Evaluating Product-Centric Continuous Improvements: Impact on Competitive Capabilities and Business Performance

Product-centric continuous improvements (CIs) are actions via which firms modify the design of a product after the start of its production and release into the market. Product-centric CIs are initiated to help build competitive capabilities and sustain competitive advantage throughout the product life cycle. This study complements the perspective pervasive in the extant literature that actions related to product-centric CIs can be disruptive to firms and be associated with negative performance consequences. It investigates a topic that is relatively much less researched, namely the upside potential of product-centric CIs. The empirical analysis is based on data collected from 144 plants in the United States representing process and discrete part manufacturing industries. Specifically, the study analyzes the impact of product-centric CIs on competitive capabilities and business performance. The results of the empirical analysis indicate the following: First, there exist two categories of product-centric CIs: (1) actions for quality improvement and (2) actions for cost reduction. Second, while there is a positive association between each type of CI and the intended competitive capability, there also is a trade-off—i.e., actions for quality improvement increase quality capability but reduce cost capability, and vice versa. Third, there is a strong linkage between business performance and quality capability, but not cost capability. All in all, the study presents empirical evidence that product-centric CIs have a significant impact on competitive capabilities related to quality and cost, and, in turn, have an impact on business performance. From the standpoint of practice, the study suggests that product-centric CIs should be managed to develop competitive capabilities and improve business performance

New Product Development: Impact of Project Characteristics and Development Practices on Performance

Concurrent product development process and integrated product development teams have emerged as the two dominant new product development (NPD) “best practices” in the literature. Yet empirical evidence of their impact on product development succes

Antecedents and Consequences of New Product Development Practices and Software Tools: An Exploratory Study

Many development practices and software tools enable new product development (NPD), yet few empirical studies shed light on the project characteristics and project contexts driving their use. Using a cross-sectional sample of NPD projects, this study examines how project characteristics and availability of information technology (IT) infrastructure relate to the use of NPD practices and software tools. We also examine how the extent of their use is associated with NPD project performance. The results indicate that different project characteristics influence the use of NPD practices and software tools, with project complexity associated with software tool use, but project uncertainty associated with NPD practice use. Also, customer facing IT infrastructure is associated with the use of NPD practices, while manufacturing plant IT infrastructure is associated with the use of design/validation software tools. Moreover, use of NPD practices has a positive association with all project-level performance metrics examined in this study, and as a result, a greater impact on overall market success. In comparison, the performance impacts of software tools appear relatively limited, with only design/validation software tools exhibiting a strong positive association with product performance quality and a weak positive association with time-to-market and responsiveness. Communication/teamwork software tools exhibit no such impact

Technology Management Education in MBA Programs: A Comparative Study of Knowledge and Skill Requirements

This study attempts to explore the content and process of technology management education in the context of masters of business administration (MBA) programs in the US. Based on two mail surveys, the research identifies the knowledge and skills that are necessary for effective management of technology. Except for a few specific knowledge and skill areas, general agreement was found to exist between academicians and practitioners as to what knowledge and skills are important for effective management of technology. Knowledge of business strategy and competition, the strategic role of technology in business, new product development and the understanding of issues related to implementation of new technology were found to be important for management of technology. Moreover, effective oral and written communication and the ability to achieve implementation are considered essential skills for managing technology. Implications and future research directions are discussed

Collaborative Product Development: The Effect of Project Complexity on the Use of Information Technology Tools and New Product Development Practices

Collaboration is an essential element of new product development (NPD). This research examines the associations between four types of information technology (IT) tools and NPD collaboration. The relationships between NPD practices and NPD collaboration are also examined. Drawing on organizational information processing theory, we propose that the relationships between IT tools and NPD collaboration will be moderated differently by three project complexity dimensions, namely, product size, project novelty, and task interdependence, due to the differing nature of information processing necessitated by each project complexity dimension. Likewise, the moderation effects of the project complexity dimensions on the relationship between NPD practices and NPD collaboration will also be different. We test our hypotheses using data from a sample of NPD projects in three manufacturing industries. We find that IT tools are associated with collaboration to a greater extent when product size is relatively large. In contrast, IT tools exhibit a smaller association with collaboration when project novelty or task interdependence is relatively high. NPD practices are found to be more significantly associated with NPD collaboration under the contingency of high project novelty or high task interdependence. The findings provide insights about circumstances where several popular IT tools are more likely to facilitate collaboration, thus informing an NPD team’s IT adoption and use decisions

Collaborative Product Development (CPD): Exploring the Role of Internal Coordination Capability (ICC) in Supplier Involvement

Purpose – This paper examines impact of internal coordination capability on supplier involvement Design/methodology/approach - Hypothesized relationships are tested using confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical linear regression models. Findings – (1) internal coordination capability and (2) supplier involvement effort have a positive effect on CPD performance. In addition, (3) internal coordination capability positively moderates the relationship between supplier involvement and CPD performance. Research Limitation/Implications – This study used targets or goals as the standard for measuring all scales in CPD performance. Although, this approach has several advantages and it is widely reported in the literature, it fails to account for the aggressiveness of the goals or targets as well as relative importance of the metrics

Web Channels in E-Commerce

n this article, authors discuss that a popular commercial use of the Web is for business advertising. The Web is fast emerging as a major player in the relationships between producers and consumers. These relationships can be described in terms of channels, or the paths that products or services take as they move from source to destination. A major trend in channel management is the recent emergence of electronic commerce. Channels can be of different types, ranging from advertising channels, order processing channels, to customer support channels. The Web is currently being used as a medium for these types of channels in the supply chain. A good experience on the Web site leads to brand awareness and increase in consumer loyalty. In this article, they use activity theory to suggest a framework that can be used to enhance the business value of a firm\u27s Web site by maximizing its channel potential. The article also uses phenomenological insights to understand the nature of experiences needed for successful channels in the context of a virtual community