Towards an integrative framework of performance in product development projects

Upper management control of new product development projects and project performance

This study inductively explores the interplay among different contractual functions and their impact on project performance in collaborative new product development (NPD) projects. Applying a configurational perspective, contracts are conceptualized as bundles of different functions. In line with the notion of discriminating alignment, an explicit distinction is made between different contextual settings in terms of innovation objectives (i.e., incremental versus radical) and relational embeddedness (i.e., presence versus absence of prior collaboration) in the exploration of the project performance implications of different contractual configurations. Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analyses on a sample of 125 collaborative NPD projects helped to generate propositions on the interplay between different contractual functions across different contextual settings. The results indicate that the contractual coordination function is an important function in achieving high project performance in collaborative NPD projects. However, the research findings demonstrate that it is not a sufficient condition and needs to be complemented with discrete safeguarding functions depending on the particular context. Together, these findings provide new insights into how particular combinations of contractual functions can help address the core governance challenges of collaborative NPD. They also point to the relevance of applying a configurational perspective to the study of the role of contracts in management research. Finally, they provide practitioners with specific recommendations concerning the design of contracts for collaborative NPD projects.

Implementing a performance measurement system (PMS) for research and development (R&D) is fundamental for supporting decision making and motivating researchers and engineers; however, this is a very challenging task, because effort levels are not measurable and success highly uncertain. Even if the subject has largely been debated in academic and practitioners literature so far, an acknowledged managerial approach is not available yet. This paper investigates the implementation and use of a PMS in new product development (NPD) projects, which represents a relatively unexplored issue in the R&D performance measurement debate. In particular, studying the case of a military aircraft development project, it provides a reference framework that integrates the major literature contributions’ findings and suggests a practical approach for the design and implementation of an effective PMS for NPD.

A business needs to constantly innovate and reinforce the competitiveness for the survival development and sustainable management. Focus on new product development has become the key factor in modern manufacturers maintaining the competitiveness. The process and the results depend on the effective application and management of organizational knowledge that it is necessary to reinforce the capabilities in order to promote the new product development performance. With random sampling, the employees and the managers in top ten businesses of 1,000 Chinese industrial businesses are distributed 1,000 copies of questionnaire. Total 568 effective copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 57%. The results show 1. the significantly positive correlation between knowledge acquisition capabilities in knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance, 2. the remarkably positive correlation between knowledge transformation and application capabilities in knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance, 3. the notably positive correlation between knowledge protection capabilities in knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance, and 4. the signifi- cant moderating effects of product innovation type on the correlation between knowledge management capabilities and new product development performance. The research results are expected to provide essential contributions and suggestions for the knowledge management capabilities and the new product development of Chinese businesses.

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.

This research investigates the intricate dynamics between New Product Development (NPD) front-end Technical Fuzziness (TF), Team Learning (TL), and Project Performance (PP) within a high-tech Research and Development (R&D) foundation in northern Taiwan. Employing a quantitative research approach, data is systematically gathered through structured questionnaires, enabling statistical analyses to test hypotheses and uncover correlations. The study has a novel approach in its comprehensive examination of the interrelated factors shaping the NPD process. The findings posit a significantly negative correlation between NPD front-end TF and PP. The investigation delves into the complexities that arise from technical uncertainties during the early stages of product development, as well as the implications for overall project success. The examination asserts a significantly positive correlation between TL and PP. The research presents the moderating influence of TL on the connection between front-end TF and PP. This novel aspect aims to unravel how TL may mitigate or amplify the challenges posed by technical uncertainties in the NPD process. The findings of this investigation improve understanding of the interaction between NPD front-end dynamics, TL initiatives, and PP, offering valuable implications for practice and theory in the realm of novelty management.

Knowledge integration in IPPD project: role of shared project mission, mutual trust, and mutual influence

Defining Scaling Strategies for the Improvement of Agility Performance in Product Development Projects

Shared knowledge and product design glitches in integrated product development

The paper discusses the success factors influencing product development design and product launch projects. The lives of people and businesses have been threatened and affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic for more than two years. Knowing these factors can help us make the right decisions and develop an effective project plan and matrix. Nowadays, project management is a very important part of work in companies of different sizes. Project management can be seen as applying innovation processes in an enterprise. The authors conducted quantitative and qualitative research on 544 companies in the Slovak Republic. The research focuses on aspects of project management and individual success factors. The data obtained by the questionnaire survey were processed by statistical methods, where the authors chose the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test as the basic method and the Wilcoxon two-tailed test for independent sample data sets. An essential variable in the sample of enterprises surveyed was, in particular, the sector of the economy in which the enterprise surveyed operates. Two key factors were considered when developing the product – employee education and the implication of social responsibility. The study’s uniqueness lies in surveying all types of enterprises, irrespective of their size, line of business, and financial turnover. The percentage distribution of the maximum use of CSR among the surveyed companies in each sector was most positive in the Logistics industry. Training and certification of employees are primarily one of the most important factors to ensure an increase in the success of those projects aimed at launching new products on the market; in the case of the surveyed sample, this is more than 40% of enterprises. Based on the sub-results, we can conclude that enterprises place more emphasis on new product development projects and the environmental concept of CSR. Still, the launch of new products or services is underestimated by the project management of enterprises. After more than eight years, the research has shown an increase in the importance of using social responsibility in management processes for new product development. A breakthrough finding is comparing the use of CSR in small businesses in Slovakia to global trends in which we perceive the dominance of multinational corporations. Enterprises are advised to focus specifically on new product launches and detailed planning.

With the growing complexity of the business context, companies are confronting more challenging Product Development (PD) projects because of the potential risks externally brought by the partners’ participation and internally accumulated through the activities’ execution. In this paper, we formulate and decompose a PD project in a hierarchical way, and the obtained end elements perceived as objects are built into a number of Design Structure Matrices (DSMs) and Domain Mapping Matrices (DMMs). We also propose a conceptual model of change occurring and change propagation, base on which the potential change propagating channels are discovered through observing and tracking change occurring and change propagation in DSMs and DMMs. Associated with the depth-first and breath-first search methods executed in matrices the critical objects during change propagation are discovered and the implicit change propagating channels cross multiple fields are identified. As the exploratory results, the critical objects taking account of change propagation are highlighted as the contribution to change management in PD project.

With the increasing interest in the concept of justice in the group behavior literature, the procedural justice (PJ) climate attracts many researchers and practitioners from different fields. Nevertheless, the PJ climate is rarely addressed in the new product development (NPD) project team literature. Specifically, the technology and innovation management (TIM) literature provides little about what the PJ climate is, its nature and benefits, and how it works in NPD project teams. Also, few studies investigate the antecedents and consequences of the PJ climate in NPD teams enhancing the understanding of this concept from a practical perspective. This paper discusses the PJ climate theory in a NPD team context and empirically demonstrates how team members' positive collective perceptions of a PJ climate can be developed and how a PJ climate influences a project's performance in NPD teams. In particular, team culture values including employee orientation, customer orientation, systematic management control, innovativeness, and social responsibility were investigated as antecedents, and team learning, speed to market, and market success of new products were studied as outcomes of PJ climate in this paper. By studying 83 NPD project teams it was found on the basis of using partial least squares (PLS) method that (1) the level of employee, customer and innovativeness orientation as well as systematic management control during the project had a positive impact on developing a PJ climate in an NPD team; (2) a PJ climate positively affects team learning and product development time (i.e., speed to market); and (3) team learning and speed to market mediate the relations between the PJ climate and new product success (NPS). Based on the findings, this paper suggests that managers should enhance the PJ climate and team culture in the project team to enhance team learning and to develop products faster. In particular, managers should (1) open a discussion forum among people and create a dialogue for people who disagree with the other project team members rather than dictating or emposing others ideas to them, (2) facilitate information searching and collecting mechanisms to make decisions effectively and to clarify uncertainties, and (3) allow team members to challange project‐related ideas and decisions and modify them with consensus. Also, to enhance the PJ climate during the project, managers should (1) respect and listen to all team members' ideas and try to understand why they are sometimes in opposition, (2) define team members' task boundaries and clarify project norms and project goals, and (3) set knowledge‐questioning values by facilitating team members to try out new ideas and seek out new ways to do things.

Psychosocial aspects of project work: a comparison between product development and construction projects

Up to now, the review of international innovation research is based on the micro knowledge-based research of multi-disciplinary, focusing on a research branch in the field of innovation management（such as business model）, or the evolution of the field of international innovation management in a certain period of time. In view of this, based on the bibliometric perspective, this paper selects 43 828 pieces of literature data during 1962-2019 from a general view, and uses the CiteSpace bibliometric analysis software qualitative method of literature reviews to analyze core journals, core authors, core regions, keyword co-occurrence, research hotspots in the past 180 days and cited knowledge map of literature from a broader longitudinal perspective. It is found that core journals in the field of innovation management have different emphases on theories, methods, policies, applications, etc.; China and Chinese institutions have the highest amount of paper publications, while Chinese scholars have a high amount of paper publications, but the international academic influence needs to be improved; Absorption capacity is still the international research hotspot in the field. In the past decade, research hotspots have shifted from organizational ambidexterity and business model innovation to platform, ecological innovation, digital innovation, etc.; International innovation management can be divided into eight major mainstream research fields, namely, open innovation, knowledge management, capability, project management, ambidexterity, business model innovation, ecosystem, dominant design and coopetition. In this way, this paper expounds the knowledge evolution and development frontier in the field of international innovation management in a unified way, which provides reference for the research of innovation management in China. To sum up, the direction of domestic financial support and journal topic selection will incline to the research of innovation management under the background of digital economy. Platform, ecological innovation and digital innovation will become the research hotspot in the future, and the research method and the dynamic perspective of business model innovation, ecosystem and competition need to be further expanded.

Communication intensity, goal congruence, and uncertainty in buyer–supplier new product development