The R&D Effectiveness Index

In the age of ubiquitous internet bandwidth, the development of a global market, coupled with rapid development of what once were underdeveloped countries and regions has led to many companies thinking and acting globally. This phenomenon has brought many new challenging facets of globalization to the surface in today’s business world. These new challenges have to be managed effectively to succeed in the rapidly changing world. The areas of Technology Management and New Product Development have long been a significant area of interest for academic researchers and corporations, for fairly obvious reasons. New products are the key to continued profitable existence and growth for companies and exceptional versus ordinary technology management can be the difference between thriving and extinction. A perceived trend in new product development has become more prevalent in recent times; the trend of globalization of the development process. Stemming from efforts to develop better products faster, cheaper, and with greater market success, companies have looked to globalize their product development efforts. If a corporation is to start a global product development strategy, other more general issues in management related to management of technology in general must also be considered and understood to have a reasonable chance of success. This chapter will focus heavily on New Product Development in a global context while also addressing some larger issues related to Global Technology Management. Specifically this text will include (1) An overview of recent articles on Global New Product Development a framework to access the motivations and reasons to proceed on New Product Development Globalization Method as well as an assessment on the effectivity of its implementation; (2) an overview of articles on some aspects of Technology Management in a global context and a framework to evaluate addressing potential issues in this arena; (3) A review of a few product development cases at Xerox, a large multinational corporation who has globalized some of their product development efforts, and an evaluation of these case studies with the frameworks that have been created. The end result of this exercise will be an evaluation of current practice related to Global New Product development at Xerox, more specifically products with design responsibility residing at the Wilsonville, Oregon site, and identification of gaps between current practice and best practices identified through papers published in academia. Additionally, a discussion touching on the more generalized issues that can become relevant to global technology management in general will also be presented.

Digital transformation is transforming sectors worldwide, increasing productivity, efficiency, and economic development. This study investigates the influence of digital transformation on productivity in the Middle East, focusing on important industries such as banking, manufacturing, and services. Using case studies from the region's top economies—namely the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt—this study investigates the adoption of modern digital technologies such as AI, blockchain, cloud computing, and automation. The report identifies considerable productivity advantages in early adopting areas, particularly banking and e-commerce, while also highlighting ongoing problems such as infrastructural deficiencies, regulatory impediments, and a digital skills shortage. The research assesses the influence of digital technology on productivity development using both descriptive analysis and econometric models. The findings indicate that, while digital transformation has the potential to increase economic output greatly, further governmental support and investment in digital infrastructure and workforce development are required to achieve these benefits fully. This study adds to the increasing body of information about digital economies in developing countries and makes policy suggestions to promote equitable and sustainable growth in the area.

This study examines how designing for product development influences project performance in distinct technological environments. Drawing on a series of computational experiments and paired-case comparisons of six product development projects, we specifically examine how new product development performance is affected by project design and the technological environment. By triangulating across the computational experiments and case studies, we find the existence of performance trade-offs in product development as well as the importance of performance priorities in influencing project design. These findings permit us to elaborate on existing contingency-based perspectives of new product development and put forward a novel mediating model. In this mediating model of product development, we suggest that the technological environment shapes performance priorities, which in turn influence project design and ultimately the performance outcomes of new product development efforts. This model further highlights that project designs can evolve as a function of performance outcomes, although this process can be inhibited by the presence of design evolution constraints. This research contributes significantly to our understanding of designing projects for new product development.

Purpose The innovative process of new product development remains unique within most organizations. This uniqueness stems from the requirements of the new product development manager to grapple with both the universe of emerging technologies from which a new feature or improvement must be found and to simultaneously maintain a constant awareness of the requirements of an ever-changing customer base. Amongst all of this uncertainty, there is still a time when new product development managers choose to ignore the warning signals that a project is failing and continue to commit resources. This paper refers to this as irrational commitment. This paper aims to examine the uncertainty of new product development and the reasons for this irrational commitment to failed projects. Design/methodology/approach The paper used a structured systematic review of literature to identify the most common types of irrational commitment in new product development and their impact on the corporation. Findings The paper provides insights into the causes and effects of management irrationally committing to new product development projects that are doomed to failure. It suggests that the three major areas of knowledge that need to be better integrated into the decision-making process are technology trends, marketing knowledge and the capabilities of the company itself. Research limitations/implications Because of the chosen research approach of using a systematic review of literature, primary research needs to be conducted in the future to validate and refine the findings of the paper. Practical implications The paper provides leadership with guidelines to avoid irrationally committing to failed new product development efforts. Originality/value This paper adds to the literature on innovation systems.

More and more today, companies are striving to shorten product development cycles. While we know that some companies are faster at development cycles than others, we know very little about how a given company can change and expedite their new product development (NPD) efforts. This research explores the notion of Fast Track NPD, defined as the shortening of product development cycles relative to past organizational norms. This work addresses several questions, including: What are the factors influencing new product development speed?, Are there different general approaches to expediting NPD?, and What are the consequences of this fast-tracking for innovation and firm performance? Based on depth interviews with product development managers across multiple consumer goods sectors, this study uses a grounded theory-building approach to develop a 2 x 2 typology and a conceptual model that aids in explaining the drivers and consequences of these Fast Track development efforts. The results highlight four general approaches to Fast Track NPD (crisis, change, revolution, and evolution) which are determined based on the motivation for change and the magnitude of change. As the model explores, the proper choice of these methods is influenced by both internal and external drivers: competitive pressures, changing regulations, cost/differentiation goals, and technology/scientific advances. The consequences of Fast Tacking are explored in terms of product outcomes: innovation and overall firm performance. Several interesting empirical relationships are explored in this work, including the notion that various approaches to fast-tracking can significantly influence the nature of the firm's performance and how certain forms of fast-tracking are more conducive to radical innovation. This research will propose empirical efforts to test the typology and conceptual model, including design, methods, and procedures for planned data collection and analysis. Implications for NPD managers as for future research in this area are discussed.

Optimal Sequential Investments in New Product Development with Emerging Technologies and Learning

The risk of New Product Development (NPD) investments is that they are wasted if users and customers do not accept their results. Living Labs set out to involve users early on in the process to reduce this risk. The paper tells the story of how Coliquio discusses the contribution of Living Labs to NPD. User acceptance is a well-known performance indicator for new product success and user-involvement an indicator of development process maturity. As the story suggests, the nature of Living Labs as innovation intermediary is coordination of NPD processes in open-network settings. The paper provides a framework of Living Lab capabilities including team mobilisation and idea scouting, match making, product development, user validation and market positioning, project financing and venturing for future growth. Their concurrent coordination is a capability by itself. Living Labs are entrepreneurship capabilities.

Harnessing the power of your suppliers

In snow-covered areas, slope failures induced by snowmelt water may occur. In this study, we attempted to develop a warning method for snowmelt disasters using the effective rainfall index, which reflects the analyzed snowmelt amount (hereinafter referred to as the effective snowmelt index) and we verified the appropriate half-life of the effective snowmelt index by comparing it with the observation results of groundwater response. As a result, it was confirmed that a strong correlation between them under the conditions that the half-life of the index was set from 24 hour to 96 hour. In addition, through case studies, we found that the warning method using the effective snowmelt index and snow depth as evaluation indices could effectively provide warning of snowmelt disasters.

Based on the theory of user needs and the product development mode and framework of mobile Internet interactive innovation, a new “reality → virtual → reality” interactive innovation product development mode is constructed. It draws on the unique characteristics, systematic technical system, and comprehensive scientific and technological layout of the Metaverse. On this basis, a framework for product development and design based on interactive innovation from the Metaverse perspective is innovatively proposed. In the Metaverse scenario, interactive innovation knowledge can be easily and effectively transformed into design knowledge, and all groups of users truly participate in the whole process of product design. Moreover, the development of interactive innovative products in the Metaverse scenario can be combined with artificial intelligence (AI) technology to further automate the statistical analysis of user needs and preferences so as to meet the dynamic needs of users and accurately develop products that fit user needs and enterprise standards. In addition, users, designers, and enterprises can make joint decisions on product design solutions and development forms, and the Metaverse technology can also optimize the products with continuous iteration and obtain the optimal solutions. An automotive case study illustrates the feasibility and effectiveness of the model for product development innovation and enterprise digital transformation.

PurposeThe desired outcome in the new product development (NPD) effort is the timely commercialization of a profitable product. Whether marketing can benefit from the NPD case study is a critical but underresearched issue. The purpose of this study is to investigate the usage and quality of NPD case studies in business and industrial marketing.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate the prevalence and research quality of case studies on NPD in business and industrial marketing, 317 case studies published in mainstream journals over the past decade (2010–2020) are reviewed.FindingsThis study finds that the distribution of quantity and quality of case studies fluctuates across journals. The scores on the evaluation template for the different case study stages vary widely across journals. This indicates that different journals have different criteria and priorities for NPD case studies. By focusing on different issues, enterprises can quickly find appropriate journals and case results according to their own needs.Originality/valueThis paper can help spark a debate about the implementation and quality of NPD case studies, including future studies and practical applications. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no similar study has been found in existing studies.

States that, in the industrial context, change needs rigorous control, and product design and development, which are crucial to innovation, need rigorous management. Defines design management as the specific management of the design resources in any business. Suggests, by looking at several case studies, that the importance of design management in product development should be given serious consideration. Concludes that, by paying the correct amount of attention to managing the design of new products, the best option for beating overseas competitors is being used.

A dynamic decision support system to predict the value of customer for new product development

Performance and efficiency in R&D processes is a critical point for industry. Operational excellence in design and development is required to overcome the business challenges that companies face. It is the case in semiconductor industry where products have to be developed rapidly whilst maintaining a high level of quality. Study of design practices in aerospace have illustrated that only about 10% of design activity is spent on creating value [1]. If this number appears alarming for a great number of managers, many engineers participating in design activity agree that practices could be improved to address issues in efficiency and performance. Lean product development is viewed as a global approach that offers a framework to address design performance [2]–[4]. This approach has been chosen by a large microelectronics company to transform the practice of its process and product engineer on the scale of its global footprint. This paper will present how a collaboration between academics and Industry initiated in the context of local ecosystem partnership led to the design of a training program. The approach inspired from design thinking principles was developed by an interdisciplinary team of lean experts from the company, Researchers in R&D efficiency, Specialists in Pedagogy, Specialists in serious game design from academia, Project management experts and Engineers from the company. Intense collaboration within an interdisciplinary team, rapid prototyping including engineers from the company, observers from university, quick learning loop and feedback, allowed to develop the training program. This collaboration favoured discussion in terms of expectations of company and setting up the foundation of the training program including constraints of deployment up to 2000+ targeted people worldwide. The program include 2 days of face to face using experiential learning [5] and one accompanying day later with implementation progress monitoring and return and sharing on experience as a whole. Two serious games were designed, a case study and problem-based learning session were developed to introduce the main concepts chosen as the heart of the program. The last afternoon was used to workshop on participants own problems. A community of practice with a collaborative platform and in vivo sharing sessions supports the transformation. The paper discusses the training design process, hypothesis and objectives. All stakeholders learnt from this design thinking approach, leading to innovative training co-creation and demonstrating the richness of interdisciplinary teamwork and relevance of a user-centered approach for lifelong learning training design References [1] J. Oehmen and E. Rebentisch, “Waste in Lean Product Development,” LAI Pap. Ser., no. July, pp. 1–35, 2010. [2] M. S. Khan et al., “Towards lean product and process development,” Int. J. Comput. Integr. Manuf., vol. 26, no. 12, pp. 1105–1116, Dec. 2013. [3] J. M. Morgan and J. K. Liker, The Toyota Product Developement System: Integrating People Process and Technology. New York: Productivity press, 2006. [4] D. G. Reinertsen, The principles of Product Development Flow. Second Generation Lean Product Development. Celeritas Publishing, 2009. [5] D. A. Kolb, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, 2nd editio. pearson education, 2014.

Most knowledge development efforts in new product development have focused on Western economies and companies. However, due to its size, rapid growth rate, and market reforms, China has emerged as an important new context for new product development. Unfortunately, current understanding of the factors associated with new product success in China remains limited. We address this knowledge gap using mixed methods. First, we conducted 19 in‐depth interviews with managers involved in new product development in 11 different Chinese firms. The qualitative fieldwork indicated that firm behaviors and employee perceptions consistent with the phenomena of market orientation and the supportiveness of organizational climate both are viewed as important drivers of the new product performance of Chinese firms. Drawing on the marketing, management, and new product development literature this study develops a hypothetical model linking market orientation, supportiveness of organizational climate, and firms' new product performance. Direct relationships are hypothesized between both market orientation and supportiveness of organizational climate and firms' new product performance, as well as a relationship between supportiveness of organizational climate and market orientation. Data to test the hypothetical model were collected via an on‐site administered questionnaire from 110 manufacturing firms in China. The hypothesized relationships are tested using structural equation modeling. Results indicate a positive direct relationship of market orientation on firms' new product performance, with an indirect positive effect of supportiveness of organizational climate via its impact on market orientation. However, no support is found for a direct relationship between the supportiveness of a firm's organizational climate and its new product performance. These findings are consistent with resource‐based view theory propositions in the marketing literature indicating that market orientation is a valuable, nonsubstitutable, and inimitable resource and with similar propositions in the management literature concerning organizational culture. However, this study's findings also indicate that in contrast to a number of organizational culture theory propositions and empirical findings in some consumer service industries, the impact of organizational climate on firm performance in a new product context is indirect via the firm's generation, dissemination, and responsiveness to market intelligence. These results suggest that an effort to improve firms' new product performance by enhancing the flow and utilization of market intelligence is an appropriate allocation of resources. Further, this study's findings indicate that managers should direct at least some of their efforts to enhance a firm's market orientation at improving employee perceptions of the supportiveness of the firm's management and of their peers. This study indicates a need for further research concerning the role of different dimensions of organizational climate in firms' new product processes.