How well did the new Sumitomo Electric project ranking method predict performance?

The development and implementation of a new R&D project scoring method (NS-method) within Sumitomo Electric Industries was introduced in a previous report. This paper evaluates the NS-method's effectiveness by comparing the information generated by application to 146 projects in 1997 with the project achievements in 2000. The test results revealed that the NS-method's evaluation scores were correlated to the performance indicators such as the gross profit and R&D productivity. It also showed that, when projects are classified into three groups (i.e., Top, Middle, Bottom) according to the forecast data generated by the NS-method, the projects in the Top category had higher actual productivity ratios and success rates than those in the Bottom category.     

Whether to Integrate R&D and Marketing: The Effect of Firm Competence

Integration of research and development (R&D) with marketing remains a frequent topic in the new product development (NPD) literature, largely because it represents a critical antecedent of new product performance (NPP). Two divergent opinions about this integration exist, such that those who contend that firms should pursue high levels of integration in every case provoke criticisms from those who propose that various NPD processes require different levels of integration. This paper proposes that the two perspectives can be reconciled by taking into account the fact that R&D and marketing are integrated mainly to combine critical knowledge (technological and market) that otherwise would be separate to achieve market success. Following Danneels's approach, we investigate how the effect of R&D–marketing integration on performance change across four types of NPD processes: pure exploitation, pure exploration, technological competence exploitation, and market competence exploitation. Data derived from a deep study of 11 NPD projects by five firms, analyzed through qualitative methods, highlight the necessity to vary the level of integration according to the type of competence to be developed during the NPD process. Our analysis suggests two main conclusions. First, the effect of integration depends strictly on the type of competence that the firm uses to develop and launch a new product. Second, integration does not have a unique effect on performance, but it is necessary to distinguish between market performance (e.g., sales and market share) and process performance (e.g., meeting the planned budget and time to market). In some projects, the effect of integration on the two types of performance is diametrically opposite. In particular, we propose that (1) higher performance will be associated with lower integration in pure exploitative projects; (2) in projects that exploit existing market knowledge, higher market performance will be associated with a higher integration, although these projects tend to offer poor process performance regardless of integration level; (3) in projects that exploit technical knowledge, higher performance will be associated with higher integration; and (4) higher integration will be associated with higher market performance but poorer process performance in pure explorative projects.     

Developing customised CRM projects: The role of industry norms,organisational context and customer expectations on CRM implementation

This research paper investigates the influence of industry, organisational, and customer context on customer relationship management (CRM) projects. Organisations go through four phases in their CRM projects (assessment, design, implementation, and evaluation), yet the impact of industry norms, organisational contexts, and customer expectations on each phase are rarely examined. A longitudinal case study approach with six cases was used to investigate the potential impact of contextual factors on CRM projects. The cases covered a range of industries, organisational structures, and customer types. We found that current industry conditions and customer expectations influence the reasons for undertaking CRM and the assessment stage of the project. The organisational context has a noticeable impact on the design and implementation project stages. At the evaluation level, customer responses combined with organisational expectations affect the perceived success of the projects. By understanding the impact of context, customised CRM projects can be developed.     

Problem‐formulation and problem‐solving in self‐organized communities: How modes of communication shape project behaviors in the free open‐source software community

Research summary: Building on the problem‐solving perspective, we study behaviors related to projects and the communication‐based antecedents of such behaviors in the free open‐source software (FOSS) community. We examine two kinds of problem/project‐behaviors: Individuals can set up projects around the formulation of new problems or join existing projects and define and/or work on subproblems within an existing problem. The choice between these two behaviors is influenced by the mode of communication. A communication mode with little a priori structure is the best mode for communicating about new problems (i.e., formulating a problem); empirically, it is associated with project launching behaviors. In contrast, more structured communication fits subproblems better and is related to project joining behaviors. Our hypotheses derive support from data from the FOSS community. Managerial summary: We study how the way in which individuals communicate influence the project‐behaviors they engage in. We find that relatively unstructured communication is associated with the setting up new projects, while communication that is structured around an artifact is associated with joining projects. Our findings hold implications for understanding how management may influence project behaviors and problem‐solving: Firms that need to concentrate on more incremental problem‐solving efforts (e.g., because a sufficient number of attractive problems have already been defined) should create environments in which interaction is undertaken mainly via artifacts. On the other hand, if firms seek to generate new problems (e.g., new strategic opportunities), they should create environments in which open‐ended, verbal conversation is relatively more important than artifact‐based communication. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Antecedents and Outcomes of NPD Portfolio Success

Managing new product development (NPD) portfolios is difficult and little is known about how successful NPD portfolio management can improve overall firm performance. Despite regular calls in the literature for more research on NPD portfolio management, what successful NPD portfolio management means and how firms can achieve it remains unclear. For this reason, this paper combines theory and previous empirical findings to build a model of the antecedents and outcomes of NPD portfolio success. We generate and test 12 hypotheses with empirical data from 189 paired dyads in Dutch firms. Our results show that all three dimensions of NPD portfolio decision‐making effectiveness (i.e., portfolio mindset, focus, and agility) are associated with achieving the three dimensions of NPD portfolio success (i.e., strategic alignment, maximal NPD portfolio value, and portfolio balance), which in turn influences market performance. While a portfolio mindset and agility are related to all three dimensions of NPD portfolio success, focus is related only to strategic alignment and maximal value. No one dimension of NPD portfolio decision‐making effectiveness or portfolio success is sufficient to achieve overall market performance. We also found several unexpected findings with important implications. For example, portfolio balance, one recommended measure of portfolio success, has no direct link to market performance, but operates through the other two dimensions of NPD portfolio success, i.e., strategic alignment and maximal portfolio value. We conclude our paper with implications for further theory development and testing on successful NPD portfolio decision‐making, and with implications for managerial practice.     

Does the level of experience have an effect on CRM programs? Exploratory research findings

A growing body of academic and practitioner literature has highlighted the differences in definitions and approaches to customer relationship management (CRM), suggested frameworks for successful CRM implementation, and provided evidences of CRM success and failure. Such accumulating wisdom might be expected to imbue practice with knowledge of what works better in CRM and to entail, therefore, an improving experience of CRM over time. To date, however, the effect of experience on CRM implementation has not been discussed in literature. This paper studies CRM from the organisational learning perspective. It provides evidence from empirical research conducted among users (firms), consultants, and suppliers (software vendors) about the effect of experience on CRM. The exploratory research findings of this study draw attention to the extent to which firms deploying CRM are sensitive and responsive to what they might learn from their implementation efforts and establish a platform for future research. The paper suggests the need for the two processes of CRM and organisational learning to move in tandem to be mutually beneficial.     

Organisational determinants of employee turnover for multinational companies in Asia

High employee turnover rates among multinational companies (MNCs) in Asia have become an organisational issue, which cannot be sufficiently addressed at the individual level. In this paper, we examine the issue of employee turnover at the organisational level. A group of organisational variables (e.g., training, size, age, industry, percentage of expatriate managers and headquarters’ national base) were tested, using a sample of 529 MNCs in six Asian countries. The standard multiple regressions show that training, size, the length of operation in local subsidiary and nature of industry are significantly related to turnover. An effect of the percentage of expatriate managers present in the local subsidiary on employee turnover appears to be moderate. These results fill a research gap by identifying organisational variables (as opposed to individual characteristics) and contribute to better explanation of employee turnover at firm level. Implications to MNCs in the greater Chinese region and Asia are discussed.     

IT professionals and organisational ascendancy: theory and empirical critique

IT expertise cannot be viewed as a decisive asset in organisational tournaments. Survey findings suggest IT competence is associated with severe handicaps in power contests between professional/managerial strata. At least for the present, there are strongly negative implications for hypotheses of organisational ascendancy for IT professionals or for their successful achievement of a collective mobility project.     

Scientists' commitment to underperforming research projects: linking past success and the social environment

This article investigates scientists' commitment to underperforming research projects based on the concomitant consideration of their past success and social environments. Based on escalation of commitment and network theory, the model hypothesizes that past success triggers the commitment to underperforming projects but that the strength of this influence varies depending on the characteristics of decision makers' social networks. Results from the analysis of 3,072 scenario assessments nested within 96 scientists show that the positive relationship between past success and continued investment in underperforming projects is more positive when the network is larger, when the ties within the network are stronger, and when feedback from network partners is predominantly positive. Surprisingly and contrary to model predictions, results also show that the relationship between past success and scientists' tendency to commit to underperforming projects becomes stronger with lower communication frequency with network partners. This study extends current research by exploring the boundary conditions of the impact of decision makers' social environment on commitment to failing projects. Further, it adds to literature on the downside of success by emphasizing that decision makers, particularly those in some social environments, are driven to commit additional resources to underperforming – and potentially failing – projects. Decision makers acting in such environments should be aware that they are prone to overinvestment of resources, and the findings of this study can help them increase their awareness. Based on this study's results, decision makers (including scientists) can thus better reflect on and improve their research project evaluations. Finally, the findings of this study open up various opportunities for future research.     

Successful integration of R&D functions after acquisitions: An exploratory empirical study

Do the ‘grand’ strategic context characteristics of an acquisition (e.g., business relatedness of buyer and target) deter-mine the integration success of R&D functions after a takeover? Are acquisition management interventions (i.e., the way in which the integration process is man-aged) the key levers shaping integration success of R&D functions after a change in corporate ownership? Little non-anecdotal empirical data are available to answer these questions. Therefore, they were addressed with a sample of 92 acquisitions between German firms in 1988. Overall, use of management interventions which were designed to promote learning opportunities and reduce uncertainty for acquired employees (e.g., small group meetings to exchange information) but also degree of centralization of strategic R&D decisions in the hands of the acquirer were significantly positively related to integration level of R&D functions of both firms after an acquisition. With the exception of relative size of acquiree, strategic acquisition context characteristics were not directly related to R&D integration success. These characteristics may not be as important in shaping R&D integration success as management practitioners and scholars have thought.     

Psychosocial antecedents of communication,trust, and relationship effectiveness in new product development projects: a functional manager perspective

The basic differences between marketing managers and their technically trained counterpart managers [e.g., research and development (R&D), engineering, and manufacturing managers] in terms of work experience, training, and differing decision‐making styles have often been suggested as a source of conflict, which acts as a barrier to effective working relationships and integration during new product development (NPD) work. In this paper, we empirically explore this issue by developing and testing a model of psychosocial differences (thought worlds and psychological distance) between the two groups of managers and their effect on communication, trust, and relationship effectiveness during NPD projects. We find that while thought world differences do still matter, it was from a marketing perspective that they had a stronger effect. These findings have implications for top management trying to manage the functional manager interface during NPD projects. We propose a semi‐formalized approach to relationship building that may speed up the acquisition of social data that is often necessary to elevate working relationships to trusting ones and improve the efficiency of NPD work. Our model is tested using data from two samples, 184 technically trained managers and 145 marketing managers from Australian companies involved in NPD work.     

Managerial trust in new product development projects: its antecedents and consequences

This research examines the impacts of relationship-based antecedents (e.g., procedural justice) and character-based antecedents (e.g., transactional leadership) on managerial trust in new product development (NPD) teams. The moderating impact of environmental turbulence on team performance is also investigated. Using data from 107 NPD projects in Turkey, we find that procedural justice, distributive justice, and transformational leadership are significantly related, and conflict is negatively related to managerial trust. We also find that managerial trust is significantly related to product success and team learning under both high and low environmental conditions, but it is significantly related to speed-to-market only under high-turbulent conditions. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and managerial implications.     

Performance typologies of new product projects

New product success is a vital but elusive goal for many firms. The last two decades have witnessed numerous studies into new product successes and failures in an attempt to uncover what makes a winner. Indeed, myriad characteristics, factors, and practices have been found that appear to discriminate between successful and unsuccessful new products.With few exceptions, much of this research has tended to view new product performance on a unidimensional continuum, usually financial performance (e.g., profitability). Whereas immediate profitability is no doubt an admirable goal, there are other ways of looking at a new product's performance—for example, degree of technical success, time-to-market, and its overall impact on the company.The current investigation takes a broader view of new product success. A number of measures of new product performance were captured, rather than just the single measure continuum; this resulted in a performance map with two major and quite independent underlying dimensions of performance. A typology of performance was then developed—a classification of new product projects by how well they performed: five scenarios or clusters of projects are identified on this map, each with its unique performance characteristics. We then investigate in detail each project type and probe what drives the performances of these five different clusters of projects: that is, what makes for new product success of these five project types, when success is measured in different ways. The study was undertaken in world class multinationals in the chemical industry in four countries, but its results appear to have validity across a broad spectrum of industry.     

The energy conservation demonstration projects scheme; A case study in technology transfer

The author has investigated the causes of the relative failure of ETSU-sponsored energy saving projects. Using a set of characteristics of successful innovations proposed by Twiss the author assessed how far a number of ETSU projects met them. He concludes that the major cause of failure was over-stressing product performance and under-stressing market need. This fault was compounded by the effects of a number of organisational variables over which ETSU had too little executive control. He concludes that innovatory projects proceeding under this kind of management system are more likely to fail than succeed and public money should not be spent on them.     

Aligning the sustainable supply chain to green marketing needs: A case study

The research explores the challenges facing organisations in aligning sustainable procurement requirements and marketing needs and the attendant shifts in supply chain management practices. Whilst external influences are readily understood (e.g. regulation and customer demand), less is understood about the implications for suppliers trying to meet sustainable procurement requirements and the organisational challenges of aligning marketing with sustainable supply chain management. An exploratory case study of a UK University catering department has been undertaken, to explore the strategies, processes and relationships associated with synthesising sustainable supply chain and green marketing needs. The empirical findings illustrate the divergence between organisational perspectives on sustainability and procuring sustainable products with marketing demands. Thus, the findings extend the theoretical discussion on sustainable supply chains by providing empirical data based on real-life implementation and from this an emergent aligned supply chain model is proposed, which confirms two drivers for alignment, ‘lean and resource efficient’ and ‘local and seasonal’ — contingent on market demand. The findings emphasise the benefits of a reverse information flow, the importance of intermediaries, and relationships in its fulfilment, while indicating the resurgence of a supply ‘push’ of sustainable products into core markets. Future research directions are also posited.     

Managing the challenges of business-to-business open innovation in complex projects: A multi-stage process model

Research shows that knowledge sharing and system integration are two major challenges posed by openness to business partners in complex innovation projects. However, there remains limited research on the microfoundations (i.e., actions and practices) underpinning the organizational capabilities required to address these challenges. Drawing on a case study of a pioneering electric vehicle manufacturer, we develop a multi-stage process model showing how these capabilities are developed and phased out in terms of the organizational principles (e.g., hierarchical product architecture) and actions and practices (e.g., sharing knowledge by deputing staff to/from business partners). Our study contributes to the literature by taking a microfoundations approach to unpack the ‘black box’ of organizational capabilities critical for managing complex innovation projects into actions and practices, and emphasizes the importance of firms' internal preparedness for managing openness.     

Marketing's Influence Tactics in New Product Development: A Study of High Technology Firms in China

It has been widely recognized that marketing's interaction with other functional departments (e.g., R&D) has significant impact on new product success. However, little research addresses how marketing actually behaves in the process of new product development (NPD). Drawing upon marketing, product innovation, and organizational buying literatures, this study contributes to the literature by delineating the types of influence tactics adopted by marketing and investigating how the use of these tactics affects marketing's influence on NPD decisions. Data on 128 new product projects from 114 high technology firms in China were collected from R&D perspective via on‐site interviews. The findings indicate that, from the R&D's perspective, both marketing and R&D seem to have equivalent influence on new product decisions. In terms of usage frequency, the most frequently used influence tactics by marketing are persistent pressure, information exchange, and recommendation (i.e., use of rational logic). Coalition formation (e.g., seeking the support of peers) and upward appeal (i.e., seeking support from superiors) tactics are moderately used. The less frequently used tactics are legalistic plea (i.e., use of rules and regulations) and request. Regarding the effectiveness of influence tactics, the results indicate that persistent pressure, information exchange, and coalition formation lead to higher marketing influence in NPD decisions. However, the use of an upward appeal tactic leads to lower marketing influence. Recommendation, legalistic plea and request tactics are unrelated to marketing's influence. Our results also show that the efficacy of marketing's influence tactics is contingent upon the degree of functional interdependence in the NPD stages and the degree of interdepartmental conflict. Information exchange and coalition formation tactics are more effective at the initiation stage of the NPD process whereas legalistic plea and persistent pressure are more effective at the implementation stage. We further find that legalistic plea is more effective but coalition tactic is less effective when the degree of interdepartmental conflict is higher. Findings of this study provide managers responsible for ensuring market‐oriented NPD with a better understanding of how the influence of marketing in the NPD process may be enhanced. Given our focus on Chinese firms, they also suggest that managers need to be sensitive to the cultural context of marketing influence.     

The false promise of technological determinism: the case of enterprise resource planning systems

According to software vendors and consultants, Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) transform the nature, structure and management of work regardless of organisational context. This paper contests this technologically deterministic view of organisational change by demonstrating the role that discourse plays in the social construction of ERPs.     

A Causal Model of the Impact of Skills, Synergy, and Design Sensitivity on New Product Performance

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.     

Technological collaboration in the korean electronic parts industry: patterns and key success factors

This study empirically examines different patterns of collaborative technological development projects and the key success factors (KSFs), using data from 82 projects in the Korean electronic parts industry. The patterns of technological collaboration were categorized into 4 types by two contingency variables: development motive (technology–push or market–pull) and source of initiation (focal firm– or partner–initiated). The bivariate relationships revealed that project characteristics (technological complexity, demand certainty, and financial support of the government), partner characteristics (the level of trust with partners), and collaborative management practices (commitment of the focal firm, and information sharing in the collaboration process) appear to be different depending on the two contingency variables. Each type of collaborative R&D project also had different KSFs. While diverse characteristics like strategic importance, goal compatibility and information sharing with partners are critical for the success of technology–push projects, just only specificity of collaboration process and outcome appears important to the success of demand–pull projects. For focal firm–initiated projects, project characteristics are KSFs, whilst partner characteristics and collaboration management practice are found to be more critical for the success of partner–initiated projects. The findings suggest that the different contingencies such as development motive and source of initiation bring about different patterns of collaborative technology development projects, which in turn lead to a different set of KSFs, since different information, roles of partners and the focal firms, and collaboration management practices are needed to successfully implement the different types of projects. Based on empirical results, this study discusses managerial, policy, and theoretical implications for the collaborative R&D activities taking place in the Korean electronic parts industry.