risk assessment in general and the risk pyramid in particular. The results demonstrate how formally following the risk pyramid approach can potentially enhance the quality of new product decisions.
Why Put Off Until Tomorrow What You Can Do Today: Incentives and the Timing of New Product Introduction
Authors: Putsis William P.
Published: September 2003

Using related statistical studies and specific industry examples, William Putsis, Jr. illustrates how incentives for delaying the introduction of a new technology has played a major role in the development of certain consumer electronics markets over the past 25 years. Specifically, the introduction of a new product which incorporates some new technology can often be delayed until the firm's need for growth exceeds the fear of cannibalizing the firm's current product line. This concern is viewed as only one of many concerns that may delay or speed a new technology to market.
Time‐Based Management of the New Product Development Process
Authors: Karagozoglu Necmi , Brown Warren B.
Published: September 2003

This study explored the problem of compressing new product development by focusing on the specific phases of the innovation process. These phases manifest significant qualitative differences that require attention for understanding the complexities of accelerating new product development. Based on data from 35 high‐technology companies, Necmi Karagozoglu and Warren Brown identified several different acceleration methods. Results revealed unexpected and at times inconsistent insights than those reflected in the case study and anecdotally based literature, and implied also that some of the well documented approaches to successful new product development need to be replaced with their time‐based versions.
Cross‐Functional Teams: Good Concept, Poor Implementation!
Authors: Henke John W. , Krachenberg A. Richard , Lyons Thomas F.
Published: September 2003

Since the late 1970s there has been a substantial increase in the use of teams in the product development process. However, even as more manufacturing firms are initiating the use of teams, their value is being questioned by firms that have used teams for years. Based on interviews in dozens of U.S. firms, John Henke, Richard Krachenberg, and Thomas Lyons suggest that most firms are not using teams as effectively and efficiently as they could and should be. In an attempt to overcome this shortcoming, the article discusses the system's characteristics and organizational implications of the multifunctional product development team, including the benefits linked to the use of teams; the current state of team design, and where improvements can be made; and team–people issues, including communications, decision‐making processes, and leadership styles. Specific suggestions on what must be done to improve team effectiveness are also discussed. Finally and most importantly, the article discusses what firms are doing, often inadvertently, to discourage the future use of teams and how these activities can be overcome to maintain the continued viability of teams over the long run.
Determinants of Inward Technology Licensing Intentions: An Empirical Analysis of Australian Engineering Firms
Authors: Atuahene‐Gima Kwaku
Published: September 2003

This article empirically examines the factors that affect Australian engineering firms' propensities or intentions to adopt inward technology licensing (ITL) as a new product development method. Kwaku Atuahene‐Gima reports results indicating that the major factors that influence the firm's propensity to adopt ITL are previous ITL experience, perceived relative costs and benefits of ITL, awareness of ITL opportunities, and the firm's internal new product development and R&D capabilities. The findings afford managerial insights into the firm's technology acquisition and marketing strategies.
Faster New Product Development: Investigating the Effects of Technology and Characteristics of the Project Leader and Team
Authors: McDonough Edward F.
Published: September 2003

In this article, Edward McDonough III examines the relationship between speed of new product development and technology, on the one hand, and characteristics of project leaders and project team members, on the other. The reported results suggest that the speed with which new products are developed is affected by the type of work undertaken on the project, i.e., its technology and the characteristics of both project leaders and the project team. However, the characteristics that affect speed differ for different types of projects and are different for team members and the team leader.
Assessing New Product Development Practices and Performance: Establishing Crucial Norms
Authors: Page Albert L.
Published: September 2003

In 1968 and 1982 cross‐sectional studies of the conduct and performance of new product development were reported, the wide‐ranging results of which have been widely reproduced and cited as norms for product development. Since the more recent study, many changes in the practice and environment of product development have occurred. Albert Page describes the findings of a new cross‐sectional study, sponsored by PDMA, which reports on the current status of new product development and updates those commonly referred to norms. On the one hand, this article reports that the state of practice, covering both structure and process, has improved, although there is still substantial room for further improvement. On the other hand, the results for five different measures of firm and program performance indicate these practice improvements have not resulted in notable improvements in the overall performance of the new product development activity within the responding companies.
The Role of Market Research in the Development of New Consumer Products
Authors: Davis Robert E.
Published: September 2003

Managers today face the twin challenges of producing better results, faster than ever before. Robert Davis presents a number of lessons on how market research can enhance a typical new product development and decision plan. His central theme is the disciplined use of very focused market research to make better and faster decisions about a new product throughout its development. These lessons are based on his thirty years of experience in market research, mostly in the new products work conducted at Procter & Gamble.
Individual differences, environmental scanning, innovation framing, and champion behavior: key predictors of project performance
Authors: Howell Jane M. , Sheab Christine M.
Published: September 2003

Although increasing evidence points to the importance of champions for keeping product innovation ideas alive and thriving, little is known about how champions identify potential product innovation ideas, how they present these ideas to gain much needed support from key stakeholders, and their impact on innovation project performance over time. Jane M. Howell and Christine M. Shea address this knowledge gap by using measures of individual differences, environmental scanning, innovation framing and champion behavior to predict the performance of 47 product innovation projects.

Champion behavior was defined as expressing confidence in the innovation, involving and motivating others to support the innovation, and persisting under adversity. Interviews with 47 champions were conducted to collect information about the innovation projects and the champions' tendency to frame the innovation as an opportunity or threat. Survey data were obtained from three sources: 47 champions provided information on their personal characteristics (locus of control and breadth of interest) and activities (environmental scanning), 47 division managers subjectively assessed project performance at two points in time, and 237 innovation team members rated the frequency of champion behavior.

The results revealed that an internal locus of control orientation was positively related to framing the innovation as an opportunity, and breadth of interest was positively related to environmental scanning. Environmental scanning of documents and framing the innovation as a threat was negatively related to champion behavior, while environmental scanning through people was positively related to champion behavior. Champion behavior positively predicted project performance over a one‐year interval.

Overall, the findings suggest that in scanning the environment for new ideas, the most effective source of information is the champion's personal network of people inside and outside the organization. Also, the simple labeling of an idea as a threat appears to diminish a champion's perceived influence and erode credibility in promoting an innovation. From the perspective of division managers, champions make a positive contribution to project performance over time, reinforcing the crucial role that champions play in new product development process.
How integrating industrial design in the product development process impacts on company performance
Authors: Gemser Gerda , Leenders Mark A. A. M.
Published: September 2003

There is a growing belief that investing in industrial design is beneficial to company performance. This article sheds more light on how and when integrating industrial design in the product development process can enhance a company's competitive position. The basic premise is that the impact of industrial design on company performance is not unconditional, but dependent on industry evolution and design strategy. We opted to define industrial design in a general way, namely as the activity that transforms a set of product requirements into a configuration of materials, elements and components. This activity can have an impact on a product's appearance, user friendliness, ease of manufacture, efficient use of materials, functional performance, and so on.

The empirical data incorporated in this study stems from two Dutch manufacturing industries, namely home furniture and precision instruments. Home furniture and precision instruments were selected because the strategy of integrating industrial design in the product development process is rather mature in the first‐named industry and emerging in the second. We collected data from firms investing considerably in industrial design (n = 23) and firms investing little to nothing in industrial design (n = 24), using a semistructured questionnaire that was administrated during face‐to‐face sessions with senior managers.

Two out of the three research hypotheses were supported. It was found that the extent to which firms integrate industrial design in new product development projects has a significant and positive influence on company performance (Hla), in particular when the strategy of investing in industrial design is relatively new for the industry involved (Hlb). There was no systematic pattern indicating that design innovation is more important in industries where the use of design is mature than in industries where the use of design is emerging (H2). Instead, we found that design innovation has significant positive performance effects in both types of industries. One important managerial inference from our study is that new product development managers should consider the changing nature of competition during industry evolution while developing strategies that encompass the use of industrial design in new product development. Another important managerial inference is that, besides being innovative in the field of products, being innovative with respect to design and design strategy can help to enhance competitiveness regardless of industry evolution.
Perspectives on roadmaps: how organizations talk about the future
Authors: Kappel Thomas A.
Published: September 2003

Roadmaps, in the traditional sense, are concerned mostly with space and position. In the way that industrial and public research institutions use the term, though, roadmaps reveal the time dimension of technological progress. The many and increasing applications of roadmaps have generated confusion about what they are for and what they accomplish amid the many tools and techniques of managing technology. Roadmapping is itself a trend, while it seeks to exploit the trends underlying technology. The practice has side effects, biases, and behavioral consequences that are often not visible to practitioners, and until now, were unexamined by researchers. This study provides an organizational perspective on roadmapping as currently practiced, presents the experience of several organizations that have implemented it, and evaluates the results.

Using a case‐based, exploratory method the author addresses several practical questions, such as: What are the effects of roadmapping? How are they measured? Is roadmapping always appropriate? How would an organization know if it was roadmapping well? What are the various kinds of roadmaps and how do they relate to each other? In addition, some more general lessons about organizational behavior emerge from the case data. Cases were selected from several large industrial firms participating in a research consortium exploring the modern challenges and tools of technology management. These firms granted extensive access to the research team and actively participated in the analysis, demonstrating a unique and productive model of research collaboration between academic researchers and business practitioners.

Central to an understanding of roadmapping behavior is noticing the tension between its dual nature. Roadmaps are both forecasts of what is possible or likely to happen, as well as plans that articulate a course of action. They are, in a sense, personal to their authors. Roadmaps can be used to align organizations in times of predictable change, but have limited insight into disruptive change. The most influential roadmaps originate as responses to perceived threats, and link the technical storyline to organizational and personal concerns. For those who would implement the technique, the article suggests practical ways to use these and other findings and offers basic definitions and vital questions for future research.
Beyond the firm's initial declaration: Are preannouncements of new product introductions and withdrawals alike?
Authors: Schatzel Kim E. , Calantone Roger J. , Droge Cornelia
Published: September 2003

Previous preannouncement research has primarily focused on product preannouncements regarding the firm's intention to introduce a new product and, for the most part, has ignored preannouncements that update the status of new product introductions (e.g., delays in launch dates and cancellation of new product programs). This study's goal is to examine if different factors influence preannouncements of new product introductions (NPIs) versus new product withdrawals or delays (NPWs). A model of six antecedents that could influence a firm's propensity to issue NPIs and NPWs is developed and tested using a sample of 265 CEOs and Presidents from manufacturers of new products. Three of the antecedents are organizational in nature; specifically, first mover predisposition, firm information interactivity, and reputation building. Also, the effects of two environmental constructs, industry innovativeness and competitive hostility, are examined. Finally, the model incorporates the effect of buyer involvement on a firm's propensity to issue NPIs and NPWs. The results indicate that NPIs and NPWs are very alike regarding their antecedent factors. Reputation building, defined as a firm's tendency to pursue a high profile leadership position within its industry, and buyer involvement are the primary motivators of a firm's propensity to issue both NPWs and NPIs. Future directions for research include the development of a normative preannouncement framework and the examination of NPIs and NPWs as nonadvertising forms of marketing communication targeted at numerous audiences such as buyers, employees, channel members, industry influencers (e.g., business and trade related press), and investors.
The impact of firm introductory strategies on consumers' perceptions of future product introductions and purchase decisions
Authors: Boonea Derrick S. , Lemonb Katherine N. , Staelin Richard
Published: September 2003

In this research, we develop and test a model of the consumer's decision to immediately purchase a technologically advanced product or to delay such a purchase until a future generation of the product is released. We propose that for technologically advancing products, consumers consider both performance lag (how far behind am I now) and expected performance gain (how far ahead will I be if I wait to buy a future expected release) in their purchase decisions. Furthermore, we hypothesize that a firm's past product introductory strategy can significantly influence consumer perceptions of performance lag, performance gain, and the rate at which a product is advancing technologically. We also propose that these perceptions of lag, gain and rate of technological change influence purchase action and ultimately determine whether or not a consumer will delay or immediately purchase a firm's current technological offering.

We investigate the above relationships by introducing a model of consumer purchase behavior that incorporates the effects of a firm's frequency and pattern of next generation product introduction, and test the impact of different introductory strategies on performance lag, gain, rate of change perceptions, and purchase action. In our first study we test our model in a monopolistic setting and show that, holding all else fixed, infrequent product upgrades and/or increasing intergenerational release times result in consumers perceiving larger performance lags and gains. We also show that, holding all else fixed, consumers with larger performance lags and/or gains are less likely to delay their purchases of the currently best available product. In our second study we test our model in a competitive setting and show that, holding all else fixed, a firm's past pattern of new product introduction can influence consumers' perceptions of the firm's product's rate of technological change. We also find that consumers are more likely to purchase products which they perceive to have higher rates of technological change.

The key insight from this research is that firms have a strategic tool at their disposal that has been overlooked—the pattern of introduction of next generation products. Our findings suggest that a change in the frequency and/or pattern of introduction, in and of themselves, can influence consumers' perceptions of future product introductions, and ultimately influence their purchase actions. Specifically, we demonstrate that by better understanding consumers' purchase timing decisions, firms may be able to induce purchase on the basis of introductory frequency and pattern alone. Additionally, we demonstrate that by strategically managing consumer expectations of future product introductions, firms may be able to decrease the purchase likelihoods of competing products. Implications of our research and its application to the pattern and timing of preannouncements for new products are also explored.
Metrics thermostat⋆
Authors: Hauser John R.
Published: September 2003

The explosion of information and information technology has led many firms to evolve a dispersed product development process with people and organizations spread throughout the world. To coordinate such dispersed processes a critical role of managers is to establish and foster a culture that implicitly rewards and motivates product development teams to perform against a set of strategic metrics such as customer satisfaction, time to market, defect reduction, or platform reuse. We focus on a practical method to fine‐tune a firm's relative emphasis on these metrics. In particular, we seek to advise a firm how to modify their emphasis on each metric in order to improve profits. We use a thermostat analogy based on an adaptive control feedback mechanism in which we estimate the incremental improvements in priorities that will increase profits. Iterations seek to maximize profits even if the environment is changing.

In developing the metric thermostat we recognize that there are hundreds of detailed actions, such as the use of the house of quality and the use of robust design, among which the product development team must choose. We also recognize that team members will act in their own best interests to choose the actions that maximize their own implicit rewards as determined by the metrics. Management need not observe or dictate these detailed actions, but rather can control the process by establishing implicit weights on the metrics. The thermostat works by changing those implicit weights.

We define the problem, introduce the adaptive control mechanism, modify “agency” theory to deal with incremental changes about an operating point, and derive methods that are practical and robust in light of the data that firms have available. Our methods include statistical estimation and internal surveys. The mathematics identify the critical few parameters that need be determined and highlight how to estimate them. Both the measures and the estimation are illustrated in an initial application to a large office‐equipment firm with $20 billion in revenue. The metrics thermostat suggests that this firm has about the right emphasis on time‐to‐market, but has overshot on platform reuse and has lost its focus on customer satisfaction. We describe how the firm reacted to the recommendations and changed its organization.
Innovative versus incremental new business services: Different keys for achieving success
Authors: de Brentani Ulrike
Published: September 2003

In companies where new product development plays an important strategic role, managers necessarily contend with a portfolio of projects that range from high technology, new‐to‐the‐world, innovations to relatively simple improvements, adaptations, line extensions, or imitations of competitive offerings. Recent studies indicate that achieving successful outcomes for projects that differ radically in terms of innovativeness requires that firms adjust their NPD practices in line with the type of new product project they are developing. Based on a large‐scale survey of managers knowledgeable about new product development in their firm, this study focuses on new business‐to‐business service projects in an attempt to gain insights about the influence of product innovativeness on the factors that are linked to new service success and failure. The research results indicate that there are a small number of “global” success factors which appear to govern the outcome of new service ventures, regardless of their degree of newness. These include: ensuring an excellent customer/need fit, involving expert front line personnel in creating the new service and in helping customers appreciate its distinctiveness and benefits, and implementing a formal and planned launch program for the new service offering. Several other factors, however, were found to play a more distinctive role in the outcome of new service ventures, depending on how really new or innovative the new service was. For low innovativeness new business services, the results suggest that managers can enhance performance by: leveraging the firm's unique competencies, experiences and reputation through the introduction of new services that have a strong corporate fit; installing a formal “stage‐gate” new service development system, particularly at the front‐end and during the design stage of the development process; and ensuring that efforts to differentiate services from competitive or past offerings do not lead to high cost or unnecessarily complex service offerings. For new‐to‐the‐world business services, the primary distinguishing feature impacting performance is the corporate culture of the firm: one that encourages entrepreneurship and creativity, and that actively involves senior managers in the role of visionary and mentor for new service development. In addition, good market potential and marketing tactics that offset the intangibility of “really new” service concepts appear to have a positive performance effect.
PERSPECTIVE: Creating a platform‐based approach for developing new services
Authors: Meyera Marc H. , DeToreb Arthur
Published: September 2003

This article explores the design and renewal of services. We do this through the lens of methods and processes for developing product platforms for physical products. We first articulate principles for effectively developing next generation product lines using platform concepts, and illustrate these principles with examples drawn from computer and electronic products. These principles include creating new insights into a firm's market segmentation, understanding both the perceived and latent needs of users, and doing so for new as well as existing groups of customers. These platform principles also include the design and implementation of subsystems and interfaces that can be used across different products and across different product lines. Such subsystems and interfaces become the operational platforms for new product development purposes. An approach to platform‐centric organization design is also presented.

We then make the extension to services by applying these principles to understand the innovations of a large international reinsurer. This company has resegmented its market to identify unfulfilled needs and growth opportunities. It also defined new service platforms, comprising operational activity areas that closely follow the value chain of how it wished to provide new reinsurance solutions to its customers. This reinsurer also had to organize differently to facilitate the development and deployment of the capabilities required for its new services. The analogies between these service innovations and those platform innovations of manufacturers are both clear and striking.

We conclude by considering the difficulties faced by firms seeking to transition from a single product, nonplatform focused approach to new product development to the platform‐centric ones described here.
An experimental investigation of valuation change due to commonality in vertical product line extension
Authors: Kima Kilsun , Chhajed Dilip
Published: September 2003

Commonality in product line design refers to using identical product features or modules in multiple products. The use of commonality in product line extensions is a growing practice in many industries. We consider vertical product line extensions to lower‐ and higher‐end products, and study the effects of identical feature levels on consumers' evaluation of original products. Using a between‐subject experimental design, we examine the effect of commonality using the bicycle as the example product. This experiment is then extended to eight different service and manufactured products. Results show that in many cases identical feature levels increase the perceived similarity between original and extension products. This influences the valuation of original products: valuation of the original low‐end product increases while valuation of the original high‐end product decreases. However, the amount of valuation change is not necessarily the same for the original low‐ and high‐end products. This valuation change occurs regardless of buyers' knowledge level of the product and is sometimes moderated by a large difference in a differentiated feature.

This study suggests the importance of accounting for the demand‐side effect of commonality in product design decisions. Change in customers' valuation may call for an adjustment in price—the price of a high‐end product may have to be lowered due to valuation discount, and the price of a low‐end product could be raised to take advantage of valuation premium. This change in valuation does not occur for every feature in every product. Therefore, by properly selecting the features that are identical, a firm may be able to take advantage of valuation premium without sacrificing valuation discount and enjoy the economies of scale in manufacturing and logistics due to commonality.
The nature of market visioning for technology‐based radical innovation
Authors: O'Connor Gina Colarelli , Veryzer Robert W.
Published: September 2003

The ability to link advanced technologies to market opportunities is a crucial aspect of radical innovation. When markets do not yet exist, it is difficult to persevere, given organizational pressures for immediate profit. To study this problem, eleven radical innovation projects are examined in nine large, mature organizations in a real‐time field setting. The sample is augmented by interviews of four additional individuals who have repeated experiences in linking advanced technologies to markets. From results that are qualitative in nature, four themes emerge. First, vision is built and sustained through a variety of mechanisms that may operate in combination or serially. Second, there are a number of roles that individuals play in creating and evangelizing a vision through an organization. Third, there exist a few tools and methods for aiding in developing visions that are not dependent strictly on individual initiative, but these are not systematically employed by organizations. Finally, visions undergo a process of validation and internal acceptance that may depend heavily on reaching out beyond the familiar customer/market set of the firm.

Building on these themes, we derive two sets of insights. The first identifies three different ways that visions might develop. We did not discover a singular process across firms or even within a single firm by which visions develop. Second, we identify three elements that occur when a vision is formulated and utilized in organizations: Motivation, Insight and Elaboration. Thus a vision does not arise through a single creative leap, but develops over time and requires focus, discipline, energy, and the involvement of many people. Awareness of this conceptual underpinning of visioning may help managers understand how to encourage this activity and help sustain long‐term growth and renewal in their organizations.
User toolkits for innovation
Authors: von Hippel Eric
Published: September 2003

Manufacturers must accurately understand user needs in order to develop successful products‐but the task is becoming steadily more difficult as user needs change more rapidly, and as firms increasingly seek to serve “markets of one.” User toolkits for innovation allow manufacturers to actually abandon their attempts to understand user needs in detail in favor of transferring need‐related aspects of product and service development to users along with an appropriate toolkit.

User toolkits for innovation are specific to given product or service type and to a specified production system. Within those general constraints, they give users real freedom to innovate, allowing them to develop their custom product via iterative trial‐and‐error. That is, users can create a preliminary design, simulate or prototype it, evaluate its functioning in their own use environment, and then iteratively improve it until satisfied. As the concept is evolving, toolkits guide the user to insure that the completed design can be produced on the intended production system without change.

Pioneering applications in areas ranging from the development of custom integrated circuits to the development of custom foods show that user toolkits for innovation can be much more effective than traditional, manufacturer‐based development methods.
Understanding fire fighting in new product development⋆
Authors: Repenning Nelson P.
Published: September 2003

Despite documented benefits, the processes described in the new product development literature often prove difficult to follow in practice. A principal source of such difficulties is the phenomenon of fire fighting‐the unplanned allocation of resources to fix problems discovered late in a product's development cycle. While it has been widely criticized, fire fighting is a common occurrence in many product development organizations. To understand both its existence and persistence, in this article I develop a formal model of fire fighting in a multiproject development environment. The major contributions of this analysis are to suggest that: (1) fire fighting can be a self‐reinforeing phenomenon; and (2) multiproject development systems are far more susceptible to this dynamic than is currently appreciated. These insights suggest that many of the current methods for aggregate resource and product portfolio planning, while necessary, are not sufficient to prevent fire fighting and the consequent low performance.
From experience: Capturing hard‐won NPD lessons in checklists
Authors: Riek Raymond F.
Published: September 2003

The application of a good New Product Development (NPD) process is frequently limited by the experience of the user. Avoiding relatively minor errors and omissions that can lead to seriously flawed project results is still an art. Checklists for each stage of a development project can capture this art and their disciplined use can avoid many potentially critical omissions and errors. Development of checklists frequently comes from the hard experiences many of us have had in bringing new products to market. Consequently, benchmarking “trials and tribulations” rather than success stories can be more appropriate to developing a thoughtful checklist.

This article is a partial accumulation of one practitioner's experiences of over three decades of executing, managing, directing and observing these projects. Fifteen NPD case histories are examined to develop learnings from these experiences. These cases are organized around three basic product development issues: managing technical risks, managing commercial risks, and managing NPD personnel. In these examples, NPD project problems have a common theme of poor technical or commercial risk management, as opposed to technical failure. Improved planning and a more disciplined management interface would have avoided many of the problems discussed in these case histories.

Analysis of each of the case histories and learnings is provided from which suggested checklist items are derived. These checklist additions are presented by development stage to allow use by other NPD teams, with the intention of avoiding the repetition of similar problems.
Market orientation, interdepartmental integration, and product development performance
Authors: Kahn Kenneth B.
Published: September 2003

Various research studies have shown that a market orientation and interdepartmental integration can positively influence product development performance. Addressed in this article is whether market orientation and interdepartmental integration both equally influence product development performance, whether one of these constructs is more influential than the other, and whether such influence is dependent on the type of department being examined?

Analyzing survey data from 156 marketing, manufacturing, and R&D managers, the tentative results suggest that a market orientation and interdepartmental integration correlate to improved product development and product management performance in varying degrees across these three manager sets. It appears that a positive relationship between market orientation and product development petformance is likely to be reflected by the marketing department, while marketing and manufacturing departments are likely to reflect a positive relationship between the general construct of market orientation and product management performance. Manufacturing managers also reflect a positive relationship between interdepartmental integration and product development and product management performance. Further analyses involving the elements of a market orientation and interdepartmental integration find that a customer orientation appears important to performance in the case of marketing managers, and that collaboration is important to performance in the case of manufacturing managers. R&D managers did not reflect any statistically significant relationships between market orientation, interdepartmental integration, their constructs, and performance.

These results should not be taken as refuting the claim of an important relationship between market orientation and product development performance, however. The present results refine our understanding of market orientation to consider department‐specific effects, as well as temper the claims that implementing a market orientation will readily lead to improved product development performance across all departments in an organization. This may or may not be the case, depending on the focal department.
Product innovativeness from the firm's perspective: Its dimensions and their relation with project selection and performance
Authors: Danneels Erwin , Kleinschmidtb Elko J.
Published: September 2003

There has recently been tremendous interest in product innovativeness. However, it seems that we need a better understanding of exactly what product innovativeness means. This article presents a conceptual framework to clarify its meaning. The framework first distinguishes customer and firm perspectives on product innovativeness. From the customer's perspective, innovation attributes, adoption risks, and levels of change in established behavior patterns are regarded as forms of product newness. Within the firm's perspective, environmental familiarity and project‐firm fit, and technological and marketing aspects are proposed as dimensions of product innovativeness.

Next, the article offers a tentative empirical test of the proposed dimensions of product innovativeness from the firm's perspective. A well‐known dataset of 262 industrial new product projects is used to: I) clarify the product innovativeness construct and examine its underlying dimensions, 2) examine the relation of product innovativeness with the decision to pursue or kill the project, and 3) examine the relationship between product innovativeness and product performance. Five dimensions of product innovativeness are found which have distinct relations with the Go/No Go decision and product performance: market familiarity, technological familiarity, marketing fit, technological fit, and new marketing activities. Most strikingly, measures of fit are related to product performance, whereas measures of familiarity are not.

The article concludes that researchers need to be careful about which definitions and measures of product innovativeness they employ, because depending on their choice they may arrive at different findings. New product practitioners are encouraged to evaluate new product opportunities primarily in terms of their fit with their firm's resources and skills rather than the extent to which they are “close to home”.