Rok 2011
Ahrweiler P, Pyka A, Gilbert N (2011) A New Model for University-Industry Links in Knowledge-Based
Economies. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:218-235
In this paper, we apply the agentbased SKIN model (Simulating Knowledge Dynamics in Innovation Networks) to university-industry links.
The model builds on empirical research about innovation networks in knowledge-intensive industries with
procedures relying on theoretical frameworks of innovation economics and economic sociology. Our
experiments compare innovation networks with and without university agents. Results show that having
universities in the co-operating population of actors raises the competence level of the whole population,
increases the variety of knowledge among the firms, and increases innovation diffusion in terms of quantity
and speed. Furthermore, firms interacting with universities are more attractive for other firms when new
partnerships are considered. These results can be validated against empirical findings. The simulation
confirms that university-industry links improve the conditions for innovation diffusion and enhance
collaborative arrangements in innovation networks.
Alam SS (2011) Entrepreneur's traits and firm innovation capability: an empirical study in Malaysia. Asian
Journal of Technology Innovation 19:53-66
This research investigates how entrepreneurs' personality
traits affect firm innovation capability. It posits that entrepreneurs would feel inclined to become involved
into the different phases of the innovation process in the firm depending on their personality traits. The
convenient sampling of non-probability sampling was adopted. Most of the major towns in Peninsular
Malaysia have been chosen for the purpose of collecting the data. Hypotheses relating the personality factors
(achievement, opportunity, confidence, innovativeness, independent, risk taking and openness to experience)
and firm innovation capability were tested by using multiple regression analysis on survey data from a
sample of 1416 entrepreneurs from Malaysia. The study revealed that the personality traits of an
entrepreneur had significant impact on the firm innovation capability in Malaysia. The area on which this
study concentrates does not have many extensive academic researches yet. Even though this study has some
limitations and problems, it has several managerial implications. This study could be particularly useful for
policy makers to get some ideas and develop suitable training programs to help and assist the entrepreneur in
their future endeavors.
Allarakhia M, Steven W (2011) Managing knowledge assets under conditions of radical change: The case of
the pharmaceutical industry. Technovation 31:105-117 There is no industry where firms link their search
for competitive advantage more closely to intellectual property (IF) than those in the pharmaceutical
industry. Yet a major paradigm change is occurring in this industry. New technological developments are
increasingly being driven by advances in biology, nanotechnology, and the computational sciences. In this
paper, we investigate how this radical change in the investigation, discovery, and manufacture of
pharmaceuticals has affected intellectual property management practices. Large pharmaceutical firms, small
and medium enterprises (SMEs), and public institutional knowledge generators have recently started to
respond by developing new IF management techniques born from the use of consortia to manage the
complexities of knowledge generation. Hence, we leverage innovation and knowledge management
literature, and use the innovation journey and case study methodologies to investigate both traditional
pharmaceutical IF practices as well as emerging strategies. We distil from this effort an IF model the
transition point model designed to assist firms to effectively manage both knowledge assets and the
associated intellectual property in the current paradigm.
Ambos B, Ambos TC (2011) Meeting the challenge of offshoring R&D: an examination of firm- and
location-specific factors. R & D Management 41:107-119 This paper, through a systematic survey of 83
international R&D engagements of 36 German MNCs, seeks to extend previous research on the location
decisions of international R&D engagements and inform managers about the critical factors that may be
considered when taking this important decision. Covering engagements in 21 countries, we show that the
knowledge intensity of the industry as well as variables pertaining to the process school of
internationalization play an important role when offshoring R&D.
Antcliff R (2011) Industrial Research Institute's R&D Trends Forecast for 2011. Research-Technology
Management 54:18-23
Arza V, Lopez A (2011) Firms' linkages with public research organisations in Argentina: Drivers,
perceptions and behaviours. Technovation 31:384-400
This paper analyses firms' drivers for linking to
public research organisations (PRO) (first goal) and compares perceptions and behaviours of linked vs.
unlinked firms (second goal). We used an original firm database constructed from a representative survey
with information for linked and unlinked firms for year 2005 in Argentina. Drivers were estimated using a
Probit model, while differences in perceptions and behaviours between linked and unlinked firms were
assessed with propensity score matching techniques. For our first goal we found that (i) firms' knowledge
bases were not drivers for linking to PRO and (ii) networking capabilities matter but there is a substitution
effect between interacting with PRO and interacting with other economic agents in the market when firms
aim at exchanging information rather than doing joint research. These findings may imply that current
linkages are not exploiting properly their knowledge potential; it may be worth designing a division of
labour among PRO in their functions in PRO-industry interactions. For our second goal: we found that (i)
linked firms invest more in innovative activities; (ii) they are more prone to patenting; (iii) both groups of
firms value similarly PRO research outputs available at arm length (i.e. without direct linking). Given the
asymmetric development on appropriability tools between PRO and firms and the fact that all firms benefit
from PRO research outputs, the higher predisposition of linked firms towards patenting, suggests that
special attention should be placed at analysing the risks of a private appropriation of publicly created
knowledge.
Atuahene-Gima K, Wei YH (2011) The Vital Role of Problem-Solving Competence in New Product
Success. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:81-98
Problem solving, a process of seeking,
defining, evaluating, and implementing the solutions, is considered a converter that can translate
organizational inputs into valuable product and service outputs. A key challenge for the product innovation
community is to answer questions about how knowledge competence and problem-solving competence
develop and sustain competitive advantage. The objective of this study is to theoretically examine and
empirically test an existing assumption that problem-solving competence is an important variable
connecting market knowledge competence with new product performance. New product projects from 396
firms in the high-technology zones in China were used to test the study's theoretical model. The results first
indicate that problem-solving speed and creativity matter in new product innovation performance by playing
mediator roles between market knowledge competence and positional advantage, which in turn sustains
superior performance. This new insight suggest that mere generation of market knowledge and having a
marketing-research and development (R&D) interface will not affect new product performance unless
project members have the ability to use the information and to interact to identify and solve complex
problems speedily and creatively. Second, these results suggest that different market knowledge
competences (customers, competitors, and interactions between marketing and R&D) have distinct impacts
on problem-solving speed and creativity (positive, negative, or none), which underscore the need to embrace
a more fine-grained notion of market knowledge competence. The results also reveal that the relative
importance of some of these relationships depends on the perceived level of turbulence in the environment.
First, competitor knowledge competence decreases problem-solving speed when perceived environmental
turbulence is low but enhances problem-solving speed when perceived turbulence is high. Second,
competitor knowledge competence has a positive relationship with new product performance when the
environmental turbulence is high but no relationship when the environmental turbulence is low. Third, the
positive relationship between problem-solving speed and product advantage is stronger when the perceived
environmental turbulence is high than when it is low, which implies that problem solving is more important
for creating product advantage when environmental turbulence is high and change is fast and unpredictable.
Fourth, the negative relationship between problem-solving speed and new product performance is stronger
when the perceived environmental turbulence is high than when it is low, which means that problem-solving
speed is more harmful for new product performance when change is fast and unpredictable. And fifth, the
positive relationship between product quality and new product performance is stronger when perceived
environmental turbulence is low than when it is high, which implies that product quality may more likely
lead to new product performance when the environment is stable and changes are easy to predict, analyze,
and comprehend.
Badawy MK (2011) "Is open innovation a field of study or a communication barrier to theory
development?": A perspective. Technovation 31:65-67
Bajpai GN, Euchner J (2011) Innovation in Emerging Markets: an Interview with G. N. Bajpai. ResearchTechnology Management 54:12-16
Barrett CW, van Biljon P, Musso C (2011) R&D Strategies in Emerging Economies: Results from the
Mckinsey Global Survey. Research-Technology Management 54:17-22
The 2011 McKinsey Global
Survey on R&D, performed in March, took place just as political instability in the Middle East brought
rising oil prices, and with them, a new round of economic uncertainty. Yet, respondents indicated that R&D
budgets continue to rise, and a significant portion of that money could go to R&D centers in emerging
markets. The survey report offers unique insight and data regarding trends and concerns around managing
R&D in emerging markets.
Bertels HMJ, Kleinschmidt EJ, Koen PA (2011) Communities of Practice versus Organizational Climate:
Which One Matters More to Dispersed Collaboration in the Front End of Innovation? Journal of Product
Innovation Management 28:757-772
Dispersed collaboration provides many benefits such as members'
closeness to local cultures and markets and reachability of talent worldwide. Hence, it is no surprise that
dispersed collaboration is frequently being used by product development teams. A necessary but not
sufficient condition for innovation performance is the sharing of tacit, noncodified and explicit, codified
knowledge by the team. Situated learning theory, however, predicts that tacit knowledge sharing will be
largely prevented by "decontextualization." Therefore, increasing usage of dispersed collaboration will
decrease levels of tacit knowledge-crucial to innovation and organizational performance-in the business unit.
This research investigates the moderating role of mechanisms believed to enable tacit knowledge transfer in
the front end of innovation. Using data from 116 business units, the moderating role of communities of
practice and organizational climate on the relationship between the proficiency of dispersed collaboration
and front end of innovation performance is investigated. Encouragement of communities of practice is found
to moderate the relationship between proficiency of dispersed collaboration and front end of innovation
performance on the business unit level. More specifically, proficiency of dispersed collaboration is not
related at all to front end of innovation performance in business units with low support for communities of
practice; but a positive relationship exists in business units with high support for communities of practice.
This study does not provide support for the moderating effect of organizational climate on the relationship
between proficiency in dispersed collaboration and front end of innovation performance. However,
supportiveness of climate has a significant direct effect on front end of innovation performance. The
findings of this study suggest that managers should simultaneously invest in increasing proficiency in
dispersed collaboration and supporting communities of practice. Either one by itself is insufficient. Because
of its significant direct effect, managers should also nurture an open climate favoring risk taking, trust, and
open interaction.
Bianchi M, Cavaliere A, Chiaroni D, Frattini F, Chiesa V (2011) Organisational modes for Open Innovation
in the bio-pharmaceutical industry: An exploratory analysis. Technovation 31:22-33
This paper
investigates the adoption of Open Innovation in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, studying through which
organisational modes it is put into practice and how these modes are interwoven with the different phases of
drug discovery and development process. Two rounds of interviews with industry experts were carried out
to develop a model describing the adoption of Open Innovation by bio-pharmaceutical companies. This
framework was then applied to an extensive and longitudinal empirical basis, which includes data about the
adoption of Open Innovation by the top 20 worldwide industry players, in the time period 2000-2007. The
paper provides a thorough discussion of how bio-pharmaceutical firms have used different organisational
modes (i.e. licensing agreements, non-equity alliance, purchase and supply of technical and scientific
services) to enter into relationship with different types of partners (i.e. large pharmaceutical companies,
product biotech firms, platform biotech firms and universities) with the aim to acquire (Inbound Open
Innovation) or commercially exploit (Outbound Open Innovation) technologies and knowledge. The
implications of the study for Open Innovation research and possible avenues for future investigation are
discussed at length in the paper.
Bianchi M, Chiaroni D, Chiesa V, Frattini F (2011) Organizing for external technology commercialization:
evidence from a multiple case study in the pharmaceutical industry. R & D Management 41:120-137
External technology commercialization (ETC) is increasingly being regarded as a strategic priority by
companies. ETC is the use of out-licensing to transfer technologies that are disembodied from products to
other organizations. Previous research has focused on the economic and strategic dimensions but little
attention has so far been paid to how ETC should be organized. This paper explores whether and how firms
operating in different contexts adopt dissimilar organizational solutions for their ETC activities. To this aim,
a theoretical framework is first developed that comprises the key constitutive elements of ETC organization
and a number of firm-level and deal-level factors that are supposed to influence organizational design
choices. Based on a multiple case-study analysis involving 16 out-licensing deals executed in seven Italian
pharmaceutical firms, the paper shows that the organization of out-licensing tasks and the allocation of
decision-making power is shaped by, and adapts to, the relevance of ETC in the corporate strategy, the
volume of ETC transactions, the stage of development of the technology being commercialized and the
competitive threats due to the deal. The paper is believed to be useful for licensing and R&D managers who
can find practical insights into how ETC activities can be organized and which critical contextual factors
should be accounted for when designing such organization.
Bianchi M, Chiesa V, Frattini F (2011) Selling Technological Knowledge: Managing the Complexities of
Technology Transactions. Research-Technology Management 54:18-26
With the diffusion of the openinnovation paradigm, more companies are selling their technological knowledge, disembodied from physical
artifacts, to other organizations in an attempt to maximize the rent-yield potential of the innovation process.
However; extracting revenues from technology sale remains a challenge for most firms due to the
peculiarities of technological knowledge as an object of commerce. A study of 30 companies actively
involved in technology sale and 75 single transactions illuminates two key aspects of technology
transactions: (1) the challenges that the technology sale process entails, and (2) the practices that can be
adopted to manage the complexities of technology transactions. CTOs and R&D and technology managers
can use these insights to build a firm-level capability in selling technological knowledge.
Blau J (2011) The European Union Shoots for the Stars. Research-Technology Management 54:3-5
Blau J (2011) German CTO Embraces and Exploits Change. Research-Technology Management 54:2-3
Blau J (2011) Building the Smart Grid in Europe. Research-Technology Management 54:2-3
Bloch PH (2011) Product Design and Marketing: Reflections After Fifteen Years. Journal of Product
Innovation Management 28:378-380 This paper provides a brief assessment of the current state of design
research within the field of academic marketing. A definition of design is provided that is based on user
benefits. This is followed by a set of prescriptions to enhance the prominence of design research in future
years. These prescriptions focus on research scope and the training of young scholars.
Bouten LM, Snelders D, Hultink EJ (2011) The Impact of Fit Measures on the Consumer Evaluation of New
Co-Branded Products. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:455-469
A popular strategy
currently employed for new product introductions is co-branding. Such a strategy allows a brand to innovate
with the support of a partner brand. The present study investigates how consumers perceive a new product
with two brands. Previous research focused on the logic of a brand combination by investigating the impact
of the fit between both existing product categories (i.e., product-product fit) and the fit between both brand
images (i.e., brand-brand fit) on the evaluation of a new co-branded product. However, no study has yet
focused on the relationships between both brands and their existing product categories, and the specific new
product that has been developed. The present paper aims to improve the understanding of the potential
benefits of co-branding by taking the role of the new product into account. The empirical study discussed in
this paper replicates and extends the model of Simonin and Ruth (1998) by adding two new measures to
their model. These measures are related to the fit of both existing product categories with the new product
(i.e., new-product-product fit) and the fit of both brand images with the new product (i.e., new-productbrand fit). The results from this empirical study with 210 consumers in The Netherlands show that productproduct fit, brand-brand fit, and new-product-brand fit have a significant positive impact on the evaluation
of a new co-branded product. New-product-product fit was not significantly related to consumer evaluations.
In addition, the results show that consumers prefer a new co-branded product that can be clearly associated
with one of the brands in the partnership so that it can be categorized unambiguously. This paper discusses
these findings and provides implications for research and managerial practice in the important and growing
field of brand-driven innovation.
Brettel M, Heinemann F, Engelen A, Neubauer S (2011) Cross-Functional Integration of R&D, Marketing,
and Manufacturing in Radical and Incremental Product Innovations and Its Effects on Project Effectiveness
and Efficiency. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:251-269
Previous research commonly
emphasizes the positive effects of cross-functional integration on performance measures. However, crossfunctional integration is a highly complex phenomenon which does not allow general conclusions in terms
of performance impacts. Therefore, the present study assesses the impact of integrating the R&D, marketing,
and manufacturing functions on the effectiveness and efficiency of new product development (NPD)
projects. A multi-functional design is applied that considers three functions, including manufacturing, which
has been often neglected in prior research on cross-functional integration. Further, the study distinguishes
between two phases of the NPD process, namely the development and commercialization phases. In
building the sample care was particularly taken to include a sufficient number of highly innovative NPD
projects to cover the full range in terms of project innovativeness. This allows assessing the moderating role
of project innovativeness on the effects of cross-functional integration on NPD performance. A research
model incorporating these ideas is theoretically developed and empirically validated by means of survey
data. One hundred and eighteen NPD project managers participated in the survey (50 incremental and 68
radical innovation projects). Structural equation modeling was used to estimate the research model. More
concretely, partial least squares (PLS) was used as the most accepted variance-based approach. Generally,
the findings emphasize that the relationships between various facets of cross-functional integration and
performance measures are highly complex. The integration between R&D and marketing positively impacts
efficiency, but not effectiveness across different types of projects. Further, the impact of integration between
marketing and R&D depends on the process stage and the degree of innovativeness. Findings regarding the
integration between R&D and manufacturing show a strong positive impact on efficiency in the
development phase. With respect to the integration between marketing and manufacturing, no significant
effects on the performance dimensions can be observed for radical NPD projects. Overall, a positive impact
of integration between these departments on effectiveness in the commercialization phase emerges.
Broekhuizen TLJ, Delre SA, Torres A (2011) Simulating the Cinema Market: How Cross-Cultural
Differences in Social Influence Explain Box Office Distributions. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:204-217
This paper uses a mixed method approach to show how cross-cultural
differences in social influences can explain differences in distributions of market shares in different markets.
First, we develop a realistic agent-based model that mimics the behavior of movie visitors and incorporates
the social influences visitors exert on each other before and after visiting movies. The simulation results
indicate that market inequalities are determined by social influences. In particular, we find that the social
influence derived from the intended behaviors of others (coordinated consumption effect) has a stronger
effect on market inequalities than the social influence derived from the past behavior of others (imitation
effect). Second, we empirically validate the simulation results by conducting a cross-national survey that
makes use of the cross-cultural differences in Hofstede's collectivism-individualism index as a proxy for the
level of social influence present in a market. The results of this field study, performed in China, the
Netherlands, Italy, and Spain, empirically show that social influences differ across countries, and that these
differences can explain the apparent differences in the dispersion of movies' market shares. The empirical
survey further contributes to understanding the role of social influence by revealing a U-shaped relationship
between Hofstede's collectivism-individualism index score and the degree of social influence.
Brown T, Katz B (2011) Change by Design. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:381-383 Over
the course of a century of professional practice, designers have mastered a set of skills that can be
productively applied to a wider range of problems than has commonly been supposed. These include
complex social problems, issues of organizational management, and strategic innovation. Conversely, nondesigners-those in leadership positions in companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations,
professionals in a broad range of services and industries-can benefit from learning how to think like
designers. We offer some large-scale and more finely grained ideas about how this might happen.
Bunduchi R, Weisshaar C, Smart AU (2011) Mapping the benefits and costs associated with process
innovation: The case of RFID adoption. Technovation 31:505-521 The successful implementation of any
innovation requires an understanding of its benefits and costs. This study examines the changes in the
magnitude of costs and benefits associated with technology process innovation adoption as the innovation
diffuses across different industries. Using RFID as an exemplar technology, the study shows that the
magnitude of benefits and costs associated with technological process innovation adoption within different
industries varies as technology diffuses beyond early adopters to the early majority. During the early stages
of technology evolution, the development cost, the cost of capital, ethical costs and simple direct
implementation costs (in the form of the cost of tags) predominate. As a dominant design emerges the
profile of costs changes with the emphasis on initiation costs, more holistic direct implementation costs and
indirect implementation costs. A similar change in the emphasis of benefits is observed, with a shift from
direct to indirect benefits being noticeable as the technology moves from early adopters to early majority
adopters. Our findings help to explain the difficulties in consistently measuring innovation outcomes
observed in the innovation implementation literature, and emphasize the need to take into consideration the
stage of technology development as a significant factor that influences the realised outcomes from
innovation implementation.
Caerteling JS, Di Benedetto CA, Doree AG, Halman JIM, Song M (2011) Technology development projects
in road infrastructure: The relevance of government championing behavior. Technovation 31:270-283
Low-technology industries are largely neglected in technology management literature. Yet, recent studies
show the crucial importance of innovation in low-technology industries. In this study, we analyze
technology development projects in a specific low-technology industry, road infrastructure, being a major
sector and an important contributor to both GDP and employment. We focus on the effect of government
behavior on technology development projects in road infrastructure. In road infrastructure, government
plays an important role as a buyer and first user of technology. Based on the business strategy literature and
literature on technology policy, we test the relative importance of a firm's strategy and government behavior
in this low-technology industry. Specifically, we build and empirically test a conceptual model in which
government behaviors (technology championship and procurement policy) and strategic orientation
(internal/cost orientation and innovation orientation) are antecedents to project performance, which is
assessed in terms of performance relative to budget, quality, and time objectives, and also in terms of
benefits to customers. Our empirical findings stress the value of government championing behavior and
show that this behavior is more important than innovative procurement policies. The results even suggest
that government championship is more important than a firm's strategic orientation.
Caetano M, Amaral DC (2011) Roadmapping for technology push and partnership: A contribution for open
innovation environments. Technovation 31:320-335
There are several tools in the literature that support
innovation in organizations. Some of the most cited are the so-called technology roadmapping methods, also
known as TRM. However, these methods are designed primarily for organizations that adopt the market pull
strategy of technology-product integration. Organizations that adopt the technology push integration strategy
are neglected in the literature. Furthermore, with the advent of open innovation, it is possible to note the
need to consider the adoption of partnerships in the innovation process. Thus, this study proposes a method
of technology roadmapping, identified as method for technology push (MTP), applicable to organizations
that adopt the technology push integration strategy, such as SMEs and independent research centers in an
open-innovation environment. The method was developed through action-research and was assessed from
two analytical standpoints: externally, via a specific literature review on its theoretical contributions, and
internally, through the analysis of potential users' perceptions on the feasibility of applying MTP. The
results indicate both the unique character of the method and its perceived implementation feasibility. Future
research is suggested in order to validate the method in different types of organizations
Candi M, Saemundsson RJ (2011) Exploring the Relationship Between Aesthetic Design as an Element of
New Service Development and Performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:536-557 The
purpose of this research is to investigate the conditions under which the use of aesthetic design as an
element of new service development is likely to improve performance-more specifically, to empirically
examine how aesthetic design can contribute to competitive advantage, resistance to imitation, and
profitability, and how these contributions are moderated by the process of commoditization. Based on
analysis of three rounds of longitudinal data collected one year apart in a population of new technologybased firms, the findings are that aesthetic design as an element of new service development can contribute
positively to competitive advantage, resistance to imitation, and profitability, but that the effectiveness of
using aesthetic design to achieve these outcomes differs depending on the level of commoditization. Positive
relationships are found between the use of aesthetic design and competitive advantage and profitability,
respectively, when the level of commoditization is high. Furthermore, the positive relationship between
aesthetic design and resistance to service imitation is stronger when the relative importance of aesthetic
design in a firms' sector is low, that is, conditions under which aesthetic design is not already expected. This
research suggests that practitioners should consider using aesthetic design to counteract commoditization
when the markets in which they compete are characterized by ready access to services that meet customers'
needs and expectations for features, performance, and reliability, and expectations for aesthetic design have
not already become established. Furthermore, they should be aware that the use of aesthetic design may turn
into a baseline customer requirement, implying that while attention to aesthetic design is necessary to
compete it may cease to constitute a potential source of competitive advantage.
Cassimon D, Engelen PJ, Yordanov V (2011) Compound real option valuation with phase-specific
volatility: A multi-phase mobile payments case study. Technovation 31:240-255
Multi-staged R&D
projects are copy-book cases of compound real options. Traditional compound option models assume a
constant volatility over the lifetime of the project. Building on the n-fold compound option model of
Cassimon et al. (2004), we extend this model to allow for phase-specific volatility estimates, while
preserving the closed-form solution of the model. We illustrate the extended model with a case study of a
real option valuation of a multi-stage software application project by a large mobile phone operator and we
show how project managers can estimate phase-specific volatilities.
Castellion G (2011) The Innovation Manual: Integrated Strategies and Practical Tools for Bringing Value
Innovation to the Market. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:611-613
Cavagnoli D (2011) A conceptual framework for innovation: An application to human resource management
policies in Australia. Innovation-Management Policy & Practice 13:111-125
This paper explores the
concept of innovation within the field of organizational innovation. The aim is to offer a theoretical
framework for human resource management policies to extend their goal domains from labour productivity
and organizational flexibility, to include innovation. This paper argues for a change in the way strategic
organizational and staffing investments are made. Innovation requires the input of innovative individuals.
Individuals learn within a frame of reference. In the workplace, individuals learn within the organizational
systems of rewards. Organizational innovation depends heavily on this frame of reference for fostering and
maintaining the innovative capacities of the firm. However, as habits can lead to innovation, habits can also
hinder innovation. This paper identifies this double-edged outcome. It seeks to provide the basis for a
theoretical framework that enables a link to be drawn between management, innovation, workplace relations
and organizational practices.
Cerf VG, Euchner J (2011) The Future of the Internet: Implications for Managers an Interview with Vinton
G. Cerf. Research-Technology Management 54:15-21
Chavez SMA (2011) Behavioural additionality in the context of regional innovation policy in Spain.
Innovation-Management Policy & Practice 13:95-110
This paper analyses the impact of R&D public
funding on the technological cooperation between manufacturing firms in the period from 1998 to 2005.
Special attention is paid to the different levels of government-promoted innovation policies, and how these
differences in governmental decisions affect cooperation activities with different partners, universities or
technological centres, customers and suppliers. Matching estimators are used to address endogeneity
problems, and the results show that regional subsidies are especially effective in fostering cooperation with
universities and technology centres in those firms not currently engaged in R&D cooperation. On the other
hand, the results show that subsidies at a national level have a higher impact by stimulating cooperation with
universities and technology centres of those firms already engaged in R&D cooperation.
Chen J, Chen YF, Vanhaverbeke W (2011) The influence of scope, depth, and orientation of external
technology sources on the innovative performance of Chinese firms. Technovation 31:362-373
It is
commonly accepted nowadays that external knowledge sources are important for firms' innovative
performance. However, it is still not clear, what dimensions of firms' external knowledge search strategy are
crucial in determining their innovation success and whether these search strategies are contingent on
different innovation modes. In this study, we analyse how the innovative performance is affected by the
scope, depth, and orientation of firms' external search strategies. We apply this analysis to firms using STI
(science, technology and innovation) and DUI (doing, using and interacting) innovation modes. Based on a
survey among firms in China, we find that greater scope and depth of openness for both innovation modes
improves innovative performance indicating that open innovation is also relevant beyond science and
technology based innovation. Furthermore, we find that decreasing returns in external search strategies,
suggested by Laursen and Salter (2006), are not always present and are contingent on the innovation modes.
Next, we find that the type of external partners (we label it "orientation of openness") is crucial in explaining
innovative performance and that firms using DUI or STI innovation modes have different sets of relevant
innovation partners. This shows that the orientation of openness is an important dimension-in addition to the
scope and depth of openness. As respondents are located in China, this study provides evidence that open
innovation is also relevant in developing countries.
Chen KH, Guan JC (2011) Mapping the innovation production process from accumulative advantage to
economic outcomes: A path modeling approach. Technovation 31:336-346
The research about the
innovation production process (IPP) is burgeoning. Our understanding of the interdependent interactions
between functionally distinct innovation activities during it from a systemic perspective is rather unclear,
yet, which is beneficial to empirical innovation management. This study, based on systems thinking,
presents a novel analytical framework to empirically and quantitatively map the IPP jointly associated with a
path modeling approach, which helps in untangling the interactive mechanism between stage-specific
innovation activities with distinct functions within an IPP from accumulative advantage to economic
outcomes. We use the attractive analytical framework to guide an empirical investigation to the China's
high-tech industries' IPP at the macro-regional level. Our empirical study confirms the dominant role of
previous innovation capital accumulation in the whole IPP embedded into regional innovation systems of
China's high-tech industries. That is, we prove the existence of accumulative advantage phenomenon in the
regional IPP. The examination results show that there is a significant Matthew effect of technological
innovation accumulation on technological innovation inputs as well as the Path dependence of technological
innovation outputs/outcomes on technological innovation accumulation. This indicates that the innovationpractitioners should promote innovation capital accumulation for sustainable innovations and economic
profits in a long time. At the same time, our findings suggest that, in order to alleviate the cross-regional
unbalance of innovation development and promote radial innovations in China's high-tech industries, both
policy-makers and innovation-practitioners should try to get rid of the dependence on the previous
accumulated innovation capital.
Chesbrough H, Euchner J (2011) The Evolution of Open Innovation: an Interview with Henry Chesbrough.
Research-Technology Management 54:13-18
Chesbrough H, Euchner J (2011) Open Services Innovation: an Interview with Henry Chesbrough.
Research-Technology Management 54:12-17
Chiaroni D, Chiesa V, Frattini F (2011) The Open Innovation Journey: How firms dynamically implement
the emerging innovation management paradigm. Technovation 31:34-43 Open Innovation is currently one
of the most debated topics in management literature. Nevertheless, there are still many unanswered
questions in Open Innovation research. Especially two issues require further investigation: (i) understanding
the relevance of Open Innovation beyond high-tech industries and (ii) studying how firms implement Open
Innovation in practice. The paper addresses these topics by studying, through an in-depth case study, the
journey that the Italian leading cement manufacturer, has undergone to move from a Closed to an Open
Innovation paradigm. The paper shows that the Open Innovation paradigm is implemented along a threephase process that comprises the stages of unfreezing, moving and institutionalising. Moreover, it emerges
that the changes through which Open Innovation has been implemented involve four major dimensions, i.e.
networks, organisational structures, evaluation processes and knowledge management systems. They should
be therefore conceived as the managerial and organisational levers an innovating firm can act upon to
streamline its journey toward Open Innovation. Theoretical and managerial implications of using these
levers for implementing Open Innovation are discussed at length.
Chidambaram R (2011) Research and Innovation: an Indian Perspective. Research-Technology Management
54:22-26 In the short term, in a developing country like India, the GDP growth rate is dependent more on
innovation capacity than on scientific strength. But if a high growth rate is to be sustained over a long
period, the country must also lay a strong foundation for basic research. The Office of the Principal
Scientific Adviser identifies programs in critical areas for technological self-reliance and develops initiatives
to fill the gaps in India's scientific and technological development scenario. Enhancing academia-industry
interactions to help make India globally competitive in various technology sectors is essential. Attracting
talented young people to careers in science and technology and encouraging international collaborations are
also important focus areas.
Chiesa V, Frattini F (2011) Commercializing Technological Innovation: Learning from Failures in HighTech Markets. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:437-454 Commercialization is known to be
a critical stage of the technological innovation process, mainly because of the high risks and costs that it
entails. Despite this, many scholars consider it to be often the least well managed phase of the entire
innovation process, and there is ample empirical evidence corroborating this belief. In high-tech markets, the
difficulties encountered by firms in commercializing technological innovation are exacerbated by the
volatility, interconnectedness, and proliferation of new technologies that characterize such markets. This is
clearly evinced by the abundance of new high-tech products that fail on the market chiefly due to poor
commercialization. Yet there is no clear understanding, in management theory and practice, of how
commercialization decisions influence the market failure of new high-tech products. Drawing on research in
innovation management, diffusion of innovation, and marketing, this article shows how commercialization
decisions can influence consumer acceptance of a new high-tech product in two major ways: (i) by affecting
the extent to which the players in the innovation's adoption network support the new product; (ii) by
affecting the post-purchase attitude early adopters develop toward the innovation, and hence the type of
word-of-mouth (positive or negative) they disseminate among later adopters. Lack of support from the
adoption network is found to be an especially critical cause of failure for systemic innovations, while a
negative post-purchase attitude of early adopters is a more significant determinant of market failure for
radical innovations. There follows a historical analysis of eight innovations launched on consumer high-tech
markets (Apple Newton, IBM PC-Junior, Tom Tom GO, Sony Walkman, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer,
Sony MiniDisc, Palm Pilot, and Nintendo NES), which illustrates how commercialization decisions (i.e.,
timing, targeting and positioning, inter-firm relationships, product configuration, distribution, advertising,
and pricing) can determine lack of support from the innovation's adoption network and a negative postpurchase attitude of early adopters. The results of this work provide useful insights for improving the
commercialization decisions of product and marketing managers operating in high-technology markets,
helping them avoid errors that are precursors of market failure. It is also hoped the article will inform further
research aimed at identifying, theoretically and empirically, other possible causes of poor customer
acceptance in high-tech markets.
Choi J (2011) Evolution of innovation focus of online games: from technology-oriented, through marketoriented, and to design-oriented soft innovation. Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 19:101-116
This paper aims at analysing the evolutionary innovation patterns of the online games industry in Korea.
Online games, as IT-based and creative service products, are important in the development trajectory of
Korea, in that Korea created a new global leadership for the online games industry breaking the traditional
catch-up innovation pattern. Two research hypotheses are examined and accepted based on questionnaire
surveys and in-depth interviews. First, a quantitative analysis as to the hours of online game playing for 250
games over the last 19 months demonstrates that a few games dominate the online game market in Korea,
which implies network externalities in the online games industry. Second, from the perspective of evolution,
the innovation focus of online games changes from technology-oriented, through market-oriented, and
finally to design-oriented soft innovation. This paper introduces network externalities as the reasons why
design-oriented (non-technological) soft innovation has become significant in online games over time. The
results of this study suggest managerial and policy implications. Online games companies are recommended
to expand the research and development (R&D) capabilities of non-technological and soft innovation in
combination with those of technological innovation to improve strategic competitiveness. From the point of
innovation policies, the redefinition of R&D scopes is required as a pre-requisite step for diversifying the
government R&D support into the areas of non-technological and soft innovation capabilities. The
government effort to grow human resources with a high level of creative capabilities relevant to soft
innovation also needs to be made.
Collins L (2011) 'Cambridge Phenomenon' Hits Mid life Crisis. Research-Technology Management 54:5-6
Conn S (2011) The Future of Innovation. R & D Management 41:218-218
Cowlrick I, Hedner T, Wolf R, Olausson M, Klofsten M (2011) Decision-making in the pharmaceutical
industry: analysis of entrepreneurial risk and attitude using uncertain information. R & D Management
41:321-336
The main purpose of this study was to investigate judgments made by employees from the
pharmaceutical industry and allied health-care sectors in a set of four different drug discovery and
development cases derived from real scenarios. Each case study related to go/no-go decisions taken from
various steps in drug discovery through preclinical and clinical development (investigational new drug) on
to market introduction (new drug application) and treatment of the target population. Using a web-based
questionnaire, 52 respondents made five sets of judgment within each drug case whether to continue or halt
further project development. For each case, additional details of the developmental scenario were disclosed
to the respondent after completion of each judgment response. We also assessed to what extent the
individual judgments given by the respondents were influenced by work experience and functional role,
education, or their perceived entrepreneurial character. Our study demonstrates that health-care employees
differ substantially in their individual intuitive judgments of benefit and risk in go/no-go decisions during
the drug discovery and development process. This lack of coherence and wide variability with respect to the
drug development cases selected may reflect judgment in the real world. Such judgments are usually taken
from incomplete information, and individual decision-making rules vary substantially between experts in the
field. Further knowledge about this inherent human functional judgment variability may be helpful to form a
better understanding of individual decision-making in relation to inherent uncertainties. Additional research
may also clarify how personal experience within drug discovery and development influences judgment and
help to optimize decision outcomes in the drug development sector. Importantly, a deeper insight of the
fundamentals and rules that shape individual and group decision-making of everyday drug discovery and
development may help to optimize the decision processes in the pharmaceutical industry.
Creusen MEH (2011) Research Opportunities Related to Consumer Response to Product Design*. Journal
of Product Innovation Management 28:405-408
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.
Crews C (2011) Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible. Research-Technology
Management 54:63-64
Cruz-Gonzalez J, Amores-Salvado J (2011) Technological Innovation. An Intellectual Capital-Based View.
R & D Management 41:319-319
Dahl A, Lawrence J, Pierce J (2011) Building an Innovation Community. Research-Technology
Management 54:19-27
OVERVIEW: Companies are increasingly using social media and other
technologies to broaden the approach to idea generation and innovation both within and outside the walls of
the organization. However, managers can tend to focus on installing the technology, rather than on
designing a socio-technical system that can meet the organization's goals and foster authentic participation.
In 2008, Pitney Bowes, a $5.4 billion provider of technology and services for mail and digital
communications, initiated an effort to build an employee innovation community aimed at driving organic
growth and fostering a culture of innovation among its 30,000 employees around the globe. The Pitney
Bowes Employee Innovation Program team took a human-centered approach and used primary research and
co-creation with individuals across all levels. of the organizational hierarchy to design a program that both
met company objectives and satisfied a value proposition for managers and employees. The resulting
program delivered measurable value inside of two years, as well as providing intangible benefits such as
employee engagement, improved internal processes, and increased customer satisfaction. The outcomes
illustrate the types of results managers can expect from a thoughtfully designed and implemented innovation
community and the design principles and key success factors provide guidance to managers looking to
initiate a similar approach.
Dahl DW (2011) Clarity in Defining Product Design: Inspiring Research Opportunities for the Design
Process. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:425-427 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.
De Clercq D, Thongpapanl N, Dimov D (2011) A Closer Look at Cross-Functional Collaboration and
Product Innovativeness: Contingency Effects of Structural and Relational Context. Journal of Product
Innovation Management 28:680-697
This study applies a contingency perspective to examine how the
intra-organizational context influences the relationship between cross-functional collaboration and product
innovativeness. It focuses on the role of (1) formal, structural factors directly controllable by top
management decisions and (2) more intangible, relational factors as potential enhancements of the firm's
ability to convert cross-functional collaboration into product innovativeness. A study of 232 firms confirms
the hypotheses, finding that the relationship between cross-functional collaboration and product
innovativeness is stronger for higher levels of decision autonomy and shared responsibility (structural
context) and social interaction, trust, and goal congruence (relational context). In addition, a post-hoc
analysis using a configurational approach to organizational contingencies reveals that organizations'
relational context is more potent than their structural context for converting cross-functional collaboration
into product innovativeness. The study's implications and future research directions are discussed.
Deevi SC (2011) Breaking Away: How Great Leaders Create Innovation That Drives Sustainable GrowthAnd Why Others Fail. Research-Technology Management 54:60-62
Deevi SC (2011) The Role of the Cto. Research-Technology Management 54:9-10
Di Benedetto CA (2011) Untitled. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:618-618
Di Benedetto CA (2011) Untitled. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:436-436
Di Benedetto CA (2011) Special Issue on Product Design Research and Practice. Journal of Product
Innovation Management 28:320-320
Di Benedetto CA (2011) The Thomas P. Hustad Best Paper Award for 2009. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:146-147
Di Benedetto CA (2011) Untitled. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:2-2
Duysters G, Lokshin B (2011) Determinants of Alliance Portfolio Complexity and Its Effect on Innovative
Performance of Companies. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:570-585 Alliance formation is
often described as a mechanism used by firms to increase voluntary knowledge transfers. Access to external
knowledge has been increasingly recognized as a main source of a firm's innovativeness. A phenomenon
that has recently emerged is alliance portfolio complexity. In line with recent studies this article develops a
measure of portfolio complexity in technology partnerships in terms of diversity of elements of the alliance
portfolio with which a firm must interact. The analysis considers an alliance portfolio that includes different
partnership types (competitor, customer, supplier, and university and research center). So far factors that
determine portfolio complexity and its impact on technological performance of firms have remained largely
unexplored. This article examines firms' decisions to form alliance portfolios of foreign and domestic
partners by two groups of firms: innovators (firms that are successful in introducing new products to the
market), and imitators (firms that are successful at introducing products which are not new to the market).
This study also assesses a nonlinear impact of the portfolio complexity measure on firms' innovative
performance. The empirical models are estimated using data on more than 1800 firms from two consecutive
Community Innovation Surveys conducted in 1998 and 2000 in the Netherlands. The results suggest that
alliance portfolios of innovators are broader in terms of the different types of alliance partners as compared
to those of imitators. This finding underlines the importance of establishing a `` radar function'' of links to
various different partners in accessing novel information. Specifically, the results indicate that foremost
innovators have a strong propensity to form portfolios consisting of international alliances. This underlines
the importance of this type of partnership in the face of the growing internationalization of R& D and global
technology sourcing. Being an innovator or imitator also increases the propensity to form a portfolio of
domestic alliances, relative to non-innovators; but this propensity is not stronger for innovators. Innovators
appear to derive benefit from both intensive (exploitative) and broad (explorative) use of external
information sources. The former type of sourcing is more important for innovators, while the latter is more
important for imitators. Finally, alliance complexity is found to have an inverse U-shape relationship to
innovative performance. On the one hand, complexity facilitates learning and innovativeness; on the other
hand, each organization has a certain management capacity to deal with complexity which sets limits on the
amount of alliance portfolio complexity that can be managed within the firm. This clearly suggests that
firms face a certain cognitive limit in terms of the degree of complexity they can handle. Despite the noted
advantages of an increasing level of alliance portfolio complexity firms will at a certain stage reach a
specific inflection point after which marginal costs of managing complexity are higher than the expected
benefits from this increased complexity.
Eisenberg I (2011) Lead-User Research for Breakthrough Innovation. Research-Technology Management
54:50-58
The best companies often work closely with their customers to uncover needs and wants that
can be translated into new or improved product or service offerings. The lead-user research method goes a
step further, looking not only to the typical customer but to those users whose needs and preferences lead the
market. These lead users, as they are called, will modify products or use them in unforeseen ways to meet
their needs. The lead-user research method was developed as a systematic way to mine the insights and
innovations of these lead users. Since it was pioneered in the late 1990s, the lead-user method has evolved
and grown. This paper offers an update on the use of the method and on adaptations to increase its efficiency
using online search and communities as well as an overview of lessons learned from experiences on more
than 20 lead-user projects.
Engel JS (2011) Accelerating Corporate Innovation: Lessons from the Venture Capital Model. ResearchTechnology Management 54:36-43
The last half century has seen the emergence of a new model of
business innovation featuring the convergence of entrepreneurs, rapid technological change, and venture
capital. This combination has proven an effective force at realizing disruptive innovation that has often left
incumbents shattered in their wake. What can the mature enterprise learn from this venture capital model of
innovation management? What is the role of the CTO in identifying and adopting these approaches? This
article investigates the ten leading strategies employed by venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to test new
ideas and commercialize innovations quickly. The most disruptive innovations are seen to be those that go
beyond technical discovery to embrace business model innovations that disrupt supply chains,
disintermediate incumbents, and create new markets. This article presents the tools the modern CTO needs
to participate in this dynamic process.
Eppinger S (2011) The Fundamental Challenge of Product Design. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:399-400
Product design practice is an evolving art form. We have made tremendous
improvement in methods for and execution of the process in recent years. Yet the challenge of
environmental sustainability of products is one area where design practice remains largely in the dark ages.
This essay argues that we need to embrace the imperative of design for environment and must evolve design
practices to address this challenge.
Erickson LB (2011) Herding Cats: Being Advice to Aspiring Academic and Research Leaders. ResearchTechnology Management 54:62-63
Erickson LB (2011) Web 2.0 and Social Networking for the Enterprise. Research-Technology Management
54:67-68
Esslinger H (2011) Sustainable Design: Beyond the Innovation-Driven Business Model. Journal of Product
Innovation Management 28:401-404 This essay discusses an evolving business model, the sustainabilitydriven business model, that designers are especially well suited to implement and promote. Designers have a
responsibility to connect and coordinate human needs and dreams with new opportunities and inspirations
from science, technology, and business in order for products and their usage to be culturally relevant,
economically productive, politically beneficial, and ecologically sustainable.
Ettlie JE, Rosenthal SR (2011) Service versus Manufacturing Innovation. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:285-299 This article describes how service and manufacturing firms are different when it
comes to innovation, based on a survey of firms in both sectors. Overall, four of the five hypotheses
developed for comparative study of new offerings were supported by the analyses of 38 new products and
29 new services. First and foremost, there appear to be real differences between how manufacturing and
services approach the innovation process, primarily because of the way organizations formalize
development of new offerings in these two sectors. Manufacturing is more likely to report the need for new
strategies and structures when products are new to the industry or new to the firm. However, services are
more likely to convert novelty into success. Services are significantly more likely to have a short beta testing
process and to exploit general manager (internally sourced) ideas for new offerings as an alternative to
formal innovation structures. However, manufacturing and services exhibit a similar tendency to exploit
customer (externally sourced) ideas for new offerings. The potential contribution of this study is to point the
direction for future work in the nascent research stream of service innovation, highlighting areas where there
appear to be fundamental differences between the innovation process in services and other sectors of the
economy. Key differences appear to be the alternative ways services formalize the innovative process, the
unique way services test customer concepts, and the combined role of general managers and professionals in
the development process. These differences have managerial implications. Working closely with customers,
service managers should proceed with their own unique approach to the innovative process, especially with
respect to prototyping and beta testing. Senior managers in service organizations should participate in the
ideation process for successful new service offerings, as part of their strategy-making responsibilities.
Euchner J (2011) The Other Side of Innovation: Solving the Execution Challenge. Research-Technology
Management 54:66-67
Euchner J, Christensen C (2011) Managing Disruption: an Interview with Clayton Christensen. ResearchTechnology Management 54:11-17
Euchner J, Henderson A (2011) The Practice of Innovation: Innovation as the Management of Constraints.
Research-Technology Management 54:47-54 Successful innovation requires the management of multiple
contexts: those of the customer the offering itself the business model for the offering, and the strategic aims
of the hosting corporation. An approach to managing these contexts and the constraints they impose was
developed and implemented at Pitney Bowes. Although it is designed to manage multiple constraints, the
approach is based on a deep and continuing reliance on the customer for direction. In this paper the
constraint-driven process is discussed and examples of innovation based on the approach are reviewed.
Euchner JA (2011) Innovation's "Skilled Incompetence". Research-Technology Management 54:10-11
Euchner JA (2011) Innovation and Risk. Research-Technology Management 54:9-9
Euchner JA (2011) Innovation Puzzles. Research-Technology Management 54:9-10
Festel G, De Cleyn SH, Boutellier R, Braet J (2011) Optimizing the R&D Process Using Spin-Outs: Case
Studies from the Pharmaceutical Industry. Research-Technology Management 54:32-41
OVERVIEW:
R&D spin-outs offer pharmaceutical companies an increasingly attractive mechanism for increasing the
effectiveness of R&D activities by allowing companies to maintain a clear focus on core activities and yet
still exploit discoveries that are less central to the core business. This study analyzed 42 European R&D
spin-outs with regard to background, realization, and further development. Interviews were conducted with
key personnel in both parent companies and spin-outs to explore the underlying strategy and success factors.
Key aspects of successful spin-outs are a clear focus on core activities and a cadre of highly motivated
employees. The use of spin-outs has resulted in increased activity along the entire pharmaceutical value
chain, producing an increase in drugs introduced to the market in recent years. However, spin-outs are also
responsible for the disintegration of established value chains, resulting in higher coordination and
transaction costs. Spin-outs offer managers a potential option to refocus their activities and reduce costs. The
successful examples and potential pitfalls offered here illustrate best practices for managing spin-outs to
maximize R&D productivity.
Figueiredo P (2011) The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value through Global Networks.
Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:138-139 The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated
Value through Global Networks. Generation Blend: Managing across the Technology Age Gap Conquering
Innovation Fatigue: Overcoming the Barriers to Personal and Corporate Success.
Frey KL (2011) Generation Blend: Managing across the Technology Age Gap. Journal of Product
Innovation Management 28:139-141
Fuchs C, Schreier M (2011) Customer Empowerment in New Product Development. Journal of Product
Innovation Management 28:17-32
The traditional new product development (NPD) model, in which
companies are exclusively responsible for coming up with new product ideas and for deciding which
products should ultimately be marketed, is increasingly being challenged by innovation management
academics and practitioners alike. In particular, many have advocated the idea of democratizing innovation
by empowering customers to take a much more active stake in corporate NPD. This has become feasible
because the Internet now allows companies to build strong online communities through which they can
listen to and integrate thousands of customers from all over the world. Extant research has provided strong
arguments that indicate that customer empowerment in NPD enables firms to develop better products and at
the same time to reduce costs and risks if customers in a given domain are willing and able to deliver
valuable input. Customer empowerment, however, not only affects the firm's internal NPD processes as
reflected in the products that are ultimately marketed. Instead, it might also affect the way companies are
perceived in the marketplace (by customers who observe that companies foster customer empowerment in
NPD). This paper provides the first empirical study to explore how customers from the "periphery" (i.e., the
mass that does not participate) perceive customer empowerment strategies. Customer empowerment in NPD
is conceptualized along two basic dimensions: (1) customer empowerment to create (ideas for) new product
designs; and (2) customer empowerment to select the product designs to be produced. Therefore, customers
may be empowered to submit (ideas for) new products (empowerment to create) or (2) to "vote" on which
products should ultimately be marketed (empowerment to select). In the course of two experimental studies
using three different product categories (T-shirts, furniture, and bicycles) both customer empowerment
dimensions (as well as its interaction) are found to lead to (1) increased levels of perceived customer
orientation, (2) more favorable corporate attitudes, (3) and stronger behavioral intentions. These findings
will be very useful to researchers and managers interested in understanding the enduring consequences of
customer empowerment in NPD. Most importantly, the results suggest that empowerment strategies might
be used to improve a firm's corporate associations as perceived by the broad mass of (potential) customers.
In particular, marketers might foster customer empowerment as an effective means of enhancing perceived
customer orientation. Customers will in turn provide rewards, as they will form more favorable corporate
attitudes and will be more likely to choose the products of empowering as opposed to nonempowering
companies, ceteris paribus. Customer empowerment thus constitutes a promising positioning strategy that
managers can pursue to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Fuller J, Hutter K, Faullant R (2011) Why co-creation experience matters? Creative experience and its
impact on the quantity and quality of creative contributions. R & D Management 41:259-273 This article
introduces 'virtual design competitions' as a new means of opening up the innovation process and enriching
the companies, 'design-ideas' by utilizing the creativity of a multiplicity of external designers and enthused
consumers all over the world. The 'Swarovski Enlightened (TM) jewellery design competition', explored in
this study, demonstrates the enormous potential of virtual co-creation platforms. It further highlights the
importance of the co-creation experience and its impact on the quantity and quality of designs submitted.
First, we introduce the idea of virtual co-creation platforms and the requirements on the design of such a
platform. Second, we explore the impact of the co-creation experience on the content contributed by
participants. Our study shows that co-creation experience significantly impacts the number of contributions
by consumers as well as the quality of submitted designs. Our paper contributes to a better theoretic
understanding of the impact of a participant's perceived autonomous, enjoyable, and competent experience,
as well as participants' perceived sense of community on their experience. From a managerial perspective, it
provides guidance in designing successful idea and design competitions. While innovation managers may be
interested in creative contributions, for participants, it is the experience which matters. Fully featured
community platforms rather than single idea submission websites are required to attract creative users to
submit their ideas and designs.
Gao XD (2011) Effective Strategies to Catch up in the Era of Globalization: Experiences of Local Chinese
Telecom Equipment Firms. Research-Technology Management 54:42-49
OVERVIEW: Firms in
emerging markets have traditionally followed one of two strategies to catch up with multinational
enterprises (MNEs): developing customized products, services, or innovative business models or buying and
absorbing technology from MNEs. In the era of globalization, these strategies are no longer effective. The
new strategy to succeed is innovation-based differentiation, developing core technologies and advanced
product offerings that are delivered at a low cost and with excellent customer service. Using this strategy,
leading local firms are quickly catching up with MNEs in market development, technology development, or
both.
Garcia R, Jager W (2011) From the Special Issue Editors: Agent-Based Modeling of Innovation Diffusion.
Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:148-151
Gobble M (2011) Intellectual Property Cases Reshaping Biotech. Research-Technology Management 54:5-6
Gobble MAM (2011) IRI Announces New Research-on-Research Working Groups. Research-Technology
Management 54:6-7
Goffin K, Koners U (2011) Tacit Knowledge, Lessons Learnt, and New Product Development. Journal of
Product Innovation Management 28:300-318 New product development (NPD) is a complex activity that
is dependent on knowledge and learning. Much of the knowledge generated in NPD is tacit; it is difficult to
express, connected with problem solving, and dependent on the interactions within teams. Post-project
reviews (PPRs) are recognized as a highly effective mechanism for stimulating learning in NPD teams but,
surprisingly, neither the typical "lessons learnt" that emerge from PPRs nor the role of tacit knowledge in
NPD learning have previously been studied. To address this gap, five in-depth case studies were conducted
at leading German companies. Three main sources of data were used: interviews with experienced NPD
personnel using repertory grid technique, inspection of company process and project documentation, and
observations of PPR discussions. Systematic coding of the qualitative data was conducted by two
researchers working in parallel and verified through checks involving independent researchers. The coding
process identified the lessons learnt and also the usage of metaphors and stories (which signifies tacit
knowledge generation). The lessons that NPD personnel perceive to be the most important were identified
from the repertory grid data. These included: knowing how to deal with project budgets, solving technical
problems, meeting schedules, resource management, and managing organizational complexity. Four lessons
learnt appear to be particularly closely linked to tacit knowledge: dealing with project budgets, problem
solving, coping with time schedules, and coping with changes in product specifications. Data triangulation
showed that the five companies did not capture many lessons in their reports on PPRs. In addition, it appears
that the learning that was related to tacit knowledge was not captured for dissemination. Although the results
from our exploratory sample cannot be generalized, there are some important implications. The results
indicate that R&D managers should capitalize on the tacit knowledge within their organizations through
mentoring (to transfer the lessons that are most closely linked to tacit knowledge), and encouraging the use
of metaphors and stories to transfer key NPD knowledge. Future research needs to verify the results using a
larger sample, focus on how NPD professionals learn, and identify the mechanisms that facilitate the transfer
of tacit knowledge and project-to-project learning. Tacit knowledge is a popular management concept but
one that is poorly understood, as empirical evidence to demonstrate the validity of the theoretical concepts is
sadly lacking. This provides a unique opportunity for NPD scholars-they have the ideal arena in which a
deeper understanding of tacit knowledge can be generated.
Griffin A (2011) Legitimizing Academic Research in Design: Lessons from Research on New Product
Development and Innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:428-433 This article traces
how academic research in the domain of new product development and innovation has become "legitimized"
over the last several decades and makes three suggestions for how academics in the research domain of
design can pursue a similar legitimization process. Specifically, academics researching design issues should:
(1) partner with a professional design association; (2) develop a high-quality peer-reviewed journal focusing
on design issues; and (3) organize an A-level association design special-interest group.
Guiltinan J (2011) Progress and Challenges in Product Line Pricing. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:744-756 In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in research on product line
pricing. Modelers in multiple disciplines have offered methods for the optimal design/selection and pricing
of the products in new or modified product lines. Behavioral scientists have contributed insights on how
consumers' perceptions of product line prices, attributes, and quality levels influence their evaluation of the
alternative choices. Significantly, the work of both modelers and behavioral scientists is distributed across
three types of product line contexts: price-quality product lines, multi-attribute product lines, and product
lines that include a core product plus options. This paper reviews this literature, and assesses its usefulness
for managers. One observation is that, while scholars have developed approaches to optimization that offer
increased scope and tractability, the applicability of these models is constrained by the narrow specification
of profit functions, and the limited consideration of competitive and other dynamic forces. A second
conclusion is that the managerial usefulness of the behavioral science research on perceptions and productline choice has been limited by a dependence on attribute-based estimation of utilities, uncertainty about
possible interaction effects, and an excessive focus on the cannibalization aspects of product line pricing.
Based on the review, a research agenda is identified for enhancing the applicability of research on consumer
perceptions and choice to product line pricing decisions, and for building more complete product line price
optimization models.
Guimon J (2011) Policies to benefit from the globalization of corporate R&D: An exploratory study for EU
countries. Technovation 31:77-86 This article explores how the globalization of corporate R&D has led to
the emergence of new policy strategies across the EU, involving a more proactive role of governments and a
closer connection between innovation policies and FDI promotion policies. The first part presents an
analytical framework encompassing the main policy objectives and instruments at stake, which aims at
facilitating the design and evaluation of policies geared towards the globalization of corporate R&D. Both
the policies to attract inward FDI in R&D and those towards R&D offshoring are addressed, as well as the
distinct policy implications of alternative entry modes. The second part provides evidence of the evolution
of European policies in response to the globalization of corporate R&D, pointing out a set of countryspecific examples and suggesting avenues for policy intervention at the EU level. Although the focus is on
the EU, this study may inform policy learning in other developed and developing countries alike.
Guo B, Guo JJ (2011) Patterns of technological learning within the knowledge systems of industrial clusters
in emerging economies: Evidence from China. Technovation 31:87-104
Through an interview-based
exploratory study and a follow-up survey-based quantitative analysis, this paper investigates the
technological learning pattern in terms of structure and mechanisms of interaction within the knowledge
system of two industrial clusters in China. Unlike the recent studies that suggest that industrial cluster
comprises disconnected leader-centered communities, we argue that the different leader-centered
communities within the knowledge systems of industrial clusters are not disconnected from each other.
Instead, those communities are inter-connected through the so-called 'knowledge spanning mechanisms'.
Regarding the interaction dimension of technological learning pattern, this paper argues that in analyzing
learning behavior in the knowledge networks of industrial clusters, it is necessary to synthesize the learning
opportunity perspective and the absorptive capacity perspective to better understand and explain the
similarities and dissimilarities in technological learning behavior among different cluster types, across
cognitive subgroups, and between product innovation and process innovation. Our study reveals that in the
context of emerging countries, the following four factors are decisive for technological learning
opportunities inside the knowledge networks of industrial clusters: the underlying complexity of technology
in clusters, the inter-connectedness between product and process, path dependency in knowledge searching,
and the incremental nature of a cluster's technological development.
Gwynne P (2011) A Different Approach to Drug Discovery. Research-Technology Management 54:5-6
Gwynne P (2011) Resuscitating the Rare Earths. Research-Technology Management 54:3-5
Gwynne P (2011) Can the US Ride Out The Gathering Storm? Research-Technology Management 54:3-5
Gwynne P (2011) Dealing with the Chinese Dragon. Research-Technology Management 54:2-3
Hammedi W, van Riel ACR, Sasovova Z (2011) Antecedents and Consequences of Reflexivity in New
Product Idea Screening. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:662-679
Pre-development
activities, such as new product idea screening, are considered to play an important role in innovation
success. At the screening stage, a management team evaluates new product and service ideas and makes a
first go/no-go decision under high levels of uncertainty and ambiguity. Paying more attention to the
decision-making process in the screening stage appears important because too rigorous a use of rigid
evaluation criteria and inflexible methods have been shown to have an adverse effect on market performance
of novel products. The present study proposes and tests a model of team-level antecedents and consequences
of reflexivity-the explicit evaluation and discussion of working methods, tools, and criteria within a team.
Recently, researchers have proposed that cognitive style and leadership style are major antecedents of
decision-making performance. This study posits that reflexivity offers an explanation of how
transformational leadership and cognitive style can eventually affect decision-making performance in the
context of new product idea screening. Results of a survey among 126 top managers from large international
firms show that the positive effects of transformational leadership and procedural rationality on the
effectiveness and efficiency of screening decision making are largely mediated by reflexivity at the team
level. This suggests that screening teams can improve their decision making in the following ways:
committee chairs are advised to stimulate openness, develop a stop-and-think attitude among screening
committee members, and support argument-based discussion in order to adapt available decision tools,
models, and checklists whenever needed. The paper concludes with implications, limitations of the study,
and suggestions for further research.
Hart MA (2011) Agile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products that Customers Love. Journal of
Product Innovation Management 28:615-615
Hartley S (2011) The Effectiveness of the Chief Technology Officer. Research-Technology Management
54:28-35 The significant role of technology in strategic business activities and new-product development
has driven companies to create a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) position to lead and direct technology
development activities. The CTO is a new and evolving role, having been first utilized only within the last
few decades. Although the position is becoming more widely used, there is still a lack of understanding as to
the specific benefits a CTO position can bring to an organization. There has been little research to date
focusing on the CTO role and even less with empirical data. The purpose of this paper is to fill an important
gap by analyzing a number of innovation and financial metrics to assess the impact of the CTO on an
organization's performance. An analysis of the data shows that the CTO role is effective in promoting both
innovation and financial improvements. This provides support for the creation and continued use of the CTO
position in companies. An unexpected outcome of this research was a reduction in CTO effectiveness with
increasing company size.
Helfat CE (2011) Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management: Organizing for Innovation and Growth.
R & D Management 41:217-218
Helmick D, Goss W, Kashdan D, Wikman B, Blake J (2011) Questions and Answers from Iri's Members.
Research-Technology Management 54:57-59
Hernandez-Espallardo M, Sanchez-Perez M, Segovia-Lopez C (2011) Exploitation- and exploration-based
innovations: The role of knowledge in inter-firm relationships with distributors. Technovation 31:203-215
Learning capacity is a critical factor for a firm's innovation and competitiveness. This study explores the
issue of how knowledge in inter-firm relationships with distributors influences manufacturers' exploitationand exploration-based innovations and performance. The empirical model examines the effect of three
different types of knowledge-related issues in inter-firm relationships: (i) the acquisition of substantial
knowledge (about products, technology, or markets) from distributors; (ii) the learning about collaborating
with each distributor as the relationship evolves; and (iii) the general firm's knowledge about managing
distributors. A model of learning innovation performance is developed and tested in a sample of 201 firms in
the food and beverages sector. The results reveal that: (i) knowledge about managing distributors promotes
continuous learning from them; (ii) learning to collaborate is critical, as it favours knowledge acquisition
and both types of innovations (exploitation and exploration-based); (iii) learning from distributors weakens
firms' tendency to stress one type of innovation strategy over another; and (iv) knowledge in inter-firm
relationships with distributors affects performance in a completely mediated way, that is, through
innovation. Theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed in the conclusion of the
paper.
Hervas-Oliver JL, Garrigos JA, Gil-Pechuan I (2011) Making sense of innovation by R&D and non-R&D
innovators in low technology contexts: A forgotten lesson for policymakers. Technovation 31:427-446
This paper attempts to use an integrated theory based on the framework of a firm's internal and external
sources of knowledge to analyze how R&D activities differ in innovation from non-R&D activities,
especially in the context of low and medium-low tech (LMT) sectors where most of the firms are SMEs.
Simultaneously, the paper also explores the key differences between R&D and non-R&D innovators. The
empirical analysis is based on a representative panel of 2023 Spanish manufacturing firms from the Spanish
Ministry of Industry for 2005 and 2006. Innovation in product and process is explained using non-R&D
variables such as marketing, design or the hiring of tertiary degree employees. Only innovation in product is
explained by R&D expenditures. Regarding innovation in process, the R&D variables work in a few specific
cases. Therefore, innovation can be explained using non-R&D variables. The firms with more internal
resources, those which conduct R&D activities, present a better absorptive capacity (AC) and this leads
them to engage in cooperation agreements and to access external flows of knowledge. The paper has
important implications for policymakers due to the fact that most policies for R&D are based just on R&D
programmes.
Hoegg J, Alba JW (2011) Seeing Is Believing (Too Much): The Influence of Product Form on Perceptions
of Functional Performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:346-359 The present research
investigates the manner in which product form communicates functional performance, and examines how
the form of a product can alter judgments about feature function. In a series of experiments, product form is
pitted against objective information about feature function to understand how conflicting visual and verbal
cues are reconciled. The findings indicate that when a product's form suggests a particular level of functional
performance, consumers naturally incorporate that information into judgments of feature performance, even
when presented with conflicting feature information from an objective source. The role of consumer
attention in the process is also explored. The results suggest that product developers may be able to improve
perceived performance by focusing design efforts and marketing communications on specific features that
visually communicate functionality.
Hoffman D et al. (2011) Iri Community Forum. Research-Technology Management 54:56-58
Hopkins MM, Tidd J, Nightingale P, Miller R (2011) Generative and degenerative interactions: positive and
negative dynamics of open, user-centric innovation in technology and engineering consultancies. R & D
Management 41:44-60 The related concepts of open innovation and user-centric innovation are currently
popular in the literature on technology and innovation management. In this paper, we attempt to address two
shortcomings to their practical application. First, the precise mechanisms supporting open and user
innovation in different industrial contexts are poorly specified. Second, it is not clear under what
circumstances they might become dysfunctional. We identify how the interaction of meso- and micro-level
mechanisms contribute to project-based user-centric innovation, based on a detailed characterization of the
business activities of eight technology and engineering consultancies working across a range of sectors. We
develop and illustrate the notion of generative interaction, which describes a series of mechanisms that
produce a self-re-enforcing ecology, which favours innovation and profitability. At the same time, we
observe the opposite dynamics of self-reinforcing degenerative interaction likely to produce a cycle of
declining innovation and profitability. In the specific context of project-based firms, we show that usercentric, open innovation can affect performance negatively, and we discuss the consequences (positive and
negative) of different patterns of interaction with clients.
Hsiao CT, Chang PL, Chen CW, Huang HH (2011) A systems view for the high-tech industry development:
a case study of large-area TFT-LCD industry in Taiwan. Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 19:117132
The display industry has followed the semiconductor industry in becoming an important high-tech
industry in the world. In 2007, Taiwan became the largest large-area Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal
Display (TFT-LCD) producer within only 30 years. In reality, the development of Taiwanese large-area
TFT-LCD industry has been intimately related with the mutual drive and impact of many different factors.
System approach uses a holistic conception of the world, defining analytical problems through systematic
thinking. This study uses this method to propose a causative relationship model for the Taiwanese large-area
TFT-LCD industry to explore its system behaviours. Discussions are presented systematically, based upon
the causative model.
Hsieh JY (2011) A multilevel growth assessment of the diffusion of management innovation nested in state
levels: The case of US local economic development programs. Innovation-Management Policy & Practice
13:2-19
The practice of local public programs is an interesting topic for the study of the diffusion of
management innovation. Based on previous research on the diffusion of innovative policy in state
governments, this research employs a panel design to analyse the passage of management innovation related
to local economic development programs. Panel data drawn from 1994, 1999, and 2004 USA International
City/County Management Association (ICMA) surveys on economic developments of municipal and county
governments were used. Using a multilevel growth curve model, the findings indicated that the diffusion of
management innovation (e. g., adoption of economic development plans and performance measures) did not
spread as expected between and within the localities sampled, even if management innovation has become a
widespread practice in federal and state governments. However, our estimates found that the diffusion
factors (e. g., internal determinants, learning, and competitiveness) contributed to the adoption of a
performance measure and to an economic development plan to retain and attract local businesses and to
drive economic growth. Using a panel design (rather than a cross-sectional study) to look at the changes of
adoption of management innovation, this research examined the diffusion of policy innovations in local
management. State factors are found to have an impact on local practices in the USA.
Hsuan J, Mahnke V (2011) Outsourcing R&D: a review, model, and research agenda. R & D Management
41:1-7
Outsourcing R&D is an increasingly explored corporate practice. Extant research advanced our
initial understanding of its increasing importance and benefits. While the associated literature has
blossomed, the enthusiasm of R&D managers is tenured by an increasing realization of the possible
downsides, risks, and costs that come with increasing use of external sources of innovation. Here, we
suggest that research on outsourcing R&D has to move towards a balanced view on the profitability of such
arrangements. To this end, we offer a review of what we know and need to know about outsourcing R&D,
suggest a simple, yet integrative model on the relation between outsourcing R&D and performance, and
offer a research agenda that is instrumental in guiding companies' process-management and design strategies
when seeking to benefit from the outsourcing of R&D.
Huizingh E (2011) Open innovation: State of the art and future perspectives. Technovation 31:2-9
Open
innovation has become one of the hottest topics in innovation management. This article intends to explore
the limits in our understanding of the open innovation concept. In doing so, I address the questions of what
(the content of open innovation), when (the context dependency) and how (the process). Open innovation is
a rich concept, that can be implemented in many different ways. The context dependency of open innovation
is one of the least understood topics; more research is needed on the internal and external environment
characteristics affecting performance. The open innovation process relates to both the transition towards
open innovation, and the various open innovation practices. As with any new concept, initial studies focus
on successful and early adopters, are based on case studies, and descriptive. However, not all lessons learned
from the early adopters may be applicable to following firms. Case study research increases our
understanding of how things work and enables us to identify important phenomena. They should be
followed by quantitative studies involving large samples to determine the relative importance of factors, to
build path models to understand chains of effects, and to formally test for context dependencies. However,
the evidence shows that open innovation has been a valuable concept for so many firms and in so many
contexts, that it is on its way to find its final place in innovation management.
Huizingh E, Conn S, Torkkeli M (2011) ISPIM special issue on open innovation. Technovation 31:1-1
Hung SC, Tu MF (2011) Technological change as chaotic process. R & D Management 41:378-392
In
this paper, we draw upon the concepts of chaos theory to examine technological change as a pattern of
punctuated equilibrium through the alternation of continuity and discontinuity across time. We advocate the
application of the chaos mathematical technique of time-varying local Lyapunov exponents to estimate the
rates of change, timing of technological transitions and the continuity discontinuity loop time periods. To
illustrate our framework of ideas, we investigated and compared the development of four technologies semiconductor, display, software, and biotechnology - from 1976 to 2005, using time series patent data.
Implications for theory, method, and practice are discussed.
Jacobs M, Droge C, Vickery SK, Calantone R (2011) Product and Process Modularity's Effects on
Manufacturing Agility and Firm Growth Performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:123137 Modularity in product design has been hailed as a way to speed new product development (NPD), to
reduce NPD cost, and to enhance customization possibilities for consumers. Modularity in process design
may speed new product manufacturing setup times, reduce costs, and enhance the profitability of the lower
volumes that customization often entails. However, empirical evidence is scarce that either product or
process modularity-individually, jointly, or sequentially-actually produce these or other proposed benefits
(e.g., performance growth). This study builds on general modular systems theory (GMST) by examining the
theoretical relationship between product and process modularity and the effects of each on firm growth
performance. Using structural equation modeling, partial versus complete mediation by manufacturing
agility is also scrutinized. In one pair of models, product modularity and process modularity are separate
direct antecedents to manufacturing agility, which is modeled to affect firm growth performance; in a
second pair of models, product and process modularity are related antecedents to manufacturing agility, with
product modularity preceding process modularity. Results from the best-fitting model show that product
modularity directly and positively affects process modularity, manufacturing agility, and firm growth
performance. Process modularity was unrelated to manufacturing agility, and neither process modularity nor
manufacturing agility predicted growth performance. Consistent with GMST, the study provides empirical
evidence of the power of one element of a modular system to orchestrate a fit between a firm's product and
manufacturing strategies and to directly drive system performance. Thus, modularity in product design is
revealed as the key to understanding GMST effects concerning how changes in one system generate changes
in other systems.
Jimenez-Barrionuevo MM, Garcia-Morales VJ, Molina LM (2011) Validation of an instrument to measure
absorptive capacity. Technovation 31:190-202
Absorptive capacity is an ability firms should develop if
they wish to adapt to changes in an increasingly competitive and changing environment and to achieve and
sustain competitive advantage. Despite the increase in literature on absorptive capacity, some ambiguity
remains in determining the dimensions that shape the construct. Thus, no measurement instrument can be
adapted to these dimensions. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature on absorptive capacity by
using a resource-based view to present an alternative measurement instrument for absorptive capacity. This
instrument differentiates between the phases of acquisition. assimilation, transformation and exploitation of
knowledge, as well as between the two dimensions of absorptive capacity (potential and realized), to reduce
the problem of measuring and identifying the dimensions that shape this important construct. The
instrument's validity and reliability are guaranteed and have been tested using data from 168 Spanish
organizations.
Jun Y (2011) Technological catching-up and isolation avoidance: the case of the mobile communications
industry in Korea and Japan. Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 19:149-168
This paper addresses
the issue of new path creation and the survival of the path in technological catching-up. While catching-up
literature suggests that a latecomer country may catch-up the advanced ones by creating a new technological
path, this paper argues that path-creation must be complemented by Intra-Path Integration and Inter-Path
Reconfiguration. In order to confirm this argument, this paper has analysed the cases of Japanese and
Korean mobile communications industries. Both countries created new technological paths, but the adoption
and the further growth of the Japanese technological path was limited while the Korean path successfully
expanded its market performance through the use of Intra-Path Integration and Inter-Path Reconfiguration.
These case studies support the argument that Path-Creation alone cannot be a reliable strategy for a
latecomer country and must be complemented by two other stages and capabilities, Intra-Path Integration
and Inter-Path Reconfiguration.
Jurgens-Kowal T (2011) Conquering Innovation Fatigue: Overcoming the Barriers to Personal and
Corporate Success. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:141-143
Kaafarani B, Stevenson J (2011) Breaking Away: an Innovation Model for Sustainable Growth. ResearchTechnology Management 54:44-51
When most people think of innovation they think huge-lightbulb or
Internet huge. While we'd all love to be a part of something that transforms the world, the fact is, few of us
will have that chance. That doesn't mean remarkable innovation is beyond reach far from it. Based on over
five decades of combined experience in the innovation trenches and research into more than 50 companies
around the globe, we introduce a new model that portrays innovation as a multilevel construct. In this
model, innovation is organized into four levels: transformational, category, marketplace, and operational.
Each level offers tremendous opportunities to revolutionize an industry, a market, or the company itself In
addition, we introduce the concept of "cascading," the phenomenon by which one innovation inspires ideas
for others in a natural progression. Adopting the multilevel view of innovation can help develop a blueprint
for building the ultimate innovation team one that is cross-functional, collaborative, and focused on
sustainable growth.
Karniouchina EV (2011) Are Virtual Markets Efficient Predictors of New Product Success? The Case of the
Hollywood Stock Exchange. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:470-484
Defining effective
methods for determining consumer preferences for products prior to their launch has been a mainstay of
marketing and management literature for decades. Virtual Stock Markets (VSMs) is an emerging method in
new product forecasting that has been shown to produce reliable new product sales estimates by combining
individual preferences via market-based aggregation mechanisms. Due to the emerging popularity of VSMs
among practitioners, this cross-disciplinary study (combining insights from finance, marketing, and new
product development fields) uses the example of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) and examines its
predictive validity and potential systematic biases in its predictions to help think about the general
applicability of these forecasting methods to other product areas, or how forecasts in other product areas
may need to be modified to be more precise. This study finds evidence of overestimating the sales potential
associated with products on the low end of the revenue expectation spectrum, which could be linked to the
fact that in artificial exchanges, where no money changes hands, people tend to gamble hoping to make
excessive returns. However, this explanation is weakened by the introduction of additional variables linked
to the negative influence of information search costs (harder to utilize information is not fully reflected in
the stock prices) and over-utilization of highly visible/conspicuous information. Practical implications for
managers considering using VSMs for new product forecasting in creative gestalt-like settings are discussed.
Kashdan D et al. (2011) Questions and Answers from Iri's Members. Research-Technology Management
54:57-58
Kay L (2011) The effect of inducement prizes on innovation: evidence from the Ansari X Prize and the
Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. R & D Management 41:360-377
Inducement prizes are
increasingly popular because of their potential to induce technological innovations and attain related goals.
Academic research, however, has barely investigated these prizes. This paper investigates the motivation of
prize entrants, the characteristics of their research and development (R&D) activities, and the overall effect
of prizes on innovation using case study research and documentary data sources. The Ansari X Prize and the
Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, both considered successful technology competitions in the
aerospace sector, are investigated. The findings show that, first, incentives created by competitions,
particularly those that are nonmonetary, attract unconventional entrants. The market value of the prize
technologies motivate entrants as well but do not attract traditional industry players. Second, limited
technology development lead times and no up-front funding characterize prize R&D activities, yet their
differences with traditional industry practices are caused by participant-level factors. Most importantly, the
introduction of novel R&D approaches is associated with the participation of unconventional entrants. Third,
these prizes induced innovations over and above what would have occurred anyway, with the caveat that
they were linked to significant technology incentives and fundamentally, ongoing R&D processes. These
findings put forward lessons that inform the design of more effective prize competitions.
Kester L, Griffin A, Hultink EJ, Lauche K (2011) Exploring Portfolio Decision-Making Processes. Journal
of Product Innovation Management 28:641-661 Portfolio management is the set of activities that allows a
firm to select, develop, and commercialize a pipeline of new products aligned with the firm's strategy that
will enable it to continue to grow profitably over the long term. To appropriately manage the firm's new
product portfolio, decisions must be made about which projects to fund, to what levels, at what point in
time. Previous research has investigated portfolio management decisions as individually discrete decisions.
Significant streams of research have investigated both project selection and project termination decisions.
This research project shows, however, that portfolio decision making may be better understood if it is
considered as an integrated system of processes that considers these decisions simultaneously, along with
other decisions such as those to continue a project with reduced funding. Using in-depth data from four
diverse case studies, we use a grounded theory approach to develop a general model of how firms make new
product portfolio decisions. According to the findings from these cases, effective portfolio decision-making
processes produce a portfolio mindset, focus effort on the right projects, and allow agile decision making
across the portfolio's set of projects. Effective portfolio decision making is the result of the interaction
between three types of decision-making processes that managers use in making decisions: evidence-, power, and opinion-based. Being able to use each of these types of processes to make decisions depends upon
having the data inputs that they require. Three domain-based decision input-generating processes (i.e., crossfunctional collaboration, practices of critical thinking, and practices of market immersion) are associated
with making evidence-based portfolio decisions. In addition, organizational politics produces the inputs that
are associated with power-based portfolio decision making, while managerial intuition is associated with
opinion-based portfolio decision making. Firm cultural factors, including trust, collective ambition, and
leadership style, are associated with how these evidence-, power- and opinion-based processes are combined
into an overall portfolio decision making process, and whether the firm's processes are more rational and
objectively made, or more politically and intuitively made. The article presents propositions for how the
decision-making processes interact in their associations with decision-making effectiveness.
Kim J, Kim S, Lee H (2011) An effect of technology innovation activity on firm value and a mediation
effect of leverage: evidence from Korean firms. Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 19:37-51
This
paper examines a relation between technology innovation activity (TA) and firm value. Using a
simultaneous equation approach, we focus on a mediation effect of leverage, an indirect effect of TIA on
firm value via its effect on firm leverage. This paper finds evidence that an increase in TIA of Korean firms
leads to not only a direct increase in firm value but also to an indirect decrease in the value via a reduction in
leverage. Conditional quantile regressions indicate that the direct effect of TIA on firm value is greater at the
upper quantiles of firm value (Tobin's Q) whereas it is stronger at the lower quantiles. This study captures
up a distinctive, negative mediation effect of leverage, irrespective of firm value and a leverage level.(1)
Kim M, Lee SY (2011) The effects of government financial support on business innovation in South Korea.
Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 19:67-83 This paper briefly explains the evolution of the Korean
government's financial support for business innovation and then presents an economic analysis of the effects
of the government's research and development (R&D) investment on innovation output at the firm level. The
empirical analysis is based on the Korean Innovation Survey 2005 and uses probit regression models and
matching estimators. It found that government funding generally has a positive effect on innovation output
at the firm level. When it comes to the level of innovativeness, however, it is revealed that government
financial support has a positive, but statistically insignificant, effect on achieving high innovativeness. This
finding is especially noteworthy considering how hard the government has tried to level up the novelty of its
national innovation system, promoting enterprises to being developers and not just adopters in the
innovation process. South Korea has successfully caught up with advanced economies by adopting and
adapting imported technologies at a rapid rate.
Klein J (2011) Technology Management - Activities and Tools. R & D Management 41:318-319
Knudsen MP, Mortensen TB (2011) Some immediate - but negative - effects of openness on product
development performance. Technovation 31:54-64
This paper charts an unnoticed theme in the current
debate on open innovation, namely the foundational question whether increasing openness is beneficial? The
paper approaches this question by conceptualising the degree of 'openness' and analyses the importance of
increasing degrees of openness for NPD performance. Inter-organizational relationships in New Product
Development lay the foundation for operationalising openness because these represent important sources of
ideas and knowledge in purposive inbound open innovation. This exploratory paper finds that on immediate
NPD performance measures the single firm strategy is performing better than the collaborative strategy.
However, we also find that the use of internal and external relationships is highly correlated and that these
interact with each other. Finally, with increasing degrees of openness the product development projects are
slower than the norm in the industry, slower than what is usual for the firm's projects and had higher cost
than the norm in the industry and the firm's usual projects. These results offer a more critical perspective on
openness and NPD performance than the literature on the open innovation paradigm suggests. The paper
discusses these results and offers some challenges for management and research of open innovation.
Koen PA, Bertels HMJ, Elsum IR (2011) The Three Faces of Business Model Innovation: Challenges for
Established Firms. Research-Technology Management 54:52-59
Business model innovation represents a
significant opportunity for established firms, as demonstrated by the considerable success of Apple's
iPod/iTunes franchise. However, it also represents a challenge, as evidenced by Kodak's failed attempt to
dominate the digital photography market and Microsoft's difficulty gaining share in the gaming market,
despite both companies huge financial investments. We developed a business model innovation typology to
better explain the complex set of factors that distinguishes three types of business model innovations and
their associated challenges.
Kramer JP, Marinelli E, Iammarino S, Diez JR (2011) Intangible assets as drivers of innovation: Empirical
evidence on multinational enterprises in German and UK regional systems of innovation. Technovation
31:447-458 The sources of value creation are increasingly relying on intangible assets (IAs). IAs are the
lifeblood of knowledge-intensive industries where the new value added is disproportionally based on
specialized, non-repetitious activities. However, while the role of IAs is recognised as central to sustain the
competitiveness of firms and innovation systems, the understanding of the mechanisms through which IAs
display their effects has not yet been fully grasped. By focussing on the processes through which
investments in IAs occur, this paper aims to explore the key dimensions through which two specific IAs organisational and network capital - are enhanced and contribute to the innovativeness and embeddedness of
Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in regional innovation systems. On the basis of over forty in-depth
interviews to leading staff of German and UK flagship MNEs operating in the automotive, life science and
ICT sectors, the paper shows that MNEs adopt rather distinctive strategies to develop IAs; that MNE degree
of local embeddedness is strictly related to both the kind of IA strategy and the local environment; and that
causation mechanisms are at work between MNE embeddedness and regional creation of IAs.
Krippendorff K (2011) Principles of Design and a Trajectory of Artificiality. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:411-418
This chapter examines the shape of product design in light of recent and
ongoing technological and cultural developments. It presents a trajectory of problems (<link
rid="b2">Krippendorff, 1997) that have been and are currently fueling design considerations and reviews
several stages of the amazing transformations design is undergoing. Based on this history, it comes to the
conclusion that the design of "products" has morphed into the design of increasingly language-like,
communicative, and social artifacts and, based on these observations, it develops nine design principles that
are and should govern contemporary design.
Kuesten C (2011) Sensory Marketing. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:613-615
Kumpf RJ (2011) Conquering Innovation Fatigue: Overcoming the Barriers to Personal and Corporate
Success. Research-Technology Management 54:63-63
Kurkkio M, Frishammar J, Lichtenthaler U (2011) Where process development begins: A multiple case
study of front end activities in process firms. Technovation 31:490-504
The front end phase of the new
product development has been examined extensively, yet few if any studies have examined the front end
phase of new process development. By means of a multiple case study of process firms, this article aims to
bridge this knowledge gap. Our results show that substantial differences in front end activities exist between
the product development and process development domains. We conceptualize the front end in process
development to be an iterative trial-and-error process, dominated by activities such as idea generation and
refinement, literature reviews, anticipation of end-product changes, and various forms of experiments in
bench scale, lab scale, and full-scale production. In addition, we highlight key problems in the front end and
managerial remedies for how to mitigate them. While these findings provide theoretical implications for
research into product development, process development and production management, the findings are
particularly relevant to process development managers, plant managers, and development engineers
interested in increasing the efficiency of production processes.
Kuster I, Vila N (2011) The market orientation-innovation-success relationship: The role of
internationalization strategy. Innovation-Management Policy & Practice 13:36-54
This paper is focused
on how relationships between market orientation strategy, innovation and business success could differ in an
international context. The article develops a theoretical framework as an overview to the main relationships
between these concepts. It also shows that international strategy can play a determinant role in this
framework. Therefore, the article presents a study that includes interviewing 154 Spanish textile firm
managers with the aim of contrasting market orientation-innovation-success relationships and the role of
internationalization strategy. Results show that market orientation is related to innovation, and innovation to
success, both in international and non international firms. However, some differences between both subsamples were identified.
Kyoung-Joo L (2011) From interpersonal networks to inter-organizational alliances for university-industry
collaborations in Japan: the case of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. R & D Management 41:190-201
Successful collaborations between university and industry (U-I) promise numerous mutual benefits. In order
to realize these benefits, both parties need effective governance mechanisms to overcome organizational and
cultural barriers. Until 2004 in Japan, national universities were government organizations, and as such, they
were prevented from actively pursuing collaborations with industry. Under this restriction, U-I
collaborations were established through informal interpersonal networks. Joint R&D projects were
inherently small and seldom likely to generate concrete results for industry. After a series of institutional and
organizational reforms by the Japanese government, universities and industries adopted a new strategic
approach in the early 2000s to form inter-organizational alliances. Based on the case of the Tokyo Institute
of Technology, this paper analyzes how the inter-organizational alliances are managed and investigates their
impact on joint R&D projects, in comparison with the traditional interpersonal networks. Additional
research indicates that most national and private universities adopt management schemes similar to those
presented in the case study. The findings suggest that inter-organizational U-I alliances, being equipped with
contractual arrangements, organizational commitments, specialized coordination, and formal evaluation
procedures, enable alliance partners to initiate more explorative research, to organize interdisciplinary
projects with faculties in different research fields, and to establish larger-scale R&D projects.
Larson E (2011) R&D on the Fast Track to Globalization. Research-Technology Management 54:2-3
Larson E (2011) International PhDs Will Drive Innovation Into the Future. Research-Technology
Management 54:5-6
Larson E (2011) The Battle for the Net. Research-Technology Management 54:3-5
Lau AKW, Yam RCM, Tang E (2011) The Impact of Product Modularity on New Product Performance:
Mediation by Product Innovativeness. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:270-284 In light of
problem solving, system complexity, and dominant design theories, some researchers suggest that modular
product design promotes product innovation through experimenting with many alternative approaches
simultaneously. This leads to rapid trial-and-error learning and accelerates new product introduction.
However, others argue that modular product design inhibits innovation because common modules can be
overly reused, the degree of freedom for innovation is limited due to module compatibility, and knowledge
sharing among module teams is weakened. There is no conclusive argument regarding the relationships
between product modularity and new product performance, or between product innovativeness and new
product performance. This article fills this gap by investigating the relationships of these three important
constructs through an empirical study. Data were collected from 115 companies in the electronics industry.
The findings show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between product modularity and product
innovativeness. The results also reveal a lack of direct relationship between product modularity and new
product performance, but discover an indirect relationship between the two mediated by product
innovativeness. Manufacturers should closely monitor the negative impacts of modularity, as extreme
modularity can reduce product innovativeness. If there are any signs of diminishing product innovativeness,
problems with poor communication across module teams, or excessive design alternatives, the
manufacturers should stop further modularizing their products. Alternatively, manufacturers can take steps
to reduce the negative effects of modularity. For instance, manufacturers can develop ways to strengthen
communication among module teams. They can also use a set of design rules to reduce the number of design
alternatives systematically or a design method to balance product commonality and differentiation during
the development processes.
Le Dain MA, Calvi R, Cheriti S (2011) Measuring supplier performance in collaborative design: proposition
of a framework. R & D Management 41:61-79
With the rapid increase of component outsourcing,
suppliers play more important roles in New Product Development (NPD) projects. Previous research has
shown that the selection of the appropriate supplier, as well as the choice of both the time and the degree of
its involvement, have a major impact on NPD performance. However, the customer firms involved in this
activity of collaborative design with suppliers express a need for methods and tools in order to effectively
manage these particular relations. This paper presents a framework for the measurement of supplier's
performance in the context of NPD projects. This framework has been supported by evidence from the
literature and feedbacks from practitioners. It has been developed iteratively by application of an action
research approach conducted within six industrial French companies. This development enabled the
generation of a robust framework that allows: (a) identifying four main areas of performance expected by
the customer in collaborative setting and (b) evaluating suppliers' development efforts throughout the NPD
project with appropriate criteria for each stage of the project.
Lee CY (2011) The differential effects of public R&D support on firm R&D: Theory and evidence from
multi-country data. Technovation 31:256-269 This paper aims to evaluate the effects of various forms of
public research and development (R&D) support on firms' incentives to invest in R&D. First, in order to
identify potential channels through which public R&D support influences firm R&D, a formal model of firm
R&D with public R&D support is developed and analyzed. Four potential channels are identified: the
technological-competence-enhancing effect, the demand-creating effect, the R&D-cost-reducing effect and
the (project) overlap (or duplication) effect. These multiple channels indicate that it is difficult to evaluate
the aggregate effect of public R&D support and that there are differential effects of public R&D support on
firm R&D, depending on various firm- or industry-specific characteristics. Second, the differential effects of
public R&D support are empirically tested using unique firm-level data for nine industries across six
countries. Public support tends to have a complementarity effect on private R&D for firms with low
technological competence, for firms in industries with high technological opportunities and for firms facing
intense market competition. In contrast, firms with high technological competence and firms that have
enjoyed fast demand growth in recent years show a crowding-out effect, and firm size and age do not show
any discernible differential effect.
Lee LTS, Sukoco BM (2011) Reflexivity, stress, and unlearning in the new product development team: the
moderating effect of procedural justice. R & D Management 41:410-423
The success of new product
development (NPD) depends on a team's abilities to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external
competences and the flexibility to address rapidly changing environments. To develop innovative products it
is desirable that these processes should not be constrained by current beliefs and routines. NPD teams
therefore need to engage in an unlearning process to overcome any resistance to new ideas and to facilitate a
fresh approach. The paper recognizes that the controlled experience of stress plays a part in unlearning (e.g.,
confusion about technology or market change can encourage changes) and argues that teams should
systematically reflect on the progress they are making in projects and in unlearning. The fairness of
procedures used by the management moderates the proposed relationships. Two hundred and ninety eight
team members and 77 NPD team leaders participated in the study. The results indicate that team reflexivity
positively influences unlearning and product innovation, while team stress has a negative effect. The
perceived fairness of management procedures strengthens the positive effects of team reflexivity on
unlearning and product innovation, and reduces negative effect of team stress.
Li YA, Li XY, Liu Y, Barnes BR (2011) Knowledge communication, exploitation and endogenous
innovation: the moderating effects of internal controls in SMEs. R & D Management 41:156-172
This
research develops a theoretical framework for leveraging internal knowledge effectively to achieve
endogenous innovation goals in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The manuscript reports the
findings based on a sample of 213 SMEs, suggesting that knowledge exploitation has a mediating effect on
knowledge communication for enhancing endogenous innovation. The research reveals that strategic
controls moderate the relationship between knowledge exploitation and innovation positively, whereas
financial controls appear to moderate the same relationship negatively. Our findings advocate that
entrepreneurs in SMEs should focus on communication and the exploitation of knowledge as well as
carefully consider their choice of efficient control mechanisms.
Lichtenthaler U (2011) 'Is open innovation a field of study or a communication barrier to theory
development?' A contribution to the current debate. Technovation 31:138-139
Lichtenthaler U (2011) The evolution of technology licensing management: identifying five strategic
approaches. R & D Management 41:173-189
Besides applying technology in new products inside the
organization, industrial firms may actively license technology to external partners. There is anecdotal
evidence that firms have increasingly licensed technology in recent years in order to achieve monetary and
non-monetary benefits. However, prior research into the evolution of licensing activities and into the
management of these activities is relatively limited. Therefore, we rely on an exploratory research design
and collect unique data by means of 57 interviews in 25 industrial firms over a 5-year period. On this basis,
we identify five different strategic approaches to licensing management. In addition, we examine the
relationship between the firms' licensing management and licensing activity. Finally, we analyze the
development of the firms' licensing management over the 5-year period. The results considerably deepen our
understanding of licensing management, and they provide new insights into interfirm differences in the
success of active licensing programs. The findings have major implications for research into technology
licensing, knowledge exploitation, open innovation, and markets for technology.
Lichtenthaler U (2011) Implementation Steps for Successful out-Licensing. Research-Technology
Management 54:47-53
OVERVIEW: In addition to acquiring external technology many industrial firms
now seek to license their technology out to external partners. These technology out-licensing activities
promise important monetary and non-monetary benefits that allow firms to profit from technologies beyond
their traditional business lines. Some pioneering companies achieve major benefits from active out-licensing
programs. Most other firms, however; experience managerial difficulties in implementing active outlicensing strategies. This article builds on expert interviews with managers in 30 industrial firms to highlight
three organizational approaches for implementing active out-licensing programs: structural organization,
project organization, and participatory organization. Based on evidence from the interviews, the article
presents a six-step procedure for successfully executing an active out-licensing program.
Lim J, Sanidas E (2011) The impact of organisational and technical innovations on productivity: the case of
Korean firms and sectors. Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 19:21-35
The aim of this study is to
provide both qualitative and rigorous empirical evidence regarding the positive and contemporaneous
impact of organisational and technical innovations on productivity in Korean firms and sectors. Econometric
methods (fixed effects and generalised method of moments) are used to measure the relationship between
the just-in-time process (mostly an organisational type of process), technology (R&D) and productivity. In
these regressions we also include the control variables of wage gap incentive, capital-to-labour ratio, and
education expenses for sales training to accommodate for other important influences. From the overall and
quantitative analyses, we provide evidence to the hypothesis that both organisation and technology greatly
improve productivity of Korean manufacturing firms and sectors. In addition, not all firms and industrial
sectors are influenced in the same way by all these factors. This variety of organisational and technological
'behaviour' is clearly indicated in our empirical findings. The contemporaneous impact of both
organisational and technical innovations has not been tested before.
Lin LH (2011) Licensing Strategies in the Presence of Patent Thickets. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:698-725
Many key industries (e.g., biomedical, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications,
and information technologies) are characterized by cumulative innovations, where the introduction of a new
product or service often requires many complementary technologies. When these technologies are protected
by intellectual property rights owned by many firms, patent thickets exist, which researchers have argued
may hinder the development of cumulative innovations. Specifically, patent thickets may lead to excessive
royalty burdens for potential licensees, which is called "royalty stacking," and if such costs are passed on to
consumers, prices of products based on cumulative technologies will be driven up, dubbed as "double
marginalization." The literature, however, does not address these issues under different forms of licensing
contracts. This article develops a game-theoretic model where a downstream firm seeks to license N patents
that read on its product from upstream firms. It discusses a variety of licensing forms widely used in practice
and attempts to discover whether royalty stacking and double marginalization occur under these forms of
licenses. It also studies the impact of bargaining power between parties. It is found that when patent
ownership becomes more fragmented, neither royalty stacking nor double marginalization occurs under
profit-based royalty, fixed fee, and hybrid licenses. Such problems occur only under pure quantity-based or
pure revenue-based royalty licenses when the downstream firm's bargaining power is low. It is also shown
that no matter how fragmented the ownership structure of patent is, hybrid licenses consisting of a fixed fee
and a quantity-or revenue-based royalty rate lead to the same market outcomes as a fully integrated firm that
owns all the patents and the downstream market. This article has interesting implications for both research
and practice. First, the results show that even under the same patent ownership structure, different forms of
licenses lead to quite different market outcomes. Therefore, it is suggested that firms and policy makers pay
more attention to contractual forms of licenses when trying to minimize the negative impact of patent
thickets. Second, the extant literature has largely assumed that quantity-based royalties are used, where
double marginalization is the most severe. In practice, revenue-based royalties are most common, under
which double marginalization is much milder. Third, the results show that patent pools can be most effective
in mitigating royalty stacking and double marginalization when quantity-based or revenue-based royalties
are the sole or primary payment form, especially when downstream firms have low bargaining power.
Lindgren LM, O'Connor GC (2011) The Role of Future-Market Focus in the Early Stages of NPD across
Varying Levels of Innovativeness. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:787-800 The concept of
future-market focus (FMF) arose out of the debate about firm size and incumbency in the face of radical or
disruptive innovations, and has been demonstrated to have a positive correlation with radical innovation (RI)
success. This study examines the relationship between FMF and the processes used in the early stages of
NPD for four types of innovation projects: incremental innovations, technological breakthroughs, market
breakthroughs, and radical innovations. We found that the future-market focus of a project team can
influence the early stage processes used in a new product innovation project, and does so differentially
across levels of innovativeness. In particular, the concept generation process, understanding of market
needs, and screening decision criteria are different for low-versus high-FMF projects and there are
differences based on the level of innovation. In addition, we found that radical innovation projects rated low
in FMF are markedly different than the radical innovation projects described in prior studies.
Linstone HA (2011) Three eras of technology foresight. Technovation 31:69-76 Technology has molded
the industrial and information societies and will mold the molecular society of the future. The latter will
encompass nanotechnology, biotechnology, and materials science. It will also lead to unprecedented
convergence in the sciences and technologies. This discussion considers the unique impacts on technological
forecasting and foresight accompanying each of the three societies.
Linton J (2011) How our new cover came to be. Technovation 31:285-285
Linton JD (2011) How influential are Technology Innovation Management journals-Technology Innovation
Management Journal 2010 Impact Factors in comparison with Financial Times 45. Technovation 31:425426
Linton JD (2011) Emerging and new approaches to R&D management. Technovation 31:141-141
Liu XF, Wu XB (2011) Technology embeddedness, innovation differentiation strategies and firm
performance: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms. Innovation-Management Policy & Practice
13:20-35
Chinese manufacturing firms have been pursuing strategic upgrading from traditional low-cost
manufacturing strategies to innovation differentiation strategies since China's reforming and opening. Under
such research backgrounds, using data from 182 Chinese sample firms in east China, this paper attests that
relational technology embeddedness and structural technology embeddedness have positive impacts on firm
performance, and such influences are mediated by innovation differentiation strategies. The result also
shows that the interaction between relational technology embeddedness and structural technology
embeddedness has a direct impact on firm performance, not being mediated by innovation differentiation
strategies.
Liu YW, Keller RT, Shih HA (2011) The impact of team-member exchange, differentiation, team
commitment, and knowledge sharing on R&D project team performance. R & D Management 41:274-287
This paper integrates team-member exchange (TMX), affective commitment, and knowledge sharing to
examine how work unit TMX influences employees' R&D project team commitment and intention to share
knowledge, and how team knowledge-sharing intention and TMX differentiation influences team
performance. The results support the relationships between work unit TMX and employees' intention to
share knowledge and team commitment. In addition, the results show that work unit TMX increases
intention to share knowledge through increasing group members' team commitment. At the group level, the
results support the relationships between team knowledge-sharing intention and team performance. The
results also show that TMX differentiation moderates the relationship between work unit TMX and team
performance. That is, greater work unit TMX is more likely to achieve higher team performance in a team
with low TMX differentiation as opposed to a team with high TMX differentiation. Implications for theory
building, future research, and R&D management are discussed.
Lu WM, Hung SW (2011) Exploring the operating efficiency of Technology Development Programs by an
intellectual capital perspective-A case study of Taiwan. Technovation 31:374-383 Government supported
technological research and development can help the private sector to compete globally. A more accurate
evaluation system considering multi-factor performance is highly desired. This study offers an alternative
perspective and characterization of the performance of Technology Development Programs (TDPs) via a
two-stage process that emphasizes research and development (R&D) and technology diffusion. This study
shall employ a sequential data envelopment analysis (DEA) with a non-parametric statistical analysis to
analyze differences in intellectual capital variables among various TDPs. The results reveal that R&D
performance is better than technology diffusion performance for the TDPs. In addition, the "Mechanical,
Mechatronic, and Transportation field" is more efficient than the other fields in both R&D and technology
diffusion performance models. The findings of this study point to the importance of intellectual capital in
achieving high levels of TDP efficiency. The potential applications and strengths of DEA and intellectual
capital in assessing the performance of TDP are also highlighted.
Luchs M, Swan KS (2011) Perspective: The Emergence of Product Design as a Field of Marketing Inquiry*.
Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:327-345 The authors present findings from an analysis of
articles related to product design published in eight leading journals important to marketing thought. Based
on this analysis, which covers the fourteen-year period 1995-2008, the authors propose a conceptual model
of product design and offer definitions for (a) product design and (b) the product design process. In addition,
the authors provide insights into the nature of product design research during this time period, including
analyses of publication trends and the relationship of product design research to related marketing topics.
The essay concludes with suggestions for future research on product design.
Maccoby M (2011) Managing in Emerging Markets. Research-Technology Management 54:53-55
Maccoby M (2011) Constructing Collaboration. Research-Technology Management 54:59-60
Malik K (2011) Managing Knowledge Work and Innovation. R & D Management 41:424-425
Malik K, Georghiou L, Grieve B (2011) Developing New Technology Platforms for New Business Models:
Syngenta's Partnership with the University of Manchester. Research-Technology Management 54:24-31
OVERVIEW: Evidence from academic studies and national-level policy reports suggests that universityindustry relationships are now widely practiced in many countries and increasing in importance. University
innovation centers (UICs) offer one mechanism for managing these relationships. UICs are an instrument to
mobilize a critical mass of researchers to build new technology platforms and enable the corporate partner to
explore new business opportunities, a process that requires work on new business models to be carried out in
parallel with technological research. As an example, the paper analyzes the partnership between agribusiness
Syngenta AG and the University of Manchester (UK) to establish a UIC focused on the introduction of
sensors and informatics into agriculture ("agri-electronics").
Marchi G, Giachetti C, de Gennaro P (2011) Extending lead-user theory to online brand communities: The
case of the community Ducati. Technovation 31:350-361
While research on user innovations within
communities exists mainly in offline contexts, few studies have attempted to define the profile of lead users
in online (or virtual) communities, and even fewer have been conducted in the specific context of online
brand communities, formed by people with a "common interest in a brand," in its evolution and in the
discourse about it. This study focuses on innovative activities within the Ducati Motor online community.
The research reveals the following characteristics as crucial factors for the identification of lead users in
online brand communities: willingness to collaborate, product knowledge and strategic alignment with the
brand identity. Our sample consists of 2071 messages posted by 572 Ducati Motor virtual community
members in a specific blog developed by Ducati Motor with the purpose of involving members in a
collaborative innovation process that took nearly 14 months. Several implications for scholars and new
product development managers are discussed.
Marion TJ, Meyer MH (2011) Applying Industrial Design and Cost Engineering to New Product
Development in Early-Stage Firms. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:773-786
For earlystage firms, successful commercialization of each new product is critically important, given the shortage of
financial resources, the limited product portfolio, and small staffs typical of such firms. This paper
investigates two key contributing factors for new product success in entrepreneurial firms: designing
products that are appealing to target users in both form and function and designing products that can be
manufactured at an attractive margin so that the new enterprise can generate much needed positive cash
flow. These two practices-industrial design and cost engineering-are well studied in the context of larger,
established corporations but have not been explored in the context of new ventures. This study focuses on
the intensity of individual and combined adoption of design and cost engineering as measured by product
development efficiency and effectiveness. The study was conducted on a homogeneous sample of earlystage firms that develop physical, assembled products where design plays a role. The data collection focused
only on the first product developed by each firm respectively. The results show that when implemented
together, industrial design and cost engineering enhance both the effectiveness and efficiency of new
product development in early-stage firms, to greater effect than each does individually. Intensive individual
adoption of practices had a negative impact on development efficiency measures such as development cost
and duration. Only cost engineering individually had a beneficial impact on development effectiveness as
measured by product margins. When combined, these two practices had a beneficial impact on both
development duration and cost for the company's first commercial product, thereby reducing time-to-market
and precious cash expenditures while maximizing project breakeven timing. The most successful firms in
the study achieved a balance between creative innovation and cost discipline in the NPD process with thirdparty design and manufacturing resources. It was found that integrating third-party design firms into the
development process can challenge, simplify, and add additional creative resources to the core
entrepreneurial team, maximizing the ability to catalyze beneficial tension between creativity and cost
discipline.
Martinez-Roman JA, Gamero J, Tamayo JA (2011) Analysis of innovation in SMEs using an innovative
capability-based non-linear model: A study in the province of Seville (Spain). Technovation 31:459-475
This article analyzes organizational characteristics associated with innovative outcomes of SMEs in local
economies with a low level of technological and R&D activities, where the indicators generally used to
gauge technological innovation do not offer sufficient data. For the study of innovation in such economies,
we propose a conceptual model based on innovative capability which also includes explanatory variables of
environment and other contextual factors of the firms. Through a process of filtering spurious variables and
incorporating quadratic components, we have varied the original linear structure to form a quadratic model
with greater explanatory capacity and better results. The resulting quadratic model has undergone various
contrasts of hypotheses, thus demonstrating the effectiveness of the model as a whole and of its basic
components, as well as the importance of the main explanatory variables. Finally, the model has also proven
to be valid in all sectors.
Mathews S (2011) Innovation Portfolio Architecture-Part 2: Attribute Selection and Valuation. ResearchTechnology Management 54:37-46
OVERVIEW: This article presents a "sufficiently simple" valuation
philosophy that quickly elicits the most valuable concepts in an innovation portfolio while minimizing
analytical time and labor cost. Extending from the initial article, published in the November/December 2010
issue, this article focuses on three areas: I) accommodating the nonlinear progression of early-stage concepts
within an innovation portfolio through the use of phases rather than staged gates, 2) selecting a minimum set
of uniform and broadly comparable attributes, and 3) calculating value metrics to assess the relative value of
individual concepts in the portfolio. Real option methods provide the overall philosophy for capturing the
relationship of concept value, investment, and risk.
McCarthy IP, Gordon BR (2011) Achieving contextual ambidexterity in R&D organizations: a management
control system approach. R & D Management 41:240-258
Research on how managers control R&D
activities has tended to focus on the performance measurement systems used to exploit existing knowledge
and capabilities. This focus has been at the expense of how broader forms of management control could be
used to enable R&D contextual ambidexterity, the capacity to attain appropriate levels of exploitation and
exploration behaviors in the same R&D organizational unit. In this paper, we develop a conceptual
framework for understanding how different types of control system, guided by different R&D strategic
goals, can be used to induce and balance both exploitation and exploration. We illustrate the elements of this
framework and their relations using data from biotechnology firms, and then discuss how the framework
provides a basis to empirically examine a number of important control relationships and phenomena.
McIntyre DP (2011) In a Network Industry, Does Product Quality Matter? Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:99-108
The role of product quality in industries influenced by network effects has been
the subject of significant debate among management theorists. Some have suggested that network effects
can result in inferior products, as consumers value a large cohort of fellow adopters over the technical
quality of a given product. Others argue that cases of market domination by inferior products are quite rare
and that product quality is an important aspect of network-based competition. Thus, a fundamental question
has arisen from this debate: in industries influenced by network effects, does product quality matter? This
research uses a sample of product releases in the application software industry from 1986 to 1998 to test the
impact of product quality on installed base growth for a given product line. Using software quality measures
from archival trade publication reviews, quality is found to have a positive and significant impact on growth,
even after controlling for installed base size and other product, firm, and segment characteristics. This
finding suggests that the first-mover advantages often ascribed to network industries may be more complex
than previously thought. Rather, effective strategy in network competition appears to center on the trade-off
between early product releases, with the intent of establishing an early installed base, and later product
releases, with the intent of improving the quality of the focal product. Several potential extensions of this
work are offered, with a specific focus on (1) the impact of variation in the strength of network effects
across industries, and (2) the dueling incentives faced by incumbents in network industries, who may
possess greater capabilities to produce high-quality products but limited incentive to do so. Other potential
contributions for theory and practice are offered and discussed.
McNally RC, Schmidt JB (2011) From the Special Issue Editors: An Introduction to the Special Issue on
Decision Making in New Product Development and Innovation. Journal of Product Innovation Management
28:619-622
Mehner S (2011) Closing the Gap: IRI ROR Working Group Releases The Gender Diversity Corporate Best
Practice Playbook. Research-Technology Management 54:6-7
Mention AL (2011) Co-operation and co-opetition as open innovation practices in the service sector: Which
influence on innovation novelty? Technovation 31:44-53 This study aims to identify the influence of cooperation practices and the use of internal and external information sources on the propensity of firms to
introduce new to the market innovations in the service sector. Data come from the 4th Community
Innovation Survey, which covers the years 2002-2004. A logistic regression model is applied with the
degree of novelty of good/service innovation as dependent variable. The analysis of the parameter estimates
shows that firms provided with information from market sources and from internal sources as well as firms
involved in science-based collaboration for their product innovations are more likely to introduce new to the
market innovations, whereas information coming from competitors seems to have a negative influence on
the degree of novelty of innovation.
Miles MP, Morrish SC, Little VJ, Brookes RW (2011) A short note on corporate venturing for technology
acquisition. Innovation-Management Policy & Practice 13:126-133
This study explores the effective
practices for technology acquisition in external corporate venture (CV) in Australasia. The study contributes
to practice by exploring managerial challenges that define the technology acquisition process for
corporations through an external CV. We found that external CV can be an effective mechanism for
technology acquisition, but only when the corporate investor understands the challenges, risks, motives, and
time horizons that are held by the different stakeholders in any CV initiative.
Moreau CP (2011) Inviting the Amateurs into the Studio: Understanding How Consumer Engagement in
Product Design Creates Value. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:409-410
With consumers
increasingly taking on the role of product designer, interesting and important avenues for new research are
emerging. This article highlights two broad areas that researchers in both consumer behavior and product
design may want to consider: (1) what constitutes consumer design and (2) what factors influence value
creation when consumers assume responsibility for some or all of the design task.
Mu JF, Di Benedetto CA (2011) Strategic orientations and new product commercialization: mediator,
moderator, and interplay. R & D Management 41:337-359
Why are some firms more successful at
commercializing new products than others in emerging economies? It is possible that the strategic
orientations, which firms adopt as a type of business strategy, lead at least partially to the superior
performance of the new products they introduce to the market. Strategic orientations facilitate a match
between firm strategy and resource endowment, on the one hand, and the adaptation to market conditions,
on the other. In this paper, we empirically test whether four major types of strategic orientations (market
orientation, technology orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and networking orientation) are
simultaneously related to new product commercialization performance using data collected from China. We
find that strategic orientations are positively related to three aspects of new product commercialization,
namely new product advantage, new product newness, and number of new products introduced to the
market. Interestingly, we find that pairs of strategic orientations support each other in exerting their impacts
on new product commercialization performance. In addition, we find that organizational learning mediates
the effects of strategic orientations on new product commercialization and that environmental dynamism
moderates the effect of strategic orientations on new product commercialization. We obtain the valuable
insight that a firm's successful commercialization of new products hinges upon the development of critical
yet complementary sets of strategic orientations, especially in a dynamic business environment.
Napp JJ, Minshall T (2011) Corporate Venture Capital Investments for Enhancing Innovation: Challenges
and Solutions. Research-Technology Management 54:27-36
Corporate venture capital investments are a
powerful tool to explore and exploit innovative opportunities with start-up companies. Successfully
implementing a corporate venturing program presents a number of challenges, from setting the right mixture
of strategic goals and operational implementation to measuring outcomes and capturing value. Working
from a series of nine case studies of corporate venturing units in large corporations, this article examines the
challenges and presents practical solutions drawn from detailed analysis of the case studies.
Narayanan K, Bhat S (2011) Technology sourcing and outward FDI: A study of IT industry in India.
Technovation 31:177-184
Dunning's eclectic or the OLI framework suggests that MNCs exist and grow
due to possession of ownership (O) advantages consisting of the tangible and intangible assets of the firm
(including technology); location (L) advantages consisting of production factors such as transportation,
infrastructure, and human and natural resources available in the host country; and internalisation (I)
advantages owing to firm's competitive advantage in producing internally rather than selling or licensing
technologies to others. There are several studies that have analysed MNCs of developed country origin from
the perspective of both developed (home) and other developed or developing (host) countries. Recently,
however, MNCs from developing countries are also making their presence felt in the world. Yet, there are
hardly any studies that analyse MNCs of developing country origin. Using data on 130 firms from the hightech Information Technology (IT) industry of India, we investigate whether ownership advantages (0), as
proposed in the eclectic theory, holds true for the presence of MNCs from developing countries.
Specifically, we analyse whether firm-specific technological advantages generated through differential
technology sourcing at home (India) are important in determining inter-firm differences in the decision to
invest abroad. The technological sources considered are in-house R&D efforts, import of designs, drawing
and blueprints, and import of capital goods. The study reveals that in-house R&D efforts are indeed
important for the firms to invest abroad. Size and export intensity of the firm also influence the decision of
the firm to invest abroad. The study recommends a proper innovation and resource management strategy for
developing country firms for efficient allocation of resources, technology sourcing, and technology
assimilation.
Niedergassel B, Leker J (2011) Different dimensions of knowledge in cooperative R&D projects of
university scientists. Technovation 31:142-150
An increasing speed of new knowledge generation and a
growing specialization of individuals in specific fields make cooperative R&D projects indispensable to stay
abreast of the latest technological developments. However, studies targeting this field of research have
almost exclusively focused on industrial cooperation projects, neglecting the importance of academic R&D
collaboration. We attempt to address this research gap by investigating completed R&D cooperation projects
of 376 German professors of the chemical and biological sciences. Based on their evaluation, we can
distinguish between successful and less successful projects mainly involving explicit or tacit knowledge. We
further characterize these groups by identifying significant group differences regarding trust, the
interdependency between partners, the frequency of communication and the closeness of partners. Overall,
our study presents new empirical evidence that the codification of knowledge plays an important role for the
success of cooperative R&D projects.
Noble CH (2011) On Elevating Strategic Design Research*. Journal of Product Innovation Management
28:389-393 While the popular understanding of the influence of design is growing, academic research has
largely been restricted to considering consumer-level responses to design elements. This paper reviews this
past work and proposes a more strategic research agenda for the field, with the potential to explicate
linkages between design elements and strategies and outcomes related to innovation and corporate
performance.
O'Regan N, Kling G (2011) Technology outsourcing in manufacturing small- and medium-sized firms:
another competitive resource? R & D Management 41:92-105
Based on a sample of UK manufacturing
small- and medium-sized firms in the engineering and electronics industry, the study identifies firm- and
industry-specific factors that stimulate R&D outsourcing and assesses the impact of R&D investment and
outsourcing on firms' profitability. The findings indicate that (1) R&D investment fosters profitability, (2)
firms with a lower turnover spend less on R&D, (3) current R&D does not explain innovation measured by
revenues from new products and patents, (4) smaller firms with lower R&D investment levels tend to
outsource R&D and (5) outsourcing is not inferior in terms of product innovation. Hence, outsourcing can
enhance profitability - albeit the benefit of outsourcing decreases with firm size. Managers of small firms
should consider outsourcing R&D, as this can reduce R&D expenditure and lead to the more effective use of
resources as well as achieving a similar degree of product innovation with resultant increases in profitability.
Odasso MC, Ughetto E (2011) Patent-backed securities in pharmaceuticals: what determines success or
failure? R & D Management 41:219-239 Recently, there has been growing interest in new financial tools
that leverage on intellectual property assets, such as patent-backed securitizations (PBSs). In this paper we
study the potential determinants leading to the success or failure of securitization deals having patents as
underlying assets. We develop a conceptual framework that we test on two well-known US patent
securitization deals in the pharmaceutical industry, by using a fuzzy set approach. Results highlight that
factors related to the market size, level of competition and expected market life of the assets underlying a
PBS can reasonably increase the probability that a deal will succeed. Moreover, a higher quality of the
underlying invention and longer patent residual life are likely to reduce the risk of technical obsolescence
and sales losses. Finally, the strength of the credit enhancement mechanisms, the flexibility of the deal
architecture and the adoption of a diversification strategy are other key factors determining the success of
the securitization.
Ozer M (2011) The Moderating Roles of Prior Experience and Behavioral Importance in the Predictive
Validity of New Product Concept Testing. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:109-122
Concept testing has long been recognized as an important new product development (NPD) activity. As one
of the widely used concept testing techniques, the method of intentions surveys relies on the purchase
intentions of the potential buyers of new products and helps firms assess the viabilities of their new products
before making major financial and nonfinancial commitments to their development. Despite the importance
of intentions-based new product concept testing and its widespread use by firms, the correspondence
between initial behavioral intentions and subsequent purchase behaviors has been relatively low and
heterogeneous, making it very difficult for firms to draw any useful conclusions from intentions surveys.
Focusing on the predictive validity of intentions-based new product concept testing and addressing several
calls for future research to identify specific conditions making it more effective, this paper tests the
moderating roles of prior experience and behavioral importance in the predictive validity of intentions-based
new product concept testing. It also tests whether people who state a positive intention and people who state
a negative intention are equally accurate in their intentions. Finally, it tests the relative moderating roles of
prior experience and behavioral importance in the intentions-behavior relationship. The results based on two
longitudinal surveys first suggested that people's prior experience moderates the relationship between
behavioral intentions and actual behaviors in a way that the relationship is stronger when prior experience is
high as opposed to when it is low. Second, they showed that the level of importance that people attach to a
behavior also moderates the relationship between behavioral intentions and actual behaviors such that the
relationship is stronger when behavioral importance is high as opposed to when it is low. Third, they
indicated that the behavioral intentions of people who state that they will not perform a behavior are more
accurate than are those of people who state that they will perform it. Finally, the results suggested that the
impact of behavioral importance is greater than that of prior experience. This study offers several
implications. Most notably, the results can help firms better understand different factors affecting the
predictive validity of intentions-based new product concept testing and hence make more accurate new
product decisions.
Ozer M (2011) Strategic, Organizational, and Operational Challenges of Product Innovation in China.
Research-Technology Management 54:46-52
Although there are several studies highlighting the best
new-product development (NPD) practices of Western firms, we know very little about the NPD practices of
Chinese firms. Understanding Chinese NPD practices will be helpful not only for Chinese firms to improve
their NPD but also for Western firms interested in engaging in NPD in China. This paper presents a survey
study highlighting major strategic, organizational, and operational aspects of the NPD practices of Chinese
Hong Kong firms and identifying related challenges. It compares the results with Western NPD practices,
discusses why Chinese and Western NPD practices might differ and highlights the implications of the results
for both Chinese and Western firms.
Paallysaho S, Kuusisto J (2011) Informal ways to protect intellectual property (IP) in KIBS businesses.
Innovation-Management Policy & Practice 13:62-76 Knowledge intensive business services (KIBS) play
a key role in the innovation system as carriers, sources and facilitators of innovation. Thus, there is a real
need for improved intellectual property (IP) protection in the case of the KIBS enterprises. Former studies
have mainly focused on formal IPR but in more recent discussions the importance of informal IP protection
has been underlined. This study investigates IP protection and management practices in small service firms.
The results demonstrate that besides formal protection methods, IP is also protected by many informal ways
that involve extremely heterogeneous range of practices and strategies. At best these informal ways are
simple, easy to control and economical to use, and often they are an integral part of a firm's daily routines.
Pandza K, Wilkins TA, Alfoldi EA (2011) Collaborative diversity in a nanotechnology innovation system:
Evidence from the EU Framework Programme. Technovation 31:476-489
Collaborative diversity is,
arguably, an intrinsic characteristic of research networks built on the emergence of general-purpose
technologies such as nanotechnology. European research policy, epitomised in Framework Programmes,
creates arrangements that institutionalise the development of internationally and institutionally diverse
research networks. Motivated by concerns that a high degree of collaborative diversity may create
managerial challenges for network members in sharing knowledge across national and institutional borders,
we study the configurations of collaborative research networks and consider their international and
institutional diversity. We also explore the influence of European policy mechanisms on the international
and institutional diversity of collaborative research networks. We conclude that nanotechnology research
networks are indeed characterised by a significant degree of collaborative diversity, which in turn exposes a
need for participating members to develop strategic capabilities to manage research within diverse networks.
Park KH (2011) Catch-up process and underlying knowledge flows: focusing on geographic localisation at a
national dimension. Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 19:85-100
One of the factors making
technological catch-up possible has been suggested as an access to external technology or knowledge.
Considering that just accessing external knowledge is not sufficient, this paper tries to approach this issue
from the perspective of absorptive capacity building and enhancing and related knowledge and knowledge
flows. From the perspective of national dimension, absorptive capacity enhancing can be regarded as having
geographic elements in knowledge flows within national territory. This paper tries to utilise patent citation
data made by USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) for finding out the characteristics of
knowledge flows which has been underlying the catch-up phenomenon of catching-up countries. We can
find out that even though there is a marked difference between advanced countries and catching-up
economies in terms of strong or weak localisation of knowledge flows, it is evident that the geographic
localisation exists in spite of the heavy dependence on external knowledge. In addition, even in catching-up
countries, technological development accompanies a strengthening of the localisation of knowledge flows,
from weak to strong as well as from low to high. Therefore, we discover that technological catch-up
necessitates the active attitude toward available external knowledge, not just the passive attitude, and some
mechanism to spillover the adapted knowledge to other innovative firms, and a way to innovate to confirm
this attitude and mechanism.
Park S (2011) The effects of entry timing and business model innovation on performance: the case of the
global MP3 player market. Asian Journal of Technology Innovation 19:133-147
This paper explores the
effects of entry timing and business model innovation on performance in the early stage of a new product
market. Previous research on relationships between entry timing and firm performance has presented
conflicting results. Based on a case study of the global MP3 player market, this study examines how entry
timing and business model innovation have impacted firms' performances in this new market. A group of
market pioneers, including new startups and large early pioneers focusing on hardware-centric product
innovations, failed to survive and earn high performance in the new market. In contrast, a late entrant,
Apple, with game-changing business model innovations, has dominated the new product market. The
business model innovation, which integrated a user-friendly innovative hardware and software platform with
the business ecosystem, allows the late entrant to overcome disadvantages from late entry and gain
competitive advantages over competitors
Patzelt H, Lechner C, Klaukien A (2011) Networks and the Decision to Persist with Underperforming R&D
Projects. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:801-815 Drawing on aspiration level theory and
the networks literature, this paper develops a model toward decision makers' persistence with
underperforming R&D projects based on the perceived properties of their personal network. The assumption
is that positive feedback from network partners motivates persistence, and that this effect is multiplied when
the decision makers' network is larger and denser, when network ties are predominantly strong, and when
communication frequency within the network is high. The model is tested by a field experiment and conjoint
methodology. Analysis of 1632 persistence decisions nested within 51 scientists responsible for R&D
projects reveals that more positive feedback enhances persistence of underperforming R&D projects, and
that this effect becomes stronger with increasing network size, network density, and communication
frequency. These findings extend the project management literature by focusing on the social environment
of the decision maker as one so far neglected factor in empirical studies on persistence decisions. Moreover,
this study is among the first to investigate contingency relationships between feedback received from
network partners and network structure. Finally, while most studies have emphasized that individuals and
organizations can profit from their engagements in social networks, this paper suggests a potential dark side
of networks by showing that networks can encourage decision makers to persist with their investment in an
underperforming-and potentially failing-project. These results can help project managers involved in
networking activities to better understand the effects of these activities on their decision policies, and thus
draw better and more accurate decisions. Second, this study provides insights into how organizational
strategy with respect to dissemination of R&D results and involvement of the organization's R&D managers
in the scientific community influences the persistence of underperforming R&D projects, and thereby the
organization's R&D expenditures. This can assist top managers to design financial controls and allocate
financial resources to managers of underperforming R&D projects in line with the organization's networking
strategy.
Pei RM, Porter AL (2011) Profiling leading scientists in nanobiomedical science: interdisciplinarity and
potential leading indicators of research directions. R & D Management 41:288-306
Nanobiomedical
science is a promising area in the application of nanotechnology. This paper profiles a group of 21 leading
scientists in nanobiomedicine based on high publication rate and high citations. Comparisons with other
researchers indicate that the leaders publish more in high impact journals and collaborate more extensively
(team science). They reside most heavily in the United States and Western Europe. We compare their
research publications using multiple indicators-Integration, Specialization and a Multidisciplinary Index.
Relations among interdisciplinarity indicators generated support a three-factor model based on principles of
diversity. We locate this research among the disciplines using science overlay mapping. Key term analyses,
based on keywords and on natural language processing help profile the research emphases of these leading
researchers. Such results could serve as leading indicators to help identify directions of future nanobio
development.
Penton HR et al. (2011) Iri Community Forum Questions and Answers from Iri's Members. ResearchTechnology Management 54:61-63
Perkmann M, Neely A, Walsh K (2011) How should firms evaluate success in university-industry alliances?
A performance measurement system. R & D Management 41:202-216 While firms increasingly engage in
formal alliances with universities, there is a lack of tools to assess the outcomes of such collaborations. We
propose a performance measurement system for university-industry alliances. We derive a success map from
existing research on university-industry relations, indicating the causal relationships underpinning successful
alliances. The success map distinguishes between different process stages, including inputs, in-process
activities, outputs and impacts. We discuss specific measures for each of these stages, and how they should
be deployed. The resulting framework includes both prospective and retrospective measures and subjective
and objective measures. It provides research and development managers with a tool for assessing universityindustry alliances that is prospective, reliable and multi-dimensional.
Petrick IJ (2011) Built to Love: Creating Products that Captivate Customers. Research-Technology
Management 54:62-63
Petrick IJ (2011) Innovation in Emerging Markets. Research-Technology Management 54:8-9
Petrick IJ, Juntiwasarakij S (2011) The Rise of the Rest: Hotbeds of Innovation in Emerging Markets.
Research-Technology Management 54:24-29
Petruzzelli AM (2011) The impact of technological relatedness, prior ties, and geographical distance on
university-industry collaborations: A joint-patent analysis. Technovation 31:309-319 Empirical studies on
R&D collaborations between universities and firms have mainly centered their attention on universities and
firms' characteristics that favor the establishment of collaborative agreements. In this paper, I extend the
current research framework investigating the role that specific technological and relational attributes may
play on the relevance of such collaborations. Specifically, I focus on the effects exerted by three relevant
factors, namely technological relatedness, prior collaboration ties, and geographical distance, on universityindustry joint innovation value. I develop testable hypotheses about their impact on the innovative
performance of R&D university-industry collaborations, and test them on a sample of 796 universityindustry joint patents, developed by 33 universities located in 12 different European countries. Our results
suggest that partners' technological relatedness has an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation value.
In addition, prior ties and geographical distance between universities and firms are both positively related to
the achievement of higher innovative outcomes.
Philpott K, Dooley L, O'Reilly C, Lupton G (2011) The entrepreneurial university: Examining the
underlying academic tensions. Technovation 31:161-170 With increasing pressure on universities to play
a role in the national innovation process, this exploratory case study investigates how the concept of the
entrepreneurial university (Etzkowitz et al., 2000) is manifesting itself within the context of a
comprehensive European university setting. Semi-structured interviews with key professors spanning the
diverse disciplines of the university were conducted to uncover attitudes towards the entrepreneurial third
mission and the underlying complexities of developing a unified entrepreneurial character within the
institution. The case study identifies the emergence of an increasing schizophrenic divide between
disciplines within the university. This attitudinal split has the potential to cause widespread disharmony
amongst the academic community and impede progress towards achievement of the third mission. The case
findings reveal that a strong top-down push towards the ideal of the entrepreneurial university would
actually reduce overall entrepreneurial activity across the university. This case study finds support for
Burgelman's (1983) understanding of the entrepreneurial process, and identifies a number of key barriers to
realising the entrepreneurial ideal. Ultimately, the case study calls into question the assertion of Etzkowitz et
al. (2000) that the concept of the entrepreneurial university is a global phenomenon with an isomorphic
development path.
Pogrebnyakov N, Kristensen JD (2011) Building Innovation Subsidiaries in Emerging Markets: the
Experience of Novo Nordisk. Research-Technology Management 54:30-37
Innovation subsidiaries
increasingly follow manufacturing subsidiaries into emerging markets. Compared to well-established
Western economies, emerging markets present unique challenges for the development of innovation
management capabilities at subsidiaries. This paper distinguishes between implementer and innovator
subsidiaries and provides suggestions on how to transform an implementer subsidiary to an innovator This
transformation may start as a strategic priority within the. company and then be translated into specific
actions. Suggestions for actions are based on the experience of a large multinational pharmaceutical
company, Novo Nordisk. Lessons learned include assigning the subsidiary responsibility for a self-contained
piece of work while maintaining a central R&D function, balancing local and in-company management,
using local innovation talent, and educating new hires into the company culture.
Porter AL, Newman NC (2011) Mining external R&D. Technovation 31:171-176
Open Innovation
presses the case for timely and thorough intelligence concerning research and development activities
conducted outside one's organization. To take advantage of this wealth of R&D, one needs to establish a
systematic "tech mining" process. We propose a 5-stage framework that extends literature review into
research profiling and pattern recognition to answer posed technology management questions. Ultimately
one can even discover new knowledge by screening research databases. Once one determines the value in
mining external R&D, tough issues remain to be overcome. Technology management has developed a
culture that relies more on intuition than on evidence. Changing that culture and implementing effective
technical intelligence capabilities is worth the effort. P&G's reported gains in innovation call attention to the
huge payoff potential.
Pries F, Guild P (2011) Commercializing inventions resulting from university research: Analyzing the
impact of technology characteristics on subsequent business models. Technovation 31:151-160 One of the
key challenges in commercializing inventions arising from academic research is deciding on an appropriate
business model for transferring the invention from the academic world to the commercial world. However,
there is little empirical evidence to suggest which model to choose. This study attempts to address this gap
by examining how characteristics of technologies affect the selection of business models. We consider four
characteristics of technology: patent or other legal protection, specialized complementary assets, commercial
uncertainty and technological dynamism. We relate these characteristics to the choice of three basic business
models for commercializing inventions. Data for this study were gathered for 42 commercialized inventions.
We found evidence that greater patent or other legal protection for the technology was associated with a
greater likelihood that the technology was commercialized by transferring limited rights to the technology to
existing firms. We also found evidence that greater commercial uncertainty was associated with a greater
likelihood that the technology was commercialized by creation of a new firm or transfer of the rights to the
technology to an existing firm. We did not find evidence of a relationship between the importance of
specialized complementary assets or technological dynamism and the business model used.
Ray S, Ray PK (2011) Product innovation for the people's car in an emerging economy. Technovation
31:216-227
As product offerings of multinational enterprises (MNEs) continue to primarily serve the
relatively well-to-do consumers in emerging economies, innovations to meet the unique affordability and
acceptability criteria of masses at the base of the pyramid (BoP) continues to remain a daunting challenge.
The academic literature is sparse on comprehensive in-depth studies about the intricate processes involved
in shaping and managing technology development for the masses. Focusing on product innovation by Tata
Motors of India with the Nano the world's cheapest car, our case study aims to understand how the
innovator's choices regarding the use of technology, product design and organizational practices for new
product development enabled it to meet the challenge of innovation for India's masses. Drawing on
Christensen's work on disruptive innovations, our analysis shows how frugal use of resources through a new
combination of existing component technologies created a new modular product to achieve the unique priceperformance requirements demanded by the BoP. Our findings show that collaboration with suppliers for
component design and their early integration in the design phase substantially lowered costs and helped
eliminate unnecessary frills whilst incorporating features valued by mass markets. Our study has important
managerial implications for MNEs and provides critical insights into the processes for a new blueprint for an
untapped market segment in the automobile industry.
Rese A, Baier D (2011) Success factors for innovation management in networks of small and medium
enterprises. R & D Management 41:138-155
Because firms today operate in increasingly turbulent and
complex environments, they need to be more proactive and innovative. Networks are gaining in importance,
especially for small and medium enterprises with limited resources as R&D cooperations or cooperations
along the value chain seem to be the only way to succeed with technologically challenging and promising
but also expensive and risky product innovations. One of the key problems of these networks, however, is
the question of how to plan, organize and control the innovation processes that are distributed over several
partners. Theoretically derived and empirically proven success factors could help as much here as in the
traditional success/failure discussion of new product development within firms. This paper discusses the
effects of such factors, which partly derive from the traditional success/failure discussion within firms (e.g.
market potential, product advantage, technological synergy, proficiency of technological or marketing
activities) but also factors derived from recent network research (e.g. trust or dependence on partners). Their
effect on new product performance is discussed on the basis of a comprehensive survey with 271
participating networks. The results confirm the traditional success factors, especially the product advantage
and proficiency factors. But they also show that network-related success factors (especially network
cohesion and organization) are of similar major importance.
Revilla E, Rodriguez B (2011) Team vision in product development: How knowledge strategy matters.
Technovation 31:118-127
In today's more complex multinational and technologically sophisticated
environment, the group has re-emerged in importance as the project team. Work teams are important to
organizations in general, but are especially critical in product development because they span many
functional areas including engineering, marketing, manufacturing, finance, etc., and new product teams must
frequently be composed of individuals from different backgrounds and perspectives. In these circumstances,
this paper addresses the contingency role that knowledge strategy plays in explaining the relationship
between team vision and product development performance. After studying the team vision on 78 new
product developments from a wide variety of firms, we found that effective team vision varies depending on
the knowledge strategy defined in terms of punctuated equilibrium in the explorative cycle, low
ambidexterity and high ambidexterity. Our results demonstrate that while trade-off is positively associated
with success in all strategies, clarity is only associated with low ambidexterity strategies and strategy-fit is
only associated with high ambidexterity strategies.
Rijsdijk SA, Langerak F, Hultink EJ (2011) Understanding a Two-Sided Coin: Antecedents and
Consequences of a Decomposed Product Advantage. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:33-47
This paper investigates the antecedents and consequences of two product advantage components: product
meaningfulness and product superiority. Product meaningfulness concerns the benefits that users receive
from buying and using a new product, whereas product superiority concerns the extent to which a new
product outperforms competing products. The present paper argues that scholars and managers should make
a deliberate distinction between the two components because they are theoretically distinct and also have
different antecedents and consequences. Data were collected through an online survey on 141 new products
from high-tech companies located in The Netherlands. The results reveal that new products need to be
meaningful as well as superior to competing products to be successful. This finding is consistent with the
prevailing aggregate view on product advantage in the literature. However, the results also show that the
effects of the two components on new product performance are moderated by market turbulence. Although
each component is important in that it forms a necessary precondition for the other to affect new product
performance under circumstances of moderate market turbulence, meaningfulness is most important for new
product performance in turbulent markets where preferences have not yet taken shape. In contrast, when
markets become more stable, the uniqueness of meaningful attributes decreases, and new products that
provide advantage by fulfilling their functions in a way that is superior to competing products are more
likely to perform well. In addition, the study shows that the firm's customer and competitor knowledge
processes independently lead to product meaningfulness and superiority, respectively. The findings also
reveal that under conditions of high technological turbulence the customer and competitor knowledge
processes complement each other in creating product meaningfulness and superiority. This implies that the
level of technological turbulence puts requirements on the breadth of firms' market knowledge processes to
create a new product with sufficient advantage to become successful. The paper concludes that neglecting
the distinction between product meaningfulness and superiority when assessing a new product's advantage
may lead to an incomplete insight on how firms can improve the performance of their new products.
Roworth-Stokes S (2011) The Design Research Society and Emerging Themes in Design Research*. Journal
of Product Innovation Management 28:419-424
This paper outlines the role of the Design Research
Society (DRS) and explores some of the emerging trends in design research as a field of academic inquiry
through its biennial conferences. In doing so it gives some insight into the areas of research which might
inform future studies from a perspective of an organization that seeks to support the peer review process
both directly and indirectly through conferences and events, journal editing, and as a nominating body for
national and international research evaluation panels.
Roy S, Sivakumar K (2011) Managing Intellectual Property in Global Outsourcing for Innovation
Generation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:48-62
The globalization of markets and
business operations is a trend that will continue strongly in the coming decades. One inescapable aspect of
globalization has been the trend toward global outsourcing, especially that of knowledge-based services.
Due to firms' compulsion to reduce costs in the developed world, the issue is not if a particular firm will
outsource or offshore work but when it will outsource it and how effectively it will leverage outsourcing to
achieve superior competitive advantage. An important implication of the outsourcing of knowledge-based
services is the management of intellectual property (IP). Managers and researchers alike are interested in
understanding the effects of global outsourcing of knowledge-based services on the management of IP. The
challenge of accessing, exploiting, and defending IP in global outsourcing relationships is first examined in
this paper. IP can be managed by balancing the trust and control and verification in the outsourcing
relationship. Given that defending IP is a major concern for outsourcing firms, the moderating roles of
multitier suppliers, supplier country legal regimes, and global supplier communities of practice on defending
IP is examined in detail through moderating effect propositions. Finally, the paper examines the effect of
accessing, defending, and exploiting IP in global outsourcing relationships on the generation of incremental
and radical innovation for the outsourcing firm. This research tries to extend current academic research on
global outsourcing in three ways. First, it offers a framework to understand the management of the buyerseller relationship in the global outsourcing of knowledge-based services and its relationship to the
management of IP and innovation generation. Second, the framework takes a broader perspective of
outsourcing and innovation generation, including globalization, tiered suppliers, supplier country legal
regimes, and global supplier communities of practice on defending IP. Third the research examines the
effect of accessing, exploitation, and defense of IP on generation of incremental and radical innovation for
the outsourcing firm. Managerial implications of this research and future research directions are also
discussed.
Sakkab N (2011) Our Nation Needs an Innovation Strategy. Research-Technology Management 54:11-14
Schanz C, Husig S, Dowling M, Gerybadze A (2011) 'Low cost-high tech' innovations for China: why
setting up a separate R&D unit is not always the best approach. R & D Management 41:307-317
In this
article, we investigate the following question: How can multinational corporations set up their R&D
organizations in order to make the best use of their existing technologies and experiences, while at the same
time gain a deeper understanding of Asian markets, their requirements, and trends? To answer this question
we used a case study approach to examine two distinct organizations which are developing specific
innovations for the Chinese market. We refer to these innovations as 'low cost-high tech' innovations, which
seem specifically appropriate for emerging market contexts like in China. Based on our findings, we refine
an existing theoretical framework and propose a set of new organization types for R&D units.
Schleimer SC, Shulman AD (2011) A Comparison of New Service versus New Product Development:
Configurations of Collaborative Intensity as Predictors of Performance. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:521-535
Collaboration among firms for innovation has received considerable attention.
However, little is known about how firm-to-firm collaboration is configured in new service development
(NSD) versus new product development (NPD). This study takes a multidimensional approach and measures
firm-to-firm collaboration on different intensity dimensions of (1) processes (mutual communication, joint
engagement, sharing responsibilities) and (2) ownership (relationship commitment and mutual trust). By
showing that the phenomenon of collaboration is multifaceted, this study is able to knit a more
comprehensive and cohesive understanding of the differences between NSD and NPD success as the result
of different patterns of collaboration. Specifically, it utilizes survey data collected from 194 alliances to
substantiate how NSD and NPD differ on these collaborative dimensions and then explores their impact on
NSD versus NPD performance. The findings suggest that collaboration between firms in NSD is configured
and works differently than collaboration between firms in NPD. The results further show that there is a
stronger, positive relationship of intensity levels of joint engagement among firms involved in product
development and performance than when a new service is developed. However, the intensity of mutual trust
has a stronger, positive relationship with development performance when a new service is developed than
when a new product is developed. Implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are given.
Schrage M (2011) Global Innovators from Emerging Markets. Research-Technology Management 54:10-11
Schwartz L, Miller R, Plummer D, Fusfeld AR (2011) Measuring the Effectiveness of R&D. ResearchTechnology Management 54:29-36
OVERVIEW: Measuring the effectiveness of R&D has been a
perennial challenge. IRI's Research-on-Research working group Measuring the Effectiveness of R&D
sought to investigate how managers define R&D effectiveness and what metrics they use to measure it. Via
surveys and questionnaires, attendees at IRI meetings revealed that while the three top metrics are
unchanged over the past 15 years, there were significant differences in metrics used depending on the
industry type. The study also revealed issues with metrics in general and the need for new metrics to meet
the changing R&D environment.
Seldon T (2011) Beyond patents: Effective intellectual property strategy in biotechnology. InnovationManagement Policy & Practice 13:55-61 Dispelling the linear view of intellectual property protection in
biotechnology, intellectual property (IP) and patents are almost synonymous in the biotechnology industry.
In this innovation-intensive industry, it is unsurprising that patents are the foremost means of protection,
since they provide (at least) 20 years exclusivity. However, a recent seven-year international study
challenged the preconception that patenting leads to heightened innovation (International Expert Group on
Biotechnology 2008). The following analysis uses case studies to demonstrate that leading companies take a
holistic approach to IP management.
Smith R (2011) Innovation for Innovators. Research-Technology Management 54:54-56
Smith R (2011) The Field-Grade Cto. Research-Technology Management 54:60-61
Smith R (2011) Productive Factory Towns. Research-Technology Management 54:55-56
Snow CC, Fjeldstad OD, Lettl C, Miles RE (2011) Organizing Continuous Product Development and
Commercialization: The Collaborative Community of Firms Model. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:3-16
The increased importance of knowledge creation and use to firms' global
competitiveness has spawned considerable experimentation with organizational designs for product
development and commercialization over the last three decades. This paper discusses innovation-related
organizational design developments during this period, showing how firms have moved from stand-alone
organizations to multifirm network organizations to community-based organizational designs. The
collaborative community of firms model, the most recent organizational design in this evolutionary process,
is described in detail. Blade.org, a purposefully designed collaborative community of firms dedicated to the
continuous development and commercialization of blade servers, a computer technology with large but
unforeseeable market potential, is used as an illustrative case. Blade.org's organizational design combines a
community "commons" for the collective development and sharing of knowledge among member firms with
explicit institutional mechanisms for the support of direct intermember collaboration. These design elements
are used to overcome the challenges associated with (1) concurrent technological and market
experimentation and (2) the dynamic coordination of a complex emergent system of hardware, software, and
services provided by otherwise independent firms. To date, Blade.org has developed more than 60 new
products, providing strong evidence of the innovation prowess of the collaborative community of firms
organizational model. Based on an analysis of the evolution of organizational designs and the case of
Blade.org, implications for innovation management theory and practice are derived.
Song M, Im S, van der Bij H, Song LZ (2011) Does Strategic Planning Enhance or Impede Innovation and
Firm Performance? Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:503-520
Does strategic planning
enhance or impede innovation and firm performance? The current literature provides contradictory views.
This study extends the resource-advantage theory to examine the conditions in which strategic planning
increases or decreases the number of new product development projects and firm performance. The authors
test the theoretical model by collecting data from 227 firms. The empirical evidence suggests that more
strategic planning and more new product development (NPD) projects lead to better firm performance.
Firms with organizational redundancy benefit more from strategic planning than firms with less
organizational redundancy. Increasing R&D intensity boosts both the number of NPD projects and firm
performance. Strategic planning is more effective in larger firms with higher R&D intensity for increasing
the number of NPD projects. The results reported in this study also consist of several findings that challenge
the traditional views of strategic planning. The evidence suggests that strategic planning impedes, not
enhances, the number of NPD projects. Larger firms benefit less, not more, from strategic planning for
improving firm performance. Larger firms do not necessarily create more NPD projects. Increasing
organizational redundancy has no effect on the number of NPD projects. These empirical results provide
important strategic implications. First, managers should be aware that, in general, formal strategic planning
decreases the number of NPD projects for innovation management. Improvised rather than planned activities
are more conducive to creating NPD project ideas. Moreover, innovations tend to emerge from
improvisational processes, during which the impromptu execution of NPD activities without planning spurs
"thinking outside the box," which enhances the process of creating NPD project ideas. Therefore, more
flexible strategic plans that accommodate potential improvisation may be needed in NPD management since
innovation-related activities cannot be planned precisely due to the unexpected jolts and contingencies of the
NPD process. Second, large firms with high levels of R&D intensity can overcome the negative effect of
strategic planning on the number of NPD projects. Specifically, a firm's abundant resources, when allocated
and deployed for NPD activities, signal the high priority and importance of the NPD activities and thus
motivate employees to acquire, collect, and gather customer and technical knowledge, which leads to
creating more NPD projects. Finally, managers must understand that managing strategic planning and
generating NPD project ideas are beneficial to the ultimate outcome of firm performance despite the adverse
relationship between strategic planning and the number of NPD projects.
Spanjol J, Qualls WJ, Rosa JA (2011) How Many and What Kind? The Role of Strategic Orientation in New
Product Ideation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:236-250 Existing studies on the role that
strategic orientation plays in companies' innovation efforts primarily focus on identifying the relationship
between strategic orientation and innovation performance for launched new products. In contrast, this article
investigates how the different types of strategic orientation (i.e., customer, competitor, and technology
orientations) influence the front end of innovation. Specifically, this research examines how strategic
orientation relates to new product ideation outcomes such as ideation volume (i.e., how many new product
ideas are generated) and ideation novelty (i.e., how innovative ideas are). The model developed in this study
includes both direct effects of strategic orientation on new product ideation and indirect effects on ideation,
mediated by an organization's market search behavior targeted at uncovering new product ideas. A survey of
182 marketing and technical managers, whose responses are analyzed with partial least squares (PLS),
reveals that firms characterized by a competitor orientation search their markets significantly more for new
product ideas than firms marked by a technology or customer orientation. An emphasis on market search
behavior, in turn, leads to significantly greater quantities of new product ideas generated by the firm. Neither
a competitor nor a customer orientation significantly enhances the novelty of new product ideas, which is
augmented only by technology orientation. The data also reveal that product ideation novelty is significantly
enhanced by a technology orientation regardless of the level of market turbulence faced by the innovating
firm. Together, these findings suggest that market orientation may have a greater influence on the
implementation and commercialization stages of new product development than on new product ideation.
Spanjol J, Tam L, Qualls WJ, Bohlmann JD (2011) New Product Team Decision Making: Regulatory Focus
Effects on Number, Type, and Timing Decisions. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:623-640
Company executives rely on new product development teams to carry out their directives and make
decisions according to management's goals. However, team members bring their own motivational
perspectives to strategic decisions. This research examines how individual and leadership motivations
influence a dyadic team's new product decisions. Specifically, this article investigates how matching vs.
mismatched motivations between team members affect new product number, type, and timing decisions. In
addition, this study asks how effective leadership-provided motivations are in guiding teams' new product
decisions. A set of hypotheses is developed using regulatory focus theory, which identifies basic
motivational differences in individuals (i.e., promotion vs. prevention focus) and their effects on decision
making. The hypotheses examine the effects of regulatory focus match vs. mismatch within teams on the
likelihood to introduce new products, the timing of new product introductions, and the types of new
products introduced. To test the hypotheses, a controlled, yet realistic product management simulation is
employed. A total of 124 undergraduate seniors (83 women and 41 men) at a large public university enrolled
in a marketing management capstone course participated in this study for partial course credit. Utilizing
two-person teams engaged in a business simulation ensured an appropriate level of controlled complexity in
the decision making task, while allowing the phenomena of interest to be isolated and tested. Results show
that when dyads share the same motivational approach (regulatory focus match), leadership-prescribed goal
pursuit strategies are largely ineffective. Only dyads that do not share the same motivational approach to
decision making (regulatory focus mismatch) make new product decisions consistent with leadershipprescribed goal pursuit strategies. For regulatory focus match dyads, the results demonstrate that a
promotion focus (when compared to a prevention focus) leads to greater numbers of new products
introduced, faster new product introductions, and more novel new product introductions. For new product
managers, these results carry important implications. Which new product opportunities to invest in and
which to forgo is presumably determined by the strategic direction given to teams by top management.
Results suggest that when team members share the same motivational approach, this not only influences
new product decisions, but also diminishes or eliminates the influence top management can exert on new
product decisions. Such "isolation" from leadership influences does not have to be detrimental. For example,
companies that seek to insulate new product development teams from influences from the top, such as is the
case in many new venture incubations, would be well served to staff those teams ensuring a promotion focus
match.
Spithoven A, Clarysse B, Knockaert M (2011) Building absorptive capacity to organise inbound open
innovation in traditional industries. Technovation 31:10-21
The discussion on open innovation suggests
that the ability to absorb external knowledge has become a major driver for competition. For R&D intensive
large firms, the concept of open innovation in relation to absorptive capacity is relatively well understood.
Little attention has; however, been paid to how both small firms and firms, which operate in traditional
sectors, engage in open innovation activities. The latter two categories of firms often dispose of no, or at
most a relatively low level of, absorptive capacity. Open innovation has two faces. In the case of inbound
open innovation, companies screen their environment to search for technology and knowledge and do not
exclusively rely on in-house R&D. A key pre-condition is that firms dispose of "absorptive capacity" to
internalise external knowledge. SMEs and firms in traditional industries might need assistance in building
absorptive capacity. This paper focuses on the role of collective research centres in building absorptive
capacity at the inter-organisational level. In order to do so, primary data was collected through interviews
with CEOs of these technology intermediaries and their member firms and analysed in combination with
secondary data. The technology intermediaries discussed are created to help firms to take advantage of
technological developments. The paper demonstrates that the openness of the innovation process forces
firms lacking absorptive capacity to search for alternative ways to engage in inbound open innovation. The
paper highlights the multiple activities of which absorptive capacity in intermediaries is made up; defines
the concept of absorptive capacity as a pre-condition to open innovation; and demonstrates how firms
lacking absorptive capacity collectively cope with distributed knowledge and innovation.
Standing C, Kiniti S (2011) How can organizations use wikis for innovation? Technovation 31:287-295
Wilds were first developed over 15 years ago. Research has shown that organizational or corporate wikis are
sustainable and can be beneficial to organizations particularly in improving work processes, collaboration
and knowledge management. However, there has been little research done to show how organizations can
use wikis to support innovation processes. To bridge this gap, this paper explores how wikis can be used in
different stages of innovation. We review existing literature as well as analyze case studies of wilds
deployed in four organizations in order to highlight how wikis can be used to address challenges of
knowledge management and collaboration in different stages of innovation from idea generation to
commercialization. In particular, we propose a model that explains how wikis require a clear purpose for
their use, a culture of collaboration, and integration within a formal innovation process.
Stanko MA, Calantone RJ (2011) Controversy in innovation outsourcing research: review, synthesis and
future directions. R & D Management 41:8-20 There is a growing stream of research into the outsourcing
of innovation activities within the innovation, management, marketing and economics disciplines.
Understandably, this coincides with the practice becoming more commonplace in industry. Here, we attempt
to synthesize research surrounding the question of whether to outsource or internalize innovation activities
and the performance implications of this decision. Support for both transaction cost and resource-based
arguments is examined, with both theory bases showing substantial attention from both case-based and
empirical research. As innovation outsourcing research has progressed, several controversies have emerged
in the literature and remain unresolved. For instance, case-based research provides evidence that outsourcing
innovation activities can lead to faster product development and cost savings; yet, empirical research shows
that outsourcing may lead to higher costs and slower new product development. Further, the role of
technological uncertainty may have two distinct and conflicting impacts on the outsourcing decision that are
not yet well understood. Thus, we present an integrated, timely review of innovation outsourcing research
and identify several areas that necessitate future research projects.
Subramanian AM, Chai KH, Mu SF (2011) Capability reconfiguration of incumbent firms: Nintendo in the
video game industry. Technovation 31:228-239
The importance of incumbent firms' ability to transform
themselves according to the changing technological environment has been underlined by several scholars
and practitioners. Yet, how incumbents leverage on commercial capabilities in order to develop such
technological reconfiguration abilities in the midst of fierce competition from new entrants has not gained
enough attention. To address the above research issue, our study investigated the case of Nintendo, an
incumbent firm in the video game industry, using the dynamic capability perspective. Our study relied on
primary and secondary data collected from diverse sources such as interviews, web contents, magazines, the
US Patent and Trademark Office and Wikipedia. Three component factors that reflect the common features
of dynamic capabilities across past studies emerged as the basis of Nintendo's reconfiguration ability.
Underlining the significance of these commercial capabilities in the technological reconfiguration of an
incumbent, our paper helps to synthesize this stream of literature and extends guidelines for future empirical
studies to develop the dynamic capability construct. In addition, the findings also help managers devise
strategies for an adaptive organization.
Svarc J, Perkovic J, Laznjak J (2011) Unintended consequences of innovation policy programmes: Social
evaluation of technological projects programme in Croatia. Innovation-Management Policy & Practice
13:77-94
The paper presents empirical results of social evaluation of the first innovation policy
programme, technology projects (TEST), in Croatia to identify and explain the main bottlenecks of the
programme and put them in perspective in terms of the entire innovation system. The motivation is the
growing criticism of innovation system's efficiency and perception of poor return on public investment in
innovation policy programmes. The proposed method of social evaluation is based on combination of the
institutional theory and the sociological approach of intended and unintended consequences. It reveals that
expected outcomes of the programme such as commercialisation of research and technological outputs are
exchanged, in the majority of projects, for essentially scientific results such as scientific publications and
extension of the on-going scientific projects. The reasons are found in the institutional deficits that point to
the persistence of some common 'systemic' problems in the innovation system. Their drivers are identified in
three types of institutional deficits: administrative rules and procedures, some aspects of social capital and
broader socio-economic environment that commonly determine behaviour and interaction of the main
stakeholders of the programme.
Swan KS, Luchs M (2011) From the Special Issue Editors: Product Design Research and Practice: Past,
Present and Future. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:321-326
Tickle M, Adebanjo D, Michaelides Z (2011) Developmental approaches to B2B virtual communities.
Technovation 31:296-308
This paper analyses the development approaches of four business-to-business
(B2B) virtual communities (VCs) and compares them through use of a cross-case analysis. The study
indicated that there is no "one size fits all" method for developing VCs and that a structured, rigorous
development methodology based on academic research is required in order to successfully create and
manage VCs. It also found that the main challenge in creating successful VCs is not that of developing
them, but that of developing an engagement and contribution culture.
Tirpak T (2011) The Revolution Will Be Shared: Social Media and Innovation. Research-Technology
Management 54:64-66
Tirpak TM (2011) Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. ResearchTechnology Management 54:61-63
Tirpak TM (2011) The Social Factor: Innovate, Ignite, and Win Through Mass Collaboration and Social
Networking. Research-Technology Management 54:66-67
Todorovic ZW, McNaughton RB, Guild P (2011) ENTRE-U: An entrepreneurial orientation scale for
universities. Technovation 31:128-137
The development of a new scale. ENTRE-U, that measures the
entrepreneurial orientation of university departments is described. Governments, industry, and funding
organizations challenge universities to become more "entrepreneurial", often in the context of increasing the
commercialization outcomes of publicly funded research. The extant literature on corporate entrepreneurial
orientation (EO) suggests. this orientation is beneficial when organizations face dynamic or hostile
environments. However, the EO concept and related empirical research focus on firms in competitive
markets. Little is known about the nature of EO in other organizational contexts. ENTRE-U was developed
to facilitate empirical research on EO within public universities. Interviews and a follow-up focus group
with faculty members from departments in computer science, health science, and engineering at Canadian
Universities elicited items for the new scale. A survey of university department heads provided data for
statistical development of the scale. ENTRE-U consists of four dimensions - research mobilization,
unconventionality, industry collaboration, and perception of university policies - that successfully predict
department involvement in commercialization activities. Implications of the findings and opportunities for
research using the ENTRE-U scale are discussed.
Townsend JD, Montoya MM, Calantone RJ (2011) Form and Function: A Matter of Perspective. Journal of
Product Innovation Management 28:374-377
It is often claimed that in product design, product form
should follow the intended function of the product. The idea of whether or not "form follows function" is a
matter of entrenched views that are often based on anecdotal evidence, and may be industry-specific. We
integrate diverse perspectives of design theory and practice by addressing the definitions and relationships
between two fundamental components of design: form and function. We consider the primary actors in the
product design process as well as the managerially controllable aspects of function and form and the
relationship between them, and offer suggestions for future research.
Tran Y, Hsuan J, Mahnke V (2011) How do innovation intermediaries add value? Insight from new product
development in fashion markets. R & D Management 41:80-91 Innovation intermediaries are increasingly
being used in practice, but there is little concrete theoretical guidance on when and how they add value to
client's new product development (NPD) processes. This paper develops propositions on innovation
intermediaries value-added based on a detailed case study of an innovation intermediary's relations to three
major clients in the European apparel fashion industry. We identify key contingencies to an innovation
intermediary's value added (e.g. NDP speed and complexity of involvement). We also suggest a framework
that specifies when a combination of four types of specific intermediary capabilities (best-cost capabilities,
timing-capabilities, market-response capabilities, and product solution capabilities) increases value added in
clients' NDP processes.
Trueman M, Tajeddini K (2011) Exploring innovation. Innovation-Management Policy & Practice 13:134140
Ulrich KT (2011) Design Is Everything? Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:394-398
This
essay attempts to demarcate the industrial practice of product design and situate it in the context of academic
research. The term product design presents definitional challenges, as it is used in practice in different ways,
and even varies in usage regionally. For this article, product design is "conceiving and giving form to goods
and services that address needs." The activity of product design can be thought of as comprising several key
decisions. Because the decisions of product design do not map cleanly to any one academic discipline, the
subject has not garnered enough attention in any one field to develop fully its own academic identity.
Scholarly research in product design has often been cultivated by the emergence of a methodological
paradigm. While several such paradigms are in use, several others offer substantial promise.
van de Vrande V, de Man AP (2011) A response to "Is open innovation a field of study or a communication
barrier to theory development?" Technovation 31:185-186
van Eck PS, Jager W, Leeflang PSH (2011) Opinion Leaders' Role in Innovation Diffusion: A Simulation
Study. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:187-203
This study investigates the critical role
that opinion leaders (or influentials) play in the adoption process of new products. Recent existing reseach
evidence indicates a limited effect of opinion leaders on diffusion processes, yet these studies take into
account merely the network position of opinion leaders without addressing their influential power. Empirical
findings of our study show that opinion leaders, in addition to having a more central network position,
possess more accurate knowledge about a product and tend to be less susceptible to norms and more
innovative. Experiments that address these attributes, using an agent-based model, demonstrate that opinion
leaders increase the speed of the information stream and the adoption process itself. Furthermore, they
increase the maximum adoption percentage. These results indicate that targeting opinion leaders remains a
valuable marketing strategy.
Van Orden J, van der Rhee B, Schmidt GM (2011) Encroachment Patterns of the "Best Products" from the
Last Decade. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:726-743
Based on the examination of 239
"best products" (all those on Business Week's annual lists from the past decade), this article tests and
validates a conceptual framework identifying six ways in which new products open new markets and/or
encroach on original products. Three of these six scenarios involve high-end encroachment (the new product
first opens a new high-end market, or enters at the high end of an existing market, and then diffuses downmarket), and three scenarios involve low-end encroachment (encroachment starts at the low end, followed
by diffusion up-market). As illustrated in a 2 x 3 matrix, high-end encroachment ensues when the new
product enhances performance with regard to the market's core attribute (low-end encroachment ensues
when this performance is diminished). The three high-end sub-types and three low-end sub-types are
determined by the strength of performance along an ancillary attribute dimension. If the ancillary attribute
performance is week, then the encroachment of the new product on the old market is immediate
(corresponding to immediate high-end encroachment and immediate low-end encroachment, respectively).
If the ancillary performance is moderate, then the new product expands the market at the high or low end
(corresponding to new-attribute high-end encroachment and fringe-market low-end encroachment,
respectively). If the ancillary performance is strong, then the new product first opens an entirely new market
at the high or low end (corresponding to new-market high-end encroachment and detached-market low-end
encroachment, respectively). The reliability and comprehensiveness of the encroachment framework is
tested by asking a panel of eight judges to categorize each of the 239 products. Results show inter-judge
reliability of 98%, with all products falling within one of the six encroachment categories. Each of the
encroachment types has unique implications on product positioning and pricing, as further discussed in the
paper. Thus the model helps firms identify and analyze the various possible strategies that they might choose
from when introducing new products.
van Rompay TJL, Pruyn ATH (2011) When Visual Product Features Speak the Same Language: Effects of
Shape-Typeface Congruence on Brand Perception and Price Expectations. Journal of Product Innovation
Management 28:599-610
Recent studies in marketing research and consumer psychology indicate that
congruence, as opposed to incongruence, of symbolic meanings connoted across or within marketing mix
elements positively affects consumer response. However, controlled studies addressing congruence effects
among visual product features such as shape and typeface are nonexistent. Since consumer products
comprise multiple visual elements that connote symbolic meanings, and considering that a product's visual
appearance is an important determinant of consumer choice, such studies are called for. Based on processing
fluency accounts, the authors argue that shape-typeface congruence facilitates stimulus processing, thereby
positively affecting perceptions of brand credibility, brand aesthetics, and brand value; the latter reflected in
higher price expectations. Two studies were conducted to test these predictions. In study 1, two shape
variants and two typeface variants of a fictitious brand of bottled water connoted either luxury or casualness.
Cross-pairing the two shapes with the two typefaces resulted in four product variants, either congruent or
incongruent in terms of the symbolic meanings connoted. Participants were randomly presented with one of
the product variants, after which they filled out a questionnaire comprising the dependent measures. Largely
in line with expectations, results revealed overall positive effects of meaning congruence on perceptions of
brand credibility and price expectations. In addition to replicating the findings from study 1 using another
set of stimuli, study 2 tested the prediction that meaning congruence positively affects perceptions of brand
aesthetics. As in study 1, four product variants were created by cross pairing two product shapes and two
typefaces, this time connoting either masculinity or femininity. In line with the findings from study 1, results
revealed overall positive congruence effects. In addition, subsequent analyses showed that perceived brand
aesthetics partially mediates congruence effects on price expectations, indicating that consumers expect to
pay more for congruent variants because they are considered more attractive. The findings presented testify
to the importance of careful consideration of visual product features and the symbolic meanings they
connote, and stress the importance of perceived brand aesthetics. In discussing these findings, it is proposed
that congruence effects and the mediating processes involved may vary across product categories and
depend on consumer personality. In addition, the findings presented are discussed in relation to research
indicating that moderate degrees of incongruence may be useful for attracting consumer attention and
stimulating information processing. Managerial implications and avenues for future research are discussed.
Verdegem P, De Marez L (2011) Rethinking determinants of ICT acceptance: Towards an integrated and
comprehensive overview. Technovation 31:411-423
In the contemporary ICT environment, we are
confronted with a growing number of failing innovations. New technological innovations often fail because
too much attention is still given to (technical) product-related features without taking into account the most
important parameters of user acceptance. In addition, suppliers of ICT. products often lack accurate insight
into the distinguished profiles of their (potential) target audience. In this article theoretical considerations
and empirical results on this matter are highlighted. First of all, an approach is proposed in which more
traditional and often scattered vision(s) on adoption determinants are broadened into an integrated
framework. The approach provides a stronger base for better targeting of (new) users of technologies.
Secondly, the authors elaborate on this by rethinking these determinants with regard to later adopters. Later
adopters (or even non-adopters/users) are often ignored in technology acceptance research. However,
especially for policy purposes, the understanding of why people do not adopt or do not use ICT is strongly
relevant in the light of the development of an inclusive information society. Both approaches are illustrated
by case studies starting from a common list of nineteen ICT appropriation determinants. This framework
enables to better profile both earlier and later adopters as well as it allows to formulate recommendations
how to bring innovations in the market. Summarizing, this contribution offers an integrated approach on
technology acceptance research by bridging the gap between a market and a policy-oriented point of view.
Verganti R (2011) Radical Design and Technology Epiphanies: A New Focus for Research on Design
Management. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:384-388
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.
Viswanathan M, Yassine A, Clarke J (2011) Sustainable Product and Market Development for Subsistence
Marketplaces: Creating Educational Initiatives in Radically Different Contexts. Journal of Product
Innovation Management 28:558-569
Developing products and business processes to serve subsistence
marketplaces (or the roughly 4 billion poor around the world referred to as the bottom of the pyramid) is a
significant challenge for businesses. Despite the importance of subsistence marketplaces, most product
development educational curricula have been focused on relatively resource-rich and literate consumers and
markets. We teach an innovative year-long product development course which includes an international
immersion experience and which covers a broad spectrum of learning from understanding poverty, to
consumer behavior, to product development and engineering design specifically for subsistence consumers.
This unique course represents a pioneering effort to focus attention and create knowledge about product
development, marketing, management, and engineering practices for subsistence marketplaces. Our twosemester course sequence for graduate-level students in a variety of business and engineering disciplines and
industrial design combines in-class pedagogy with experiential learning and results in useful and marketable
product concepts and prototypes. Working on projects with multinational companies or startups, students
identify an opportunity of general need, conduct field market research to better understand subsistence
consumer needs and contexts through an international immersion experience, develop a product concept,
convert the concept to a workable prototype, and develop a manufacturing plan, marketing strategy, and
overall business plan for the product. Overlaying the content found in a typical new product development
lab course we develop a contextual understanding of subsistence marketplaces, setting the stage for new
product development. A central aspect of the learning experience is travel to subsistence markets for actual
immersion in the context and to conduct market research. Our course is at the confluence of two of the most
important issues facing humanity, subsistence and sustainability. Lessons learned here can also be extended
to other radically different contexts, such as future scenarios involving severe energy shortages or climate
change consequences. Such educational initiatives provide challenging learning experiences in preparing
students for the unique demands of the 21st century.
von Krogh G (2011) Is open innovation a field of study or a communication barrier to theory development?
A commentary. Technovation 31:286-286
Walter A, Parboteeah KP, Riesenhuber F, Hoegl M (2011) Championship Behaviors and Innovations
Success: An Empirical Investigation of University Spin-Offs. Journal of Product Innovation Management
28:586-598 Despite the flurry of scholarly research on champions, no prior article has explicitly addressed
how different dimensions of championship behavior actually contribute to innovation success. In this article,
based on an extensive literature review, the authors argue that champions display four behaviors, namely (1)
pursuing innovative ideas, (2) network building, (3) persisting under adversity, and (4) taking responsibility
for the idea. The authors use data from 123 university spin-offs to test proposed linear and curvilinear
relationships between the four behaviors and an objective measure of innovation success, namely a
longitudinal measure of sales growth. The results indicate that network building has the desired positive
relationship with sales performance. Surprisingly, pursuing the innovative idea is not related to sales growth.
Furthermore, the present study also reveals some dysfunctional effects of champion behaviors. Persisting
under adversity and taking responsibility have the hypothesized inverted-U relationship with sales growth.
The present study provides a more refined discussion of the benefits and dangers of championing behaviors.
Our results show that linking technology to markets can be planned and controlled only to a very limited
extent even if champions are working hard to sell the idea to potential customers. Moreover, any new idea is
often competing with existing products and pursuing such ideas may result in opposition to the idea. In
contrast, network building has the desired positive relationship with innovation success. Effective
championing behavior keeps an innovative idea alive by mobilizing support and building coalitions around
the idea with critical individuals or important third parties. Moreover, this study challenges the widespread
"heroic" discussion of championing as fundamentally positive "across the board." The results show that
persisting under adversity and taking responsibility are desirable up to some levels. Beyond such critical
levels, these two champion behaviors may actually become detrimental to the innovation process. Being too
persistent in the face of adversity or taking too much responsibility for the innovative idea might undermine
the power of the champion's justifications for an innovation and thereby increase resistance to change. An
"overperforming" champion may interpret opposing communications as an unwarranted and injurious
response. By taking overmuch responsibility for the innovative undertaking, the champion is likely to
discourage contributions from other team members who see no valuable opportunity to bring their expertise
and knowledge to the idea.
Whalen-Pederson E, Smith L, Goss W, Giordan J, Hutchings M, Piehl DH (2011) Questions and Answers
from Iri's Members. Research-Technology Management 54:62-64
Wouters M, Roorda B, Gal R (2011) Managing Uncertainty During R&D Projects: a Case Study. ResearchTechnology Management 54:37-46
Firms make significant investments in R&D projects, yet the
economic return is often difficult to predict because of significant technological and commercial uncertainty
We present an innovative and practical method for managing R&D projects, and we discuss its application
to a large R&D investment by Philips Lighting. The method, which we call the project portfolio optionvalue (PPO) method, provides an innovative way to represent, discuss, and value uncertainty in R&D
projects. The PPO method is not about "perfect" or "complete" valuation models, but rather about providing
a comprehensive but not-too-detailed view of major challenges and key criteria for success. The method is
designed for a complex setting in which many uncertainties exist about technology and the market; in which
the order in which uncertainties are resolved and decisions will be made cannot be specified in advance; in
which interdependencies exist among R&D projects; and where transparency is vital.
Wouters M, Workum M, Hissel P (2011) Assessing the product architecture decision about product features
- a real options approach. R & D Management 41:393-409
Product architecture decisions impact how a
firm can introduce new products to the market and are therefore strategically important. This article presents
an approach to financially assess the product architecture decision about the incorporation of a product
feature. If demand for the feature arises, this can be met quickly and at a low implementation cost if the
feature has already been included or if the product design has been specially prepared for it. However, if the
feature will not be sold, it may be better to not consider it for the current product design or even to optimize
the design by specifically excluding it. Four product architecture decisions are conceptually developed and
operationalized in an assessment method, using real option reasoning. This method has been developed
jointly by university researchers and consultants of Philips Applied Technologies. In a pilot application, the
method was practically usable, provided financial insights, and enabled cross-functional cooperation.
Yoon B, Lee C, Hwang J (2011) A framework for impact analysis of the international transfer of marine
technology in a climate change era: an input-output analysis and analytic hierarchy process approach. Asian
Journal of Technology Innovation 19:1-19 This study responds to the need for the international transfer of
marine technology by focusing on impact analysis at the preliminary stage. To this end, we propose a
systematic framework by integrating the merits of the analytic hierarchy process for multiple criteria
decision making and the strengths of input-output analysis in the assessment of the effects of technology
diffusion. The suggested framework is comprised of three consecutive modules: technology priority
analysis, country priority analysis and impact analysis of technology transfer. The first two modules deal
with technology and country selection as a multiple criteria decision making problem. In the last module, the
economic impacts on both the transferor and transferee are estimated in terms of the generated production,
value added and employment. A case study shows that the international transfer of geographic information
system (GIS) technology from the Republic of Korea to the Philippines is the most effective scenario among
those for the members of Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA).
We believe that our method can promote rapid and efficient consensus building on the most competitive
strategy for the international transfer of marine technology.
Yu D, Hang CC (2011) Creating technology candidates for disruptive innovation: Generally applicable
R&D strategies. Technovation 31:401-410 In this paper, we first examined the importance of technology
creation in technological disruptive innovations (DIs), and found both academic scholars and industrial
practitioners have underestimated the challenging nature and importance of technology at least in
technological DI. We then moved upstream to study empirically how technology candidates could be
created purposefully for potential technological DI. Four generally applicable R&D strategies were
abstracted from intensive studies on 37 technological DIs, by applying the central thoughts of principal
component analysis which transforms many correlated variables into a small number of uncorrelated ones.
The four R&D strategies abstracted are miniaturization, simplification, augmentation and exploitation for
another application. Their creation of DI was examined, postulated and then demonstrated by means of the
Delphi method. The frequencies of their utilization were also compiled and the implications discussed. This
study has further advanced the knowledge at the front-end of R&D, i.e. the technology perspective of DI. It
hopes to facilitate more purposeful creation of technology candidates for potential technological DI in
future.
Zahay D, Griffin A, Fredericks E (2011) Information Use in New Product Development: An Initial
Exploratory Empirical Investigation in the Chemical Industry. Journal of Product Innovation Management
28:485-502 In-depth interviews with product developers and product development software providers in a
previous qualitative phase of research uncovered eight general types of information that are used across the
new product development process (strategic, project management, financial, market and customer, wants
and needs, technical, competitor, and regulatory information) and three general approaches to managing
information in the process (project-centric, functionally oriented, and fully distributed). This paper presents
a second phase of research trying to understand the role that managing knowledge and information plays in
developing new products and achieving NPD success. This research phase empirically investigates use of
the eight types of information across three general phases of the NPD process in the chemical industry using
81 mail survey responses from marketing and new product development professionals. Respondents were
asked to indicate the degree to which each of the eight information types was used in each of the following
general phases of new product development: the fuzzy front end, development, and testing and launch. The
respondents also provided information on new product development success, information management
system sophistication, and innovation strategy. This research makes several contributions to new knowledge.
First, this research suggests that information management in product development is even more complex
than initially posited in Zahay et al. (2004), with each of the eight types of information identified being used
in each of the three phases of development. Unexpectedly, for all but one type of information use is higher
in later stages of the NPD process, even though use of several kinds of information early in the project is
associated with increased success. Thus, managers may need to encourage teams to start gathering
information from outside the firm earlier than is currently the norm. Second, the results suggest that more
sophisticated information management systems are indeed associated with increased use of various different
types of information, as expected. Third, more sophisticated information management systems are more
highly associated with success than less sophisticated information management systems. These results are
important, as most new product development information management systems are limited in their ability to
handle complex and non-quantitative information such as customer wants and needs, as well as strategic,
competitor, and regulatory information. However, being able to transmit information on these issues is
associated with increased firm performance and project success from these data. Thus, firms need to figure
out how to improve their ability to manage and use non-quantitative information more effectively.
Zeschky M, Widenmayer B, Gassmann O (2011) Frugal Innovation in Emerging Markets: the Case of
Mettler Toledo. Research-Technology Management 54:38-45
The quality and number of innovations
developed by multinational companies from emerging countries is increasing dramatically. In particular,
frugal innovations-"good-enough," affordable products that meet the needs of resource-constrained
consumers have created tremendous demand in emerging markets. While the development of such products
has largely been the domain of local corporations in emerging countries, Western corporations have recently
started to engage in frugal innovation as well. This is a difficult task for Western firms, however; because
their business models and organizational structures are traditionally designed for the development of
advanced products for the affluent few at the top of the economic pyramid. Using Swiss weighinginstrument manufacturer Mettler Toledo as a case example, this article suggests that frugal innovations are
largely developed by local R&D subsidiaries of Western firms in emerging countries. A substantial degree
of autonomy for those local R&D subsidiaries, including product-portfolio responsibilities, can facilitate the
development of frugal innovation.
Zhang D, Hu P, Kotabe M (2011) Marketing-Industrial Design Integration in New Product Development:
The Case of China. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:360-373 Despite the acknowledgement
of functional integration as an important driver of new product development (NPD) success and the growing
recognition of the significance of industrial design (ID), the integration between industrial design and other
functional units in NPD has been rarely researched. In this article, we examine the marketing and ID
integration in NPD in the context of China. Mainly based on Cooper's (1994) stage-gate phases of NPD
process and Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon's (1985) categorization of NPD activities, we develop a conceptual
framework that identifies 29 areas that might require integration or where integration might occur between
marketing and ID. Specifically, we investigate and compare the current and the ideal integration between
marketing and ID perceived by the two functions. An analysis of data from 113 companies reveals that the
current level of integration fell short of the ideal level of integration in all the phases of NPD. Both
managers believed in the descending trend of integration along the stage-gate NPD phases and were
dissatisfied with the current level of integration in all the NPD phases. Except for a few areas of agreement,
marketing and ID managers showed significant differences with each other in their perceptions of the
current and the ideal integration in most of the 29 areas. Despite the disagreements however, the two
functions agreed with each other on the most important areas that require integration and achieved the
highest level of marketing-ID integration. These findings suggest that firms should improve the marketingID integration in all the NPD phases and that management could improve the effectiveness of marketing-ID
integration by prioritizing and focusing on the most important areas. Research and managerial implications,
limitations, and future research directions are presented in the paper.
Zhang T, Gensler S, Garcia R (2011) A Study of the Diffusion of Alternative Fuel Vehicles: An AgentBased Modeling Approach. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:152-168
This paper
demonstrates the use of an agent-based model (ABM) to investigate factors that can speed the diffusion of
eco-innovations, namely alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs). The ABM provides the opportunity to consider
the interdependencies inherent between key participants in the automotive industry: manufacturers,
consumers, and governmental agencies. Agent-based models allow for tackling these interdependencies in a
very elegant way. Because ABMs allow convenient modeling of the interactions between multiple agents,
each with unique optimization goals, it provides a method for understanding consumer and manufacturer
response to diverse environmental changes. Grounding the agent-based model on empirical data further
improves the validity of the model results. We use choice-based conjoint data of more than 7,000
respondents to elicit heterogeneous consumer preferences. Further, information about manufacturers' cost
structure is available from an established vehicle design tool, AVCEM. In three experiments, mechanisms
are considered for speeding the adoption of AFVs: technology push, market pull, and regulatory push.
Simulation results support the idea that technology push can be an important mechanism for speeding the
diffusion of AFVs. Market pull, that is, word of mouth, also has a positive impact on the diffusion of AFVs
and increases the social good by decreasing the preference for fuel-inefficient vehicles. Furthermore, word
of mouth leads to a higher willingness to pay for AFVs, which indicates that the perceived value of AFVs
increases with word of mouth. In contrast, a governmental push that focuses on the manufacturers (fuel
economy mandates) leads to a decrease in the social good (air pollution improvement) because market share
for fuel-inefficient vehicles increases. This article provides insights into how to set up an ABM to evaluate
factors that influence the diffusion of alternative fuel vehicles. These insights can be applied to other types
of eco-innovations.
Zhang T, Nuttall WJ (2011) Evaluating Government's Policies on Promoting Smart Metering Diffusion in
Retail Electricity Markets via Agent-Based Simulation. Journal of Product Innovation Management 28:169186
In this paper, we develop an agent-based model of a market game in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of the U.K. government's 2008-2010 policy on promoting smart metering in the U.K. retail
electricity market. We break down the policy into four possible policy options. With the model, we study the
impact of the four policy options on the dynamics of smart metering diffusion and suggest policy
implications. The context of the paper is a practical application of agent-based simulation to the retail
electricity market in the United Kingdom. The contributions of the paper are both in the areas of
policymaking for the promotion of innovation diffusion in the electricity market and in methodological use
of agent-based simulation for studying the impact of policies on the dynamics of innovation diffusion.
Zirpoli F, Becker MC (2011) The limits of design and engineering outsourcing: performance integration and
the unfulfilled promises of modularity. R & D Management 41:21-43 Outsourcing design and engineering
tasks in product development is increasingly popular. However, firms that outsource design and engineering
tasks often experience problems. So far, no satisfactory answer exists regarding the question to what extent
design and engineering tasks can be outsourced before negative consequences occur. We address this gap.
This paper identifies the limits of design and engineering outsourcing in product development, and the
sources of these limits. To do so, it investigates the organizational challenges that a major European
automotive manufacturer faced when it decided to adopt an extreme form of design and engineering
outsourcing. Based on an in-depth case study, we identify the sources of problems with outsourcing design
and engineering tasks in product development, and shed light on the limits of design and engineering
outsourcing in product development.
Zomerdijk LG, Voss CA (2011) NSD Processes and Practices in Experiential Services. Journal of Product
Innovation Management 28:63-80
This paper examines new service development (NSD) in a distinctive
set of services: experiential services. Organizations delivering experiential services place the customer
experience at the core of the service offering. They focus on the experience of customers when interacting
with the organization rather than just the functional benefits following from the products and services
delivered. Increasingly, organizations are recognizing that managing customer experiences is a powerful
way of differentiating from competitors, establishing emotional connections, and increasing customer
loyalty. Studying experiential services sheds light on this highly intangible type of services and, by
representing an extreme end of the service spectrum, can advance the knowledge on the wider area of new
product and service development. This paper addresses three research questions: (1) What are the processes
and practices used in the development and design of experiential services? (2) How are these processes and
practices similar to or distinct from established NSD practices? (3) How do these findings reflect on the
wider area of NSD? The study concentrates on five dimensions of NSD: (1) the process; (2) market
research; (3) tools and techniques; (4) metrics and performance measurement; and (5) organization. For each
of these areas propositions are formulated and refined with empirical data. Using the case research
methodology, empirical data were collected in 17 case companies: experiential service providers, design
agencies, and consultancies known for focusing on the customer experience. The main method of data
collection was interviews with those involved in experiential service design, such as founders, executives, or
experienced designers. The case data revealed a number of practices specific to experiential services. These
include a strong emphasis on gathering customer insights, in several cases obtained through empathic
research and ethnographic research techniques. Other specific practices for experiential services include
mapping customer journeys or touchpoints and storytelling. The case study companies also revealed a tradeoff between relatively formal, tight methodologies and more flexible, loose methodologies in NSD. More
research is required to investigate the contingency factors surrounding tight or loose methodologies. The
results also revealed the use of more broadly used NSD practices, such as a systematic NSD process,
multiple performance measures, cross-functional teams, and front-line involvement. The observations from
this study are captured in a set of seven propositions concerning NSD in experiential services. Reflecting on
NSD in general, this study highlights the important role of service process innovation compared with service
product innovation and the importance of continuous innovation requiring NSD processes and practices that
are more flexible, iterative, and nonlinear. The study also supports the argument that different types of
services may require different NSD processes and practices.