bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
PDMA Success Measurement Project: Recommended Measures for Product Development Success and Failure
Authors: Griffin Abbie , Page Albert L. 
Published: October 2003

Success is not just elusive; it is also multifaceted and difficult to measure. A firm can assess the success or failure of a development project in any (or all) of many terms, including customer satisfaction, financial return, and technical advantage. To complicate matters, success may be measured not only at the level of the individual project, but also at the program level. With so many variables to consider and so many stakeholders involved, managers face a difficult challenge just deciding which measures are useful for measuring product development success.Recognizing that no single measure suffices for gauging the success of every product development project, Abbie Griffin and Albert L. Page hypothesize that the most appropriate set of measures for assessing project‐level success depends on the project strategy. For example, the objectives (and thus, the success criteria) for a new product that creates an entirely new market will differ from those of a project that extends an existing product line. Similarly, they hypothesize that the appropriate measures of a product development program's overall success depend on the firm's innovation strategy. For example, a firm that values being first to market will measure success in different terms from those used by a firm that focuses on maintaining a secure market niche.To test these hypotheses, product development professionals were presented with six project strategy scenarios and four business strategy scenarios. For each project strategy scenario, participants were asked to select the four most useful measures of project success. For each business strategy scenario, participants were asked to choose the set of four measures that would provide the most useful overall assessment of product development success.The responses strongly support the idea that the most appropriate measures of project‐level and program‐level success depend on the firm's project strategy and business strategy, respectively. For example, customer satisfaction and customer acceptance were among the most useful customer‐based measures of success for several project strategies, but market share was cited as the most useful customer‐based measure for projects involving new‐to‐the‐company products or line extensions. At the program level, firms with a business strategy that places little emphasis on innovation need to focus on measuring the efficiency of their product development program, while innovative firms need to assess the program's contribution to company growth.
Changing Patterns in Industrial R&D Management
Authors: Gupta Ashok K. , Wilemon David 
Published: October 2003

A successful R&D manager is, in many ways, an agent of change. R&D managers must respond effectively to changes in domestic and global competition, product and process technologies, customer requirements, regulatory matters, and senior management's perception of the role R&D plays in a firm. The responses to these changes flow downstream from R&D to other parts of the organization, in the form of new materials, methods, processes, and products.To help us understand the changes facing R&D management, Ashok K. Gupta and David Wilemon present the results of a study that examines the ideas and experiences of 120 R&D directors from technology‐based companies. The study explores the major changes that R&D management has undergone in recent years, the changes R&D managers expect to encounter during the next few years, and the causes of those changes. The respondents also identify the skills and knowledge they view as necessary for effective R&D management, and they assess their organizations' capabilities in those areas.According to the respondents, major changes that R&D has encountered include increased emphasis on such issues as cross‐functional teamwork, R&D's contribution to both short‐ and long‐term business results, R&D's capability to quickly bring to market new products that customers value, efficient use of R&D resources, and R&D alliances. Other changes noted by respondents include greater pressure to find new markets, increased attention on the effective management of technical personnel, and increased regulations and sensitivity to environmental issues.The knowledge domains that the respondents highlighted as having the greatest effect on R&D performance include such capabilities as understanding customer needs, monitoring market developments, commercializing new technologies, building cross‐functional teams, managing multiple R&D projects, and accelerating new product development. According to the respondents, the largest gaps between required and current capabilities exist in several of the areas listed as being most important to effective R&D management, including monitoring market developments that can affect R&D activities and overall business performance, maintaining a spirit of inquiry while ensuring that R&D contributes to overall corporate performance, developing technology commercialization capabilities, fostering mutually profitable strategic alliances, and accelerating the development and commercialization of new products.
Distributed New Product Development Project Based on Internet and World‐Wide Web: A Case Study
Authors: Hameri Ari‐Pekka , Nihtilä Jukka 
Published: October 2003

The deluge of hype about the wonders of the Internet, Intranets, and the World Wide Web continues unabated. At the same time, we hear numerous tales about endless streams of busy signals, broken connections, and painfully slow response times. Surveying the apparent gap between the promise and the often‐painful reality, a skeptical manager might reasonably question whether this technology can satisfy the rigorous demands of business users such as product development project teams.In a case study of a large, geographically distributed product development project, Ari‐Pekka Hameri and Jukka Nihtila find that Web‐based applications can play an important role in new‐product development (NPD) efforts. Particularly when projects involve numerous teams from various locations, such tools can provide effective media for communicating and disseminating information. The case study also suggests that these networked information technology (IT) applications can offer important benefits in terms of project and process management.The project described in this study involves a major NPD collaboration, with several independent subprojects and hundreds of team members from various research institutes and companies. The Internet and the World Wide Web provide the media for managing and disseminating project data. Using hypertext links, the Web‐based system gives team members easy access to engineering drawings, 3D models, parameter lists, prototype test results, and other engineering information. The point‐and‐click interface also allows team members to access information about the project structure and schedules, as well as meeting notes, newsgroups, and electronic bulletin boards.Analysis of the file‐transfer activities between the Web server and the project groups highlights several important points regarding networked IT applications, information sharing, and project management. First, the system used in this project serves primarily for disseminating information, rather than for fostering collaboration between different groups. Increased collaboration among networked team members probably requires more sophisticated version‐ and configuration‐management capabilities. Second, file‐transfer activities typically come in bursts around project milestones; this highlights the essential role that project milestones play in coordinating the work of distributed team members. The electronic media enhance not only the work leading up to milestones, but also the dissemination of decisions made at each milestone.
A Causal Model of the Impact of Skills, Synergy, and Design Sensitivity on New Product Performance
Authors: Song X. Michael , Souder Wm. E. , Dyer Barbara 
Published: October 2003

Notwithstanding the best efforts of outstanding managers, project team members, researchers, and consultants, no product development plan can guarantee success. Every new products organization will experience its fair share of failures, but a firm can take steps to ensure that its failures do not outweigh its successes. By benchmarking the competition, a firm can gain insight into best practices–the factors that lead most directly to new product success.To help identify these best practices, X. Michael Song, William E. Souder, and Barbara Dyer develop and test a causal model of the relationships among the key variables leading to new product performance. The proposed model identifies five factors that lead to marketing and technical proficiency: process skills, project management skills, alignment of skills with needs, team skills, and design sensitivity. According to the model, marketing and technical proficiency directly determine product quality, and ultimately lead to new product success or failure.The causal model was tested using information on 65 completed projects–34 successes and 31 failures–from 17 large, multi‐divisional Japanese firms. The study participants develop, manufacture, and market high‐technology consumer and industrial products. These firms judged the success or failure of the projects in this study by using seven criteria: return on investment, profit, market share, sales, opportunities for technical leadership, market dominance, and customer satisfaction. These firms generally assigned the greatest importance to customer satisfaction, opportunity creation, and long‐term growth.For the most part, the responses from these firms support the relationships presented in the causal model. According to the respondents, marketing proficiency and product quality have a strong, positive influence on their new product performance, as do process skills, project management skills, and alignment of skills and needs. The responses highlight the importance to these firms of responsiveness to customer wants and needs, as well as ensuring a close fit between project needs and the firm's skills in marketing, R&D, engineering, and manufacturing. Somewhat surprisingly, the responses do not support the model's suggested relationships between skills/needs alignment and technical proficiency or between technical proficiency and product quality.
Alliances, External Technology Acquisition, and Discontinuous Technological Change
Authors: Lambe C. Jay , Spekman Robert E. 
Published: October 2003

A new paradigm, a radical innovation, the next killer application–the terms differ, but they all point to the same thing: a major change in the technology base for a mature industry. A discontinuous technological change (DTC) poses a significant challenge for the companies operating in the affected industry. The technology at the foundation of their products and markets has changed, and they must find a way to adapt to that change. To maintain their competitive standing, they must master the new technology and ensure that their products and processes fully exploit it.Noting that alliances offer an increasingly popular means for meeting the challenges that a DTC presents, C. Jay Lambe and Robert E. Spekman explore two issues related to alliances and DTC. First, why does DTC motivate companies to use alliances as a means for acquiring technology? And second, how do these motivations change during the various stages of the DTC life‐cycle? By understanding the relationship between DTC and technology sourcing alliances, a firm can increase the likelihood of success for its alliances and thus improve the effectiveness of its product development efforts.When faced with a DTC, an established firm has three options for obtaining the new technology: merging with or acquiring a company that already possesses the technology; developing the required capabilities by using existing resources; or entering into some form of alliance. Because of time‐to‐market pressures and industry uncertainty, alliances often take precedence over the other two options for acquiring the new technology. However, the attractiveness of alliances also varies as a result of changes in the levels of urgency and uncertainty throughout the DTC life‐cycle.The advent of a radical innovation is marked by a relatively low sense of urgency and high levels of industry uncertainty. Firms are not yet certain how the new technology will affect the industry, and they may not feel compelled to enter into technology sourcing alliances. As the new technology takes hold–and the levels of urgency and uncertainty peak–the motivation for entering into a technology sourcing alliance also reaches its highest level. Firms must move quickly to secure a position of market leadership, and the right alliance can jump‐start those efforts. During the latter stages in the DTC life‐cycle, the technology and the market requirements become more stable, the levels of urgency and industry uncertainty decrease, and firms often shift their focus from alliances to internal development and acquisitions.
Has the United States Overinvested in Housing?
Authors: Mills Edwin S. 
Published: October 2003

Several economists have concluded that housing investment has been excessive relative to industrial investment in the U.S. Most blame provisions of the federal income tax that favor owner‐occupied housing.This paper poses the question within a two‐sector neoclassical growth model which permits the social return to housing to differ from that to non‐housing. The model is estimated using national income accounts and capital stock data from 1929 to 1983. The conclusion is that the return to housing capital is about half that to non‐housing capital and that the housing stock should be about 75% of its 1983 volume.
The Real Estate Brokerage Market: A Critical Reevaluation
Authors: Zumpano Leonard V. , Hooks Donald L. 
Published: October 2003

This paper presents an analysis of the theories and evidence regarding the structure and performance of the market for real estate brokerage services. Some of the theoretical models found in the literature appear to suffer from logical inconsistencies, while others lack empirical support for their underlying assumptions and/or their predictions of market inefficiencies. Moreover, several important legal and institutional changes that have occurred recently have not been given sufficient attention in the existing literature.Although some new evidence on this market is presented here, additional empirical research is warranted in at least two areas: the current pricing structure and the underlying production and cost functions of the real estate brokerage industry.
Heterogeneity of Macrolide-Lincosamide-Streptogramin B Resistance Phenotypes in Enterococci
Authors: Min Yu-Hong , Jeong Jae-Hee , Choi Yun-Jeong , Yun Hee-Jeong , Lee Kyungwon , Shim Mi-Ja , Kwak Jin-Hwan , Choi Eung-Chil 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

We determined the macrolide resistance phenotypes of 241 clinical isolates of erythromycin-resistant enterococci (MICs, ≥1 μg/ml), including 147
Enterococcus faecalis
strains and 94
Enterococcus faecium
strains, collected from a hospital in Seoul, Korea, between 1999 and 2000. By the erythromycin (40 μg)-josamycin (100 μg) double-disk test, 93 strains were assigned to the constitutive macrolide, lincosamide, and streptogramin B (MLS
B
) resistance (cMLS
B
) phenotype, and the remaining 148 strains were assigned to the inducible MLS
B
resistance (iMLS
B
) phenotype. Of the strains with the iMLS
B
phenotype, 36 exhibited a reversibly inducible MLS
B
(riMLS
B
) phenotype, i.e., blunting of the erythromycin zone of inhibition, which indicates that the 16-membered-ring macrolide josamycin is a more effective inducer than the 14-membered-ring macrolide erythromycin. Sequence analysis of the regulatory regions of the
erm
(B) genes from all of the strains exhibiting the riMLS
B
phenotype revealed not only
erm
(Bv) [where v represents variant; previously
erm
(AMR)] (
n
= 13), as reported previously, but also three kinds of
erm
(B) variants, which were designated
erm
(Bv1) (
n
= 17),
erm
(Bv2) (
n
= 3), and
erm
(Bv3) (
n
= 3), respectively. In
lacZ
reporter gene assays of these variants, the 16-membered-ring macrolide tylosin had stronger inducibility than erythromycin at ≥0.1 μg/ml. These findings highlight the versatility of
erm
(B) in induction specificity.
Cefepime versus Imipenem-Cilastatin for Treatment of Nosocomial Pneumonia in Intensive Care Unit Patients: a Multicenter, Evaluator-Blind, Prospective, Randomized Study
Authors: Zanetti G. , Bally F. , Greub G. , Garbino J. , Kinge T. , Lew D. , Romand J.-A. , Bille J. , Aymon D. , Stratchounski L. , Krawczyk L. , Rubinstein E. , Schaller M.-D. , Chiolero R. , Glauser M.-P. , Cometta A. ,   the Cefepime Study Group
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

In a randomized, evaluator-blind, multicenter trial, we compared cefepime (2 g three times a day) with imipenem-cilastatin (500 mg four times a day) for the treatment of nosocomial pneumonia in 281 intensive care unit patients from 13 centers in six European countries. Of 209 patients eligible for per-protocol analysis of efficacy, favorable clinical responses were achieved in 76 of 108 (70%) patients treated with cefepime and 75 of 101 (74%) patients treated with imipenem-cilastatin. The 95% confidence interval (CI) for the difference between these response rates (−16 to 8%) failed to exclude the predefined lower limit for noninferiority of −15%. In addition, therapy of pneumonia caused by an organism producing an extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL) failed in 4 of 13 patients in the cefepime group but in none of 10 patients in the imipenem group. However, the clinical efficacies of both treatments appeared to be similar in a secondary intent-to-treat analysis (95% CI for difference, −9 to 14%) and a multivariate analysis (95% CI for odds ratio, 0.47 to 1.75). Furthermore, the all-cause 30-day mortality rates were 28 of 108 (26%) patients in the cefepime group and 19 of 101 (19%) patients in the imipenem group (
P
= 0.25). Rates of documented or presumed microbiological eradication of the causative organism were similar with cefepime (61%) and imipenem-cilastatin (54%) (95% CI, −23 to 8%). Primary or secondary resistance of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
was detected in 19% of the patients treated with cefepime and 44% of the patients treated with imipenem-cilastatin (
P
= 0.05). Adverse events were reported in 71 of 138 (51%) and 62 of 141 (44%) patients eligible for safety analysis in the cefepime and imipenem groups, respectively (
P
= 0.23). Although the primary end point for this study does not exclude the possibility that cefepime was inferior to imipenem, some secondary analyses showed that the two regimens had comparable clinical and microbiological efficacies. Cefepime appeared to be less active against organisms producing an ESBL, but primary and secondary resistance to imipenem was more common for
P. aeruginosa
. Selection of a single agent for therapy of nosocomial pneumonia should be guided by local resistance patterns.
Effect of Parenteral Antibiotic Administration on Establishment of Intestinal Colonization in Mice by
Klebsiella pneumoniae
Strains Producing Extended-Spectrum β-Lactamases
Authors: Hoyen Claudia K. , Pultz Nicole J. , Paterson David L. , Aron David C. , Donskey Curtis J. 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

A mouse model was used to test the hypothesis that antibiotics with activity against anaerobes promote overgrowth of extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing
Klebsiella pneumoniae
strains in stool. Subcutaneous clindamycin consistently promoted establishment of high-density colonization, whereas piperacillin-tazobactam, ceftriaxone, and ceftazidime promoted colonization only when a large inoculum and/or more resistant strain was administered.
Activity of AZD2563, a Novel Oxazolidinone, against
Staphylococcus aureus
Strains with Reduced Susceptibility to Vancomycin or Linezolid
Authors: Howe Robin A. , Wootton Mandy , Noel Alan R. , Bowker Karen E. , Walsh Timothy R. , MacGowan Alasdair P. 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACT

The susceptibilities of clinical vancomycin-intermediate
Staphylococcus aureus
(VISA), heterogenous VISA, and laboratory-generated linezolid-resistant
S. aureus
strains to the new oxazolidinone AZD2563 were assessed by agar dilution MIC determination. All clinical strains were susceptible to linezolid, and the linezolid MICs for them were equal to or twofold higher than those of AZD2563. Cross-resistance with linezolid was seen in laboratory-generated mutants, and for these strains the MIC of AZD2563 was twofold higher than that of linezolid.
The Streptococcal Exotoxin Streptolysin O Activates Mast Cells To Produce Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha by p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase- and Protein Kinase C-Dependent Pathways
Authors: Stassen Michael , Müller Christian , Richter Christoph , Neudörfl Christine , Hültner Lothar , Bhakdi Sucharit , Walev Iwan , Schmitt Edgar 
Published: October 2003

ABSTRACTStreptolysin O (SLO), a major virulence factor of pyogenic streptococci, binds to cholesterol in the membranes of eukaryotic cells and oligomerizes to form large transmembrane pores. While high toxin doses are rapidly cytocidal, low doses are tolerated because a limited number of lesions can be resealed. Here, we report that at sublethal doses, SLO activates primary murine bone marrow-derived mast cells to degranulate and to rapidly induce or enhance the production of several cytokine mRNAs, including tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). Mast cell-derived TNF-α plays an important protective role in murine models of acute inflammation, and the production of this cytokine was analyzed in more detail. Release of biologically active TNF-α peaked ∼4 h after stimulation with SLO. Production of TNF-α was blunted upon depletion of protein kinase C by pretreatment of the cells with phorbol-12 myristate-13 acetate. Transient permeabilization of mast cells with SLO also led to the activation of the stress-activated protein kinases p38 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase and c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and inhibition of p38 MAP kinase markedly reduced production of TNF-α. In contrast, secretion of preformed granule constituents triggered by membrane permeabilization was not dependent on p38 MAP kinase or on protein kinase C. Thus, transcriptional activation of mast cells following transient permeabilization might contribute to host defense against infections via the beneficial effects of TNF-α. However, hyperstimulation of mast cells might also lead to overproduction of TNF-α, which would then promote the development of toxic streptococcal syndromes.