Factors affecting new product development success: A study on manufacturing sector in Malaysia

New product development has become significantly important for the manufacturing industries. It’s the important factors to drive the success or failure of a company where growth and development of the company are solely depend on its ability to introduce the new product. Therefore, the new product development is the criteria that cannot be questioned by the company in maintaining a competitive advantages. The modern business environment nowadays are focused on the development and integration of the supply chain. Supply chain has become an important topic which emphasis on variables that might affect the company and the new product development. This study aims to determine the relationship between some of the supply chain variables that might affect the growth of new product development for the manufacturing industries. There are many important factors in the supply chain where it has contributed to the new product development success. For this study, the factors that been identified are the communication, logistics, supply chain strategy, product development strategy and the top management supports. A total of 238 respondents in various companies within the manufacturing industry in Malaysia’s manufacturing sectors has participated in this study by completing the questionnaire survey. SPSS was use to analyze the data and hypothesis testing using several statistical analysis such as reliability analysis, correlation and regression analysis. From this analysis, the supply chain variables showed a significant relationship to the successful new product development in the view of Malaysian manufacturing sectors. It is hope that this study will be beneficial the others in understanding the key terms and can be implement into the new product development so that it is become more successfu

Organisational learning, organisational ambidexterity, environmental turbulence, and NPD performance of Malaysian's manufacturing sector

Despite numerous studies proving that environmental turbulence was moderating the new product development (NPD) performance of manufacturing firms, it is however, still less stressed upon in Malaysia. Motivated by the current NPD issues on organisational capability from the dynamic capability (DCs) perspective, this study aimed to empirically determine the relationships between organisational capability and NPD performance, and sequentially examine the moderating effects of environmental turbulence in those relationships. A survey was randomly conducted among 123 product/production managers from various manufacturing industries in Malaysia. The data was analysed with the SPSS v.19 statistical technique. Prior to the analysis, the data was cleaned, inspected for outliers, normality, factor analysis, and reliability test to meet the assumptions for the parametric test. The results of correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses found 22 (out of 48) hypotheses were supported. In detail, the exploitation capability, exploration capability, and contextual ambidexterity were found to be significantly correlated to NPD performance. It was also found that market turbulence was giving a pure moderation to all types of organisational capability (exploitation capability, exploration capability, structural ambidexterity, and contextual ambidexterity) on NPD financial performance. Meanwhile, the moderating effects of technological turbulence, and competitive intensity were varied across different relationships. Allin-all, the findings indicated that the concept of DCs was useful for building a firm’s ability to deploy organisational capabilities under different types of environmental turbulence to achieve better NPD performance. It can be achieved by creating balance in the firm’s NPD portfolio and is useful in the NPD strategy for decisionmaking process. Besides these contributions, the limitations of the study, and future research agenda were also discussed

Effect of repeat purchase and dynamic market size on diffusion of an innovative technological consumer product in a segmented market

This study develops diffusion models for technological consumer products under the marketing environment when a product is marketed in a segmented market and observes two distinctive promotional strategies of mass and differentiated promotion; an under explored study area. Mass promotion strategy creates a spectrum effect in market with an aim to create wider product awareness and influence the market size. Whereas the differentiated promotion strategy plays major role in external influence component in the respective segment and target for adoption by the current potential segment. Previous studies on segmented diffusion models assumed only first time purchase and constant market size which may yield underestimated results and fail to give appropriate insight of the diffusion process. The study develops and validates generalized diffusion models for segmented market incorporating the repurchase behaviour of the adopter population and dynamic potential market size considerations. Performance of the proposed models is analysed on real life data for a new product marketed in four segments and compared with the previous study

Project Managers’ Use of Lateral Influence Tactics to Achieve Team Commitment

Building on transformational leadership theory, 43 individuals from various new product development (NPD) teams were studied to understand the relationship between the project managers’ use of lateral influence tactics and team commitment as perceived by new product development team members. An explanatory correlational study was conducted to examine these relationships. Data were collected via questionnaire about each NPD team member’s view of the project manager’s use of lateral influence tactics and the NPD team member’s perception of team commitment. Perceptions of procedural justice were also tested for mediation. The study found that there is a moderate positive relationship between each independent variable and the dependent variable. However, one of the hypotheses for mediation was not supported. Overall, the results reflect a positive association between the NPD team member’s perception of the project manager’s use of influence tactics and his/her psychological attachment to the new product development workgroup. This study contributes to the literature by examining the strength of lateral influence tactics when applied to teams to gain interpersonal outcomes in new product development environments. Also, this study expands the body of research because it measures the thoughts and attitudes of the NPD team members as a result of the project manager’s initiation of these influence tactics

Enhancing Absorptive Capacity through Internal Collaboration with Social Media Tools

The present research discusses social media and, in particular, it addresses the impact of the use of social media tool on intra-organizational collaboration. Absorptive capacity (ACAP) theory is used as the theoretical lens to provide the framework and metrics. These are further used to clarify and increase understanding of the impact of new working practices based on utilization of the online collaboration tools. The foundation of the study is qualitative and quantitative measurements of the collaboration practices; the research elaborates from those to analyze the impact of online collaboration tool implementation. Even though the interest in ACAP and social media as separate entities is already extensive, the existing literature combining the two research streams remains scarce. In particular, the combination in the context of new product development (NPD) from the internal collaboration perspective is not a well-studied stream in the literature. The present research focuses on social media tools used in intra-organizational collaboration, perceived and measurable benefits, and connects those to the bodies of the management literature through metrics. Bodies of the management literature that are synthesized in the current research, in particular the absorptive capacity theory and NPD success factors, build the foundation for the data collection. The research setting is constructed so that organizational practices are studied before and after the wide-scale roll-out of the social media tool utilizing mixed methods in terms of quantitative and qualitative approach. The research combines evidence based on three case organizations to identify the impact of social media tools’ utilization. The results suggest that new working practices inspired by the utilization of social media tools will enhance intra-organizational collaborations, particularly in terms of potential absorptive capacity (PACAP). Increased intra-organizational transparency and awareness about internal knowledge seem to help organizations unite members either to solve existing tasks or to utilize their intrinsic motivation. For example the organization can transfer information and knowledge between individuals easier and the absorptive capacity is greater as the discussions about ideas are stored in the virtual communities. In addition, results also indicate that active use of social media tools will reflect positively on NPD performance. The findings lead to both theoretical and practical contributions. The research enters the discussion about the nature of the absorptive capacity by offering metrics for measuring PACAP directly. The synthesized metrics connect communication and NPD environment to the PACAP and further to NPD performance through the conceptual model. The practical contribution is concrete findings that indicate, for example, increased transparency as the main driver and benefit for the both individual and organizational level for the adoption of social media tools. In addition, the research includes notes and observations about working practices that managers should be aware of when they decide to guide an organization to the online collaboration in the virtual world

Πρότυπο μοντέλο επιχειρησιακών διαδικασιών στην τεχνική ανάπτυξη νέων προϊόντων

Παρουσίαση ενός Ολοκληρωμένου Μοντέλου που αφορά την τεχνική Ανάπτυξη Νέων προϊόντων, από το στάδιο της σύλληψης της αρχικής ιδέας μέχρι την κατασκευή του Προϊόντος και την έναρξη της σειριακής παραγωγή

Managing the impact of product variety and customisation on business function and supply chain performance: A comparison between the UK and South Korea

Mass customisation is displacing mass production, and a conspicuous trend is for businesses to extend the variety of their products in order to provide more tailored solutions and choice for customers. Flexibility-enhancing initiatives have been implemented in order to help businesses adopt customer-centric strategies to satisfy their high-variety ambitions. Such strategies can require major changes to the way businesses and key business functions are organised; yet it is imperative that these initiatives are implemented and high-variety solutions are profitably achieved without an overall deterioration of business function performance. In particular, most manufacturers have started to recognise that a trade-off exists between product variety and supply chain performance. In order to manage the impact of product variety, numerous variety-related strategies to improve supply chain performance have been suggested. However, different levels of customisation require different strategies and approaches and affect business function and supply chain performance differently. This research aimed to assess the potential impact of product variety on business function performance and test a model designed to manage that impact on supply chain performance qualified by the level of product customisation. Further investigation aimed to determine typical differences in focus on variety-related strategies and supply chain performance according to the level of customisation. Lastly, the research findings compared the UK and South Korea. By adopting a quantitative research method, a survey of 364 manufacturing sector companies from the UK and South Korea was conducted. The results provide theory developments that support and contradict exiting views on product variety-related issues. The key findings and contributions of this research are fourfold: First, the analysis examined the impact of product variety on the performance of five business functions including engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, logistics and marketing according to the type of customisation. The research also investigated the relationships between business function performance, degree of customisation and the level of product variety offered. An increase in product variety was found to influence business functions differently depending on the combination of customisation and variety offered to customers. The findings demonstrate that low customisation types typically had a more significant impact on business function performance than high customisation types with an increase in product variety. In addition, high variety with low customisation displayed the highest negative impact on business function performance due to a mismatch between the level of variety and customisation offered. The results support organisational decision-making by providing managers working in manufacturing environments with guidance on how to provide more supportive business function design for heterogeneous market requirements and responses. In particular, specific findings have important managerial implications for the adoption of different approaches to variety under different customisation profiles. Second, the research tested models designed to support the management of product variety increases on supply chain performance, that is, it examined the relationship between variety control strategies including modularity, cellular manufacturing and postponement and supply chain performance including supply chain flexibility, agility, cost efficiency and customer service. Adopting the agility concept as an external competence of supply chain performance, this research also attempted to develop a procedure to manage variety-related impacts according to the level of product customisation. In addition, the relationship between a variety control strategy and supply chain performance was explored further by considering the level of customisation. In this scenario, supply chain flexibility and agility resulting from a variety control strategy in the model had a positive effect on supply chain cost-efficiency and customer service. However, supply chain agility in a low customisation context played a relatively insignificant role compared to a high customisation context. These findings provide guidance for manufacturers by explaining the structural procedure to manage the trade-off between product variety and supply chain performance. Third, the research is dedicated to addressing differences in variety-related strategies and supply chain performance according to the level of customisation. The results revealed that a high customisation context is associated with a higher level of customer relationships, variety control strategy, differentiation, flexibility and agility than a low customisation context, while a low customisation context is associated with a higher level of cost leadership than a high customisation context. The findings prove the general theory related to characteristics for high and low customisation; however, partnership with suppliers revealed contradictory results and displayed a higher performance in the case of high customisation through joint product development and problem-solving. Finally, the research compares its findings for the UK and South Korea. As expected, the UK exhibits a higher level of product variety, customisation, customer relationships, customer service and differentiation than South Korea, while South Korea displays higher cost leadership and cost-efficiency than the UK. The comparison reveals the weaknesses and strengths of the two countries. For South Korea, higher manufacturing cost due to increased variety with a relatively low level of customisation is a major issue that needs to be overcome. On the other hand, the UK has relatively lower supply chain agility compared to its level of customisation. These findings can help international companies set up specific variety-related strategies in order to achieve global competitiveness. Generally, the results from the research support the proposition of variety management and its relationship to customisation in the supply chain. It also contributes to the current literature by arguing that the complex relationship between product variety and supply chain performance varies depending on the level of customisation. Finally, the research reveals that appropriate variety-related strategies for managing variety qualified by the manufacturer’s level of customisation are imperative for effective and efficient supply chain performance

Research on cost management methods used in new product development and their relationship to strategic priorities and collaborative competences: A systematic literature review and survey of the German manufacturing industry

This doctoral thesis presents a systematic review in both the management accounting as well as the innovation and operation management literature on 15 different methods for cost management. Subsequently, six antecedents of the adoption of cost management methods are identified and empirically analysed. It was found that the antecedents explaining the adoption of this methods during NPD are cost leadership