Building collaborative new product processes: Why instituting teams is not enough

A growing segment of managers in high-technology firms seem convinced that cross-functional teams charged with new product development (NPD) can cut costs, increase creativity, and reduce time to market (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1995; Griffin and Hauser, 1996). Teams are expected to help transform linear-sequential new product development initiatives into organic processes by streamlining decision-making and organizing a bulk of the activities concurrently. In part, this conviction reflects the apparent weaknesses of the linear-sequential, assembly line organization of new product activities in which each department performs its task in isolation and throws its output over the wall to the next functional group. A large body of research has highlighted the problems associated with this approach including: (a) high incidence of mistakes because one department often dominates while others perform subordinate tasks and are not involved in key decisions (Griffin and Hauser, 1996; Sheremata, 2000; Zahra and Ellor, 199 3), (b) a slow pace of development because each department is concerned more with turf-protection and avoiding blame for mistakes than with sharing information (Donnellon, 1993; Griffin and Hauser, 1996; Zabra and Ellor, 1993), and (c) a higher cost of NPD resulting from the mistakes and need for rework later in the process (Ancona and Caldwell, 1990; Jassawalla and Sashittal, 1999)

Thinking strategically about integrating repatriated managers in MNCs

Although multinational corporations (MNCs) invest considerable resources in sending managers on foreign assignments, too many managers report dissatisfaction with their postrepatriation careers, and a significant percentage leave the firm within a year. This failure to harness learning and develop a cadre of globally trained managers raises questions about the current objectives and strategies that drive the investment in expatriation. A study of managers who had recently completed their expatriate assignment points to underorganized home office operations, poorly defined mentor roles, and large gaps between managers\u27 expectations and reality as key contributors to the problem. This paper calls for a strategic orientation toward managing the expatriate function and proposes a comprehensive configuration of processes, systems, and structures necessary for implementing new strategies for developing the next generation of globally trained managers

Marketing implementation in smaller organizations: Definition, framework, and propositional inventory

The process by which managers implement marketing plans in smaller industrial organizations has yet to be conceptualized in ways that can spur theoretical development or speak to the practical realities of managers from this growing, important segment of American industry. This article, based on an exploratory study of marketing strategy processes in 50 smaller, entrepreneurial organizations develops a framework to stimulate thinking and an inventory of propositions for future testing. The study finds market planning and implementation inextricably linked. Marketing implementation emerges as an organization’s adaptive response to day-to-day market events that is rarely scripted by plans and as a process that involves purposeful actions and improvisations as much as stopgap actions and firefights. The nature and extent of implementation-related improvisations appear to directly affect a firm’s market orientation, rate of growth, and strategic effectiveness

Why managers do what they do

When it comes to descriptions of what managers do in practice, and insights about what managers ought to do, the literature provides a wealth of information. When it comes to explaining why managers do what they do, or why an almost infinite variety exists in what they do, however, the literature grows notably silent. We explore this complex question about the whys in the context of marketing strategy implementation in smaller industrial organizations. Using a symbolic interactionist perspective to analyze interview transcripts, we trace a link that exists between managers’ thinking, subjective interpretations, and actions, and address questions about why marketing implementation processes unfold the way they do in practice

Brands as personal narratives: learning from user–YouTube–brand interactions

This paper reports a three-stage study of user–brand interactions on YouTube. An initial exploration identified unique, previously unknown, constructs active in this context. Grounded hypotheses and scales were tested via two surveys separated by approximately 15 month; first survey taken pre-Covid was followed by a second survey in May 2021 (Covid-vaccine present environment). We report that YouTube usage is significantly shaped by feelings of social dread; users find comfort and fall into a YouTube rabbit hole, which leads them to a self-construal. Rooted in cognitive and emotional processes of self-construal, brands emerge as personal narratives. These narratives help users understand their history and personality; they provide a compelling basis for relating with others. The study produces new implications for future branding theories and practice reflective of the emerging reality of user–brand interactions on YouTube

THE DNA OF CULTURES THAT PROMOTE PRODUCT INNOVATION

Transparency and trust may be the ideal attributes of the well-governed corporation, but they also play a critical role in organizational behavior, specifically in determining whether or not an organization\u27s culture will facilitate - or impede - innovation. Just how do some managers and organizations prevent the formation of a culture that supports innovation? And, what can they do to change their behavior? These authors have some key suggestions. Most managers in high-tech firms know that sustained competitiveness is closely linked with effective product innovation. The trouble is, creating new products from new technologies that excite customers is difficult; doing so consistently, and faster and cheaper than competitors, is even harder. For this to happen, participants in product innovation processes need to trust each other and collaborate. Since most managers seem to know this, one would expect these values to shape much of what occurs in the high-tech firms that live and die by innovation

An Examination of Collaboration in High-Technology New Product Development Processes

For more than a decade, researchers have explored the benefits of eliminating organizational boundaries between participants in the new product development (NPD) process. In turn, companies have revamped their NPD processes and organizational structures to deploy cross-functional teams. These efforts toward interfunctional integration have produced a more responsive NPD process, but they don’t represent the endgame in the quest for more effective NPD. What’s next after the interfunctional walls come down? Pointing out that many high-tech firms have already taken such steps as integrating customers and suppliers into the NPD process, Avan Jassawalla and Hemant Sashittal suggest that such firms need to go beyond integration and start thinking in terms of collaboration. Using information from a study of 10 high-tech industrial firms, they identify factors that seem to increase cross-functional collaboration in NPD, and they develop a conceptual framework that relates those factors to the level of cross-functional collaboration achieved in the NPD process

Strategies of Effective New Product Team Leaders

For high-technology firms that depend on new technology-based products, speed has become a source of Competitive advantage. In the pursuit of accelerating new product development, many are entrusting product innovation to cross-functional teams, which often include not only representatives from multiple functional groups, but also from leading suppliers, customers, and re-sellers. The popularity of these teams has soared in recent years and they are credited with reducing errors, improving new product decisions, and effectively organizing workflow

The Role of Senior Management and Team Leaders in Building Collaborative New Product Teams

Most high-technology firms expect cross-functional new product teams to accelerate product innovation, increase creativity, and cut costs. However, the mere formation of teams seldom produces such results. This article reports findings from a recent study of new product development processes in 10 high-technology firms and highlights the actions of senior management and team leaders that are associated with highly collaborative new product teamwork

Strategies of Effective New Product Team Leaders

For high-technology firms that depend on new technology-based products, speed has become a source of Competitive advantage. In the pursuit of accelerating new product development, many are entrusting product innovation to cross-functional teams, which often include not only representatives from multiple functional groups, but also from leading suppliers, customers, and re-sellers. The popularity of these teams has soared in recent years and they are credited with reducing errors, improving new product decisions, and effectively organizing workflow