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.     

Controlling new product R&D projects

New products are critical to the success of most corporations. But managing the R&D projects that produce new products has proven to be a risky and tricky business. Theorists and practitioners claim that one of the major obstacles to higher new product output is the ‘tight’ control practices found in large corporations. The conventional wisdom argues that, to correct this, firms need to find ways ‘to loosen-up.’ But is that all there is to it? This article presents five findings for effectively controlling new product R&D projects. These findings emerged at the conclusion of an empirical research investigation into the formal and informal control practices that business unit managers use to control various new product R&D situations. The article concludes with several recommendations for those managers who want to control their new product R&D projects better.     

Upper management control of new product development projects and project performance

While some degree of freedom and flexibility is an essential ingredient to productive cross‐functional NPD teams, upper‐managers are faced with the challenge of instituting effective control mechanisms which head projects in the right strategic direction, monitor progress toward organizational and project goals, and allow for adjustments in the project if necessary. But too much or the wrong type of control may constrain the team's creativity, impede their progress, and injure their ultimate performance. Therefore, this study examines formal and interactive control mechanisms available to upper‐managers in controlling new product development (NPD) projects, and the relationship between these mechanisms and NPD project performance. Formal output and process controls are examined which consist of the setting and monitoring of outcomes, such as goals, schedule and budgets, and of processes and procedures, respectively. This study also looks at how the effectiveness of these control mechanisms may be contingent upon the degree of innovativeness in the project and the degree to which the project is part of a broad product program. In addition, the use of formal rewards for achieving team performance as opposed to rewards for individual achievement is investigated. Lastly, interactive controls are examined which consist of upper‐managers interacting directly with project members in the development of strategy and operational goals and procedures prior to the start of the project, and upper‐managers intervening in project decision‐making. Questionnaire data are collected on 95 projects across a variety of industries. The findings suggest that while NPD projects teams need some level of strategic direction concerning the objectives to be accomplished and the procedures to be followed, upper‐level managers can exert too much control. In particular, the findings showed a negative association between the use of upper manager‐imposed process controls and project performance. The findings also indicated that the degree to which upper‐managers intervened in project‐level decisions during the project was negatively related to project performance. However, the results showed support for the notion that early and interactive decision‐making on control mechanisms is important for effective projects. In particular, early team member and upper‐management involvement in the setting of operational controls, such as goals and procedures for monitoring and evaluating the project, was positively associated with project performance. This study provides additional insight into our understanding of upper‐management support in new product development. The study suggests that upper‐managers can over control with the wrong type of controls, and suggests effective ways of implementing participative and interactive control mechanisms.     

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.     

The fuzzy front end of Japanese new product development projects: impact on success and differences between incremental and radical projects

This study of Japanese New Product Development (NPD) projects explores the fuzzy front end of innovation. The goal of the paper is twofold: First, we analyse the impact of the fuzzy front end on the success of all the NPD projects. We develop a conceptual model based on the information-processing approach. A structural equation model was fitted to data from 497 NPD projects in Japanese manufacturing firms to test the proposed model. The empirical analysis suggests that an early reduction of market and technical uncertainty as well as an initial planning before development have a positive impact on NPD project success. The model accounts for 17% of the variance of the efficiency and 24% of the variance of the effectiveness-dependent variable. Thus, the front end phase is an important driver of NPD project success. Second, we compare the fuzzy front end of incremental to radical NPD projects. Although these projects differ in many aspects of newness, we found only a few differences with regard to the fuzzy front end. For instance, it was more difficult to estimate the market size and price sensitivity of the customers during the fuzzy front end of the radical NPD projects compared with the incremental projects. Implications of the empirical results and limitations of the study are discussed.     

石化装置技术引进时影响物资采购的主要问题及其对策建议

在为石化工程建设引进装置技术进行物资采购时,经常会遇到由于重大装备国产化困难、"包"拆分困难、建设物资独家采购、生产经营所用物资长期依赖独家应等造成的采购价格高昂的问题.在系统地分析了造成这问题的浅层和深层原因之后指出,虽然解决工程建设采购成本高的核心办法是技术自主开发,但从顺利完成物资采购的角度,可采取以下对策:使用商务方法推动国产化,控制采购成本;正确评估国产化的水平和可能性;从治理设计入手治理基于技术的"包"采购.最后强调在技术引进条件下,物采购和技术引进及工程设计密切相关,一定要全盘考虑,通盘策划.     

Anticipated regret and escalation of commitment to failing,new product development projects in business markets

Escalation of commitment, defined as the continuation in a failing course of action, is a persistent problem for decision makers in business markets, especially those involved in new product development (NPD). To address this issue, we use Anticipated Regret Theory to develop a model and then empirically test it to demonstrate how forward-looking emotions can lead decision makers to continue failing NPD projects in business-to-business (B2B) markets. We recognize that there are two countervailing types of anticipated regret (i.e., keep regret and drop regret) and test both in our model by adopting a mixed-methods empirical approach. In a quantitative study, a total of 280 subjects completed a NPD decision-making exercise in which various antecedents of persistence with a losing new, business-to-business NPD project were examined. The results suggest that anticipated drop regret plays a significant role in commitment to a failing course of action, whereas anticipated keep regret actually reduces commitment. In a second, qualitative study, twenty experienced NPD professionals operating in high-technology, B2B markets were interviewed either in-person or by telephone. The results suggest that anticipated drop regret is a more serious problem than anticipated keep regret, supporting the quantitative study.     

对成品油销售网络投资项目后评价指标体系构建的探讨

项目后评价是构建高效投资体系的机制性保障,是在工程建设中实践科学发展观的具体体现。中国石油十分重视建设项目后评价工作,已经发布了勘探开发、炼油化工、管道、销售等几类项目的后评价报告编制细则,完成了一批典型项目详细后评价。成品油销售网络通常是指在某一地区范围内由若干加油站和油库所构成的成品油销售系统。成品油销售网络投资项目包括油库项目和加油站项目,具有网络性和系统性的特点,其后评价采用的方法和指标具有显著的行业特点。按照科学性、代表性、完整性和客观性的原则,立足于中国石油已发布的销售项目后评价编制细则,总结提出了中国石油成品油销售网络投资项目后评价指标体系,包括目标实现程度评价、前期工作、建设实施、生产运营、投资效益、影响与持续性6个一级指标,每个一级指标又包含若干二级指标。     

城市交通基础设施PPP项目产品／服务价格形成机理

论文在分析城市交通基础设施PPP项目经济特性、价格特征及存在问题的基础上,从PPP项目产品或服务价格形成机制、价格形成过程等角度探讨了城市交通基础设施PPP项目产品或服务价格的形成机理,以实现公众、私营投资者和政府三方"三赢"的目标,促进项目的健康发展.     

四川省成品油市场研究及预测

四川是我国西部地区经济大省,2000年以来,其成品油需求随着经济的发展而高速增长,消费弹性先升后降,消费强度逐年下降。“十二五”期间,预计全省成品油需求仍将保持较快增长,但增速将逐年降低,2015年成品油消费量或将超过1000万吨;需求柴汽比开始由升转降。从供应格局看,中国石油和中国石化分别是四川成品油市场的主、辅供应商,社会经营单位和地方炼厂起补充作用。从运输方式上看,主要依赖铁路和管道,公路和水路运输比例较小。为了提高未来的成品油供应安全程度,建议四川省积极转变经济增长方式,加强石油储备体系建设,加快铁路网和成品油分支管线网络建设,同时大力发展“油改气”与生物燃料等替代能源。     

Guidelines for marketing a new industrial product

This article presents an illustration of what evaluations and obstacles a new product can face in an industrial market. Guidelines are also suggested which will hopefully better prepare industrial marketers for more success in marketing new products.     

Overall corporate strategies for new product programs

The strategy an industrial firm elects for its product development program is increasingly viewed as a critical element of the firm's total corporate strategy. New product development and technology bear an integral relationship to an industrial company's strategic direction by helping to define the range of its possibilities [13]. This article reports the results of an empirical study whose purpose was to identify the major types of innovation strategies that firms pursue—strategy scenarios. A second purpose was to assess which strategies yield the best results.     

The new product matrix

The paper describes the concept, design and experience with a matrix approach to the problems of communication and co-ordination in a multi-discipline R & D activity. It puts forward a systems approach to the problem of overcoming ‘differentiations’ in high technology industry, as opposed to the individual in the role of ‘integrator’.     

Dow Chemical Western Division Research pre-operational review for new projects

Previous authors have documented reviews for design projects prior to construction [1,2]. Very little has been written about research reviews and systems to adequately review new projects. Within the Dow Chemical U.S.A. Research community, a different set of procedures have been developed at each site. The process discussed in this report is the most documented review system of any site within Dow Chemcial U.S.A. Research.     

Assessing introduction factors for a new industrial product

The present research involves determinant component analysis [3]. Specifically, the study assesses which components—price, product or environmental—are most important in the design of new entry strategy. Under conditions of abundance, industrial firms primarily analyzed price and product characteristics when making new product decisions. In choosing one supplier over another the stalwart buying motives have been quality, service and price [4]. However, these decision components were conceptualized in a period of abundance. Under conditions of scarcity, are price and product characteristics still important? Are environmental dimensions perhaps more important under shortage conditions when making new product decisions? Besides describing the key components that may be considered in new product programming, the article also outlines an approach that may be used to find determinant decision components.     

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.     

Antecedents and consequences of team sensemaking capability in product development projects

With the increasing popularity of organizational sensemaking in the literature, sensemaking capability of firms attracts many researchers and practitioners from different fields. Nevertheless, sensemaking capability is rarely addressed in the new product development (NPD) project teams in the technology and innovation management literature. Specifically, we know little about what team sensemaking capability is, its ingredients and benefits, and how it works in NPD projects (e.g., its antecedents and consequences). By investigating 92 NPD project teams, we found that (1) team sensemaking capability, which is composed of internal and external communication, information gathering, information classification, building shared mental models, and taking experimental actions, has a positive impact on the information implementation and speed‐to‐market; (2) information implementation and speed‐to‐market mediate the relationship between team sensemaking capability and new product success; and (3) team sensemaking capability mediates the relationship between team processes and information implementation and partially mediates the relationship between team processes and speed‐to‐market. We also found that team autonomy, interpersonal trust among team members, and open‐mindedness of team members positively influence the development of team sensemaking capability. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study findings are discussed.