Linking Innovation to Design: Consumer Responses to Visual Product Newness

In recent years, researchers have begun to recognize the central role that visual design plays in successful marketing efforts. However, little research has effectively bridged the gap between product innovation and visual design. Before consumers can judge the competitive newness of a product based on its functionality, they first encounter its visual form. Therefore, both innovation researchers and product managers need to be aware of the impact that visual design can have in communicating product newness. In the present work, two studies are described that examine consumers' responses to visual product newness. The first study explores the ability of consumers to recognize and assess product newness using visual design cues and then examines the basis on which these evaluations are made. The second study examines the cognitive and affective reactions that are engendered by exposure to products that are high in visual product newness.     

Research Opportunities Related to Consumer Response to Product Design*

This essay identifies five research opportunities that concern consumer response to product design. The first opportunity involves the need for more research on the interaction between form and function in consumer product evaluations. To this end, more knowledge about how product appearance characteristics influence consumer evaluation of both product form and function, and how this differs between countries and in time, is needed. The second research opportunity concerns the influence of consumer input in the front end of new product development on product success. Although the positive effect of market information use on product success is known, more actionable insight into which consumer information or input is beneficial in which circumstances is largely missing. The third opportunity for research concerns how to include subjective product attributes in concept testing. Getting valid feedback from consumers, which includes functional as well as emotional and experiential aspects, can improve proficiency in the early stages of product development. In this essay, several ways of approaching this research endeavor are highlighted. Next to enhancing market receipt and the assessment of product design, two topics that concern consumer response to product design from a more managerial viewpoint are identified. The first of these is strategic management of product styling. The importance and opportunities of visual design for brand management has gained more attention in the literature; different strategies and the cases in which they are beneficial are issues for further research. And finally, the design of product service systems (PSSs) provides opportunities for future research. Here, engendering perceptual unity between products and services and an explicit managing of meanings and feelings that PSSs should communicate are issues at play.     

Customer and Supplier Involvement in Design: The Moderating Role of Incremental and Radical Innovation Capability

More and more firms are leveraging design as a resource to gain the upper hand in today's competitive business market. To this end, this study draws on the resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm to examine the relationship between customer and supplier involvement in the design process and new product performance. The research also extends the RBV to a contingency lens by introducing product innovation capability (incremental and radical) as a moderator to draw the boundary conditions of the impact of customer/supplier involvement in design on new product performance. Using data collected from Canadian high‐tech companies, the findings provide strong support for the hypotheses in that customer involvement in design helps new product performance under high incremental innovation capability but harms new product performance under high radical innovation capability. In contrast, supplier involvement in design was beneficial to new product performance under both high incremental and radical innovation capability. The managerial implications for the role of design under different innovation capabilities are discussed.     

Still Seeking Common Ground: A Response to Keyes

This response affirms that the author alone is responsible for what he “built on Keyes” and that Dr. Lucile Keyes bears no responsibility whatever for his conclusions. It reiterates the author's view that the history of antitrust shows that, in actual operation, the major purpose of the policy has always been the promotion of decentralization of ownership and control in the large-firm sector of the economy and not consumer protection. It is urged that no productive exchange of ideas between friends and critics of antitrust can take place until this fact is recognized. It is suggested that the search for common ground might begin by confining federal surveillance of mergers solely to a set of the largest firms; and that none should be allowed that did not promise a clear, non-negligible gain in efficiency.     

How New Product Introductions Affect Sales Management Strategy: The Impact of Type of "Newness" of the New Product

How do firms adjust sales management strategy for new product launch? Does sales management strategy change more radically for different types of new products such as new‐to‐the‐world products versus product revisions? Because firms introducing a new product rely considerably on their sales force in the product launch effort, the types and degree of changes made in managing the selling effort are important issues. Past studies have demonstrated that firms make substantial adjustments in their sales management strategy when they introduce a new product. This study expands on previous investigations by examining whether sales management strategy changes are conditioned by the type of newness of the new product to the market and to the firm. Australian sales managers were asked to respond to a mail questionnaire concerning pre‐ and post‐new product launch sales management activities. Three groups of firms were compared: (1) those with new‐to‐the‐market and new‐to‐the‐firm products (i.e., new‐to‐the‐world products); (2) those with products new to the firm but not new to the market; and (3) those with products that are revisions to the firm and not new to the market. The study finds that firms do not make the most adjustments for products with the greatest degree of market newness—the new‐to‐the‐world types of products—except in the sales management strategy categories of compensation and supervision. In the other sales management strategy categories defined for study—organization, training, quotas and goals, and sales support as well as for all categories in the aggregate—sales management strategy changes were greatest in incidence, as measured both by the percent of firms making changes and the average number of changes per firm, when the new product was new to the firm but not new to the market. These results suggest that, because different types of new products face different competitive environments, there may be greater incentive for a not‐new‐to‐the‐market new‐to‐the‐firm product to make changes in sales strategy. Uncertainties about market size and customer location with new‐to‐the‐world products may limit the understanding of what changes to make in the strategy categories of quotas and territories. Similarly, uncertainties about product use and customer acceptance of new‐to‐the‐world products may limit the development of training and sales support materials by these firms. Instead, these firms may rely more on compensation and supervision to direct sales efforts for new‐to‐the‐world products. However, observing the market experience and performance of the first‐to‐market product can benefit firms launching a not‐new‐to‐market and new‐to‐the‐firm product, allowing them to rely more on strategy changes in training, sales support materials, organizational adjustments such as redeployments, and quotas.     

Using Product Bundling to Facilitate the Adoption Process of Radical Innovations*

Generally, radical innovations are not easily adopted in the market. Potential adopters experience difficulties to comprehend and evaluate radical innovations due to their newness in terms of technology and benefits offered. Consequently, adoption intentions may remain low. This paper proposes bundling as an instrument to address these problems. More specifically, this paper examines how consumer comprehension, evaluation, and adoption intention of radical innovations may be enhanced by bundling such products with existing products. In addition, it is argued that the proposed effects are contingent upon the level of fit perceived to exist between the radical innovation and the product that accompanies it in the bundle. Furthermore, consumers' prior knowledge may affect the influence of bundling on the innovation adoption process as the interpretation of the meaning of new products may be strongly related to prior knowledge. This study therefore investigates whether consumer prior knowledge has such a moderating effect. Hypotheses are tested by means of an experimental study with three different radical innovations and distinguishing among offering the radical innovation separately, offering the radical innovation in a bundle with moderate perceived fit between the products, and offering the radical innovation in a bundle with high perceived fit between the products. Results show that product bundling enhances the new product's evaluation and adoption intention, although it does not increase comprehension of the radical innovation. Moreover, the results show that comprehension, evaluation and adoption intention of the innovation significantly decrease when consumers perceive a moderate fit between the products in a bundle. Taken together, these findings contribute to the bundling literature by showing not only that product bundling may indeed be an effective instrument to introduce a radical innovation but also that product bundling may be counterproductive when ignoring the critical role of perceived product fit as core characteristic of a product bundle. In addition, the notion that product bundling helps to enhance the evaluation and purchase intention of new and relatively complex products suggests a suitable strategy for new product managers to enhance benefits and reduce learning costs for radical innovations. Moreover, the effects of bundling on consumer appraisals of radical innovations are also shown to depend on the level of knowledge respondents possess regarding the product category of the radical innovation. More specifically, if bundled with a familiar product, novices tend to evaluate the innovative product more positively, but for experts no such effect can be detected. As such, these results provide additional specific implications for managers when introducing radical innovations in the market. Offering a radical innovation in a product bundle could be a fruitful strategy for companies that target customers with little or no prior knowledge in the product domain.     

Embodied Cognition and New Product Design: Changing Product Form to Influence Brand Categorization*

This article explains how embodied cognition and perceptual symbol systems enable product designers to influence consumers by communicating key perceptual features through subtle changes in product design elements. In this way, managers can change perceptual design elements to support line extension strategies. More specifically, design changes can be used as a tool to help evolve consumer perceptions of a product's uses and brand category membership. The role of perceptual symbols in product design is illustrated by a well‐known off‐road motorbike brand that planned to extend into the street motorbike segment. In order to facilitate consumer acceptance of a street motorbike from this off‐road brand, the firm gradually introduced models containing an increasing number of elements of street motorbikes over a period of several years. The authors use this example to show how typical design elements of the target product category can be effectively integrated with design elements of the current product category by simply modifying key characteristics of product‐shape attributes. This process is further tested in an experiment, where motorbike models differing slightly in key product features (e.g., product shape) were rated on their resemblance to street or off‐road motorbikes. The results show a strong effect of these design changes on brand‐category membership. Managerial implications of this approach and future research directions are discussed.     

The Role of Suppliers in Market Intelligence Gathering for Radical and Incremental Innovation*

Drawing on transaction cost economics theory, this study addresses the following research questions: (1) Does supplier involvement in market intelligence gathering activities have a greater impact on innovation success in predesign or commercialization activities? and (2) Does supplier involvement in market intelligence gathering activities have a greater impact on success in radical or incremental product innovation? Hypotheses are tested using both subjective and objective measures of success from a study of 205 incremental and 110 radical new product development projects. Results from the estimation of a two‐group path model suggest that this theoretical framework is useful in providing guidance as to when product developers should emphasize the gathering of market intelligence through suppliers. Consistent with conventional wisdom, the findings suggest that supplier involvement in market intelligence gathering activities are positively related to success in incremental innovations across predesign and commercialization activities. However, supplier involvement in market intelligence gathering activities is found to have no significant impact on market share and is negatively associated with perceived product performance in radical innovations in predesign tasks. Also, while there was no significant difference in market share for supplier involvement in market intelligence gathering activities between radical and incremental innovation in commercialization activities, supplier involvement in these activities did have a greater impact on perceived product performance in radical innovation than it did in incremental innovation. Although current practice suggests that teams allocate fewer resources to the gathering of market intelligence through their suppliers during predesign activities in incremental innovation projects compared with radical innovation projects, the findings in this study suggest that they should do the opposite. Shifting resources allocated for engaging suppliers in market information gathering activities in predesign activities from radical innovation projects to incremental innovation projects could increase the return on these investments. Alternatively, these resources currently allocated to the gathering of market intelligence through suppliers in predesign activities of radical innovation projects could also provide greater benefits if allocated to commercialization activities of radical innovation projects, where they have the greatest positive impact.     

如何识别设计产品的检验状况

介绍工程设计产品即图纸、说明书、设计报告、计算书和设计更改通知等检测状态标识的特点;介绍了识别设计产品检验状态的方法,就设计更改通知单的检验状态标识和加强对计算书检验状态的控制问题阐述了 看法。     

Product Diversity in Asymmetric Oligopoly: Is the Quality of Consumer Goods too Low?

We analyse an oligopoly model incorporating horizontal differentiation and quality differences. High quality goods are overpriced and underproduced. When the market is fairly well covered, low quality products may be profitable when their net social contribution is negative, implying excessive entry. In a relatively uncovered market, even low quality goods are underproduced and there may be underentry. When fixed costs are independent of quality, the market tends to select the right firms. Otherwise, the market may produce low quality products when it should produce high quality ones. The model is calibrated using market data for yoghurt.     

Radical Design and Technology Epiphanies: A New Focus for Research on Design Management

The past decade has ushered in a growth of interest on design, both among scholars and practitioners. The consequence has been the development of a wealth of new theories on design, innovation, and design management. After a decade of studies, we have developed significant understanding about how firms may better analyze customer needs through user‐centered design, how they can generate better ideas through brainstorming methods and multidisciplinary teams, how consumers value the form of products. Yet, as often happens in research, many studies have focused on the most visible and measurable forms of design (those connected to the clear processes and methods of user‐centered design). The consequence is that, apart from a few exceptions, the focus of theory development has been on incremental innovation enabled by design: better user interface, improvements, differentiation, nice ideas and features that get rapidly imitated and obsolete. Scholars have often neglected some of the most intriguing forms of design, i.e., when design brings a radical perspective, when it contributes to the redefinition of an industry, and the creation of a new paradigm. In this short note I hope to set the stage for this new frontier of research in design management. In particular I propose two fields of investigation: the role of design to radically innovate the meaning of products and services, and the interaction of radical design with radical technologies, which I call technology epiphanies, i.e., the identification of the most powerful meaning enabled by a breakthrough technology.     

机电产品精度设计中的优化设计

提出精度设计中的目标函数和约束条件 ,为精度设计采用计算机辅助设计提供了理论基础 ,从而提高了产品精度设计的质量和速度     

Heterogeneous Firm‐Level Effects of Knowledge Exchanges on Product Innovation: Differences between Dynamic and Lagging Product Innovators*

Product innovation is the result of a constant interaction between the in‐house research and development (R&D) department and knowledge exchanges with the firm's environment. Knowledge exchanges come in different forms. They break down into information gathering applied in new product development, research cooperation on particular innovation projects, and managing information outflows allowing the consequent appropriation of the results of product innovation through specific methods. The way firms handle knowledge exchanges affects their performance. This paper looks at three related indicators of performance: (1) research intensity (a measure of innovative input); (2) the share of revenue realized through innovative product sales (a measure of innovative output); and (3) their impact on the growth in total revenue. The bulk of the econometric literature looking into these matters only allows general statistical statements on the behavior of an “average” firm. This paper takes on another view by using the quantile regression method to stress the heterogeneity of innovative firms in their dealing with knowledge exchange and the effect this has on their performance. A first key finding is that research intensity is positively influenced by knowledge externalities, research cooperation, and appropriability, and it is through this that these variables affect innovative revenue and also the growth in total revenue. By using quantile regression these relationships are further refined to screen for differences in behavior between dynamic and lagging innovators. This refinement indicates that, in the case of research intensity, the knowledge externalities gain in importance in the higher quantiles and are insignificant in the lower ones. Next, research cooperation remains important in all quantiles, but a higher significance is observed in the higher quantiles as well. Finally, appropriability is extremely important for the lower quantiles, but it becomes insignificant in the highest. These findings corroborate the assumptions made in the literature on open innovation: knowledge externalities and research collaboration are vital for those opening up their firm for new ideas and who are, at the same time, reluctant to protect their findings through specific appropriation measures. In the case of innovative revenue all variables on knowledge exchange operate through the research intensity irrespective of the quantile, although the impact of research intensity on this type of revenue is higher in the upper quantiles. As for the growth in revenue, the effect of the innovative revenue is, again, higher in the higher quantiles. This suggests that dynamic product innovators have the most efficient R&D process and the strongest growers are so, especially, because they are successful product innovators.     

Maximizing the Utility of Customer Product Testing: Beta Test Design and Management

Many companies regularly use beta tests as part of their product development program. Beta testing can validate the product concept, eliminate performance problems prior to market introduction, and serve as an effective sales promotion device. The risks are significant, however, in that a poorly designed test can destroy account relationships, generate inaccurate data on product performance, and stimulate negative publicity. Robert Dolan and John Matthews present guidelines for effective management of beta test programs. They develop these guidelines based on a literature review, an analysis of twenty-one beta test programs as described in secondary sources, and four in-depth field investigations with cooperating firms.     

Clarity in Defining Product Design: Inspiring Research Opportunities for the Design Process*

The author argues that given the holistic, cross‐functional, and unique nature of the process of product design, more research is needed to understand product design teams. Specifically, future research should address internal processes cultivated within the product design team, macro influences in the product design environment, and the definition of product design team membership.     

Market Adaptation as a Process in the Product Life Cycle of Radical Innovations and High Technology Products

Sales for radically new products often depend on the development of an associated infrastructure. This is particularly true in the case of hightechnology innovations. This infrastructure reflects society's and/or industry's adaptation to the new product's potential or capability. Supportive infrastructure developments can hasten product growth in early stages of the product life cycle or retard growth in their absence. Shelby McIntyre shares his thoughts about the role of infrastructure in this perspective and presents useful guidelines for evaluating its impact. A radical innovation lives or dies, in part, by a company's vision and commitment to developing its long term potential. It is in this sense that a product or innovation can be "ahead of its time" (i.e., ahead of its infrastructure).     

浅谈产品设计过程中的质量管理

就如何对产品设计开发过程进行质量管理，以有效控制设计质量的问题，从产品质量决策、设计评审、设计验证与设计确认、产品设计的经济分析、设计开发控制程序的建立等方面进行了详细地阐述。