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Firms report varied levels of success in relation to using alliances to aid in new product development (NPD). This study aims to investigate internal processes that might influence the experience of alliance success. Specifically, this study investigates the role of mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying the alliance orientation (AO)–new product success relationship, while also investigating the impact of the level and consistency of AO. The primary goal is to understand the importance of a firm’s maintaining a consistent focus upon alliance scanning, coordination and learning.

A survey was conducted to collect data from 141 Taiwanese electronics companies. The proposed model and hypotheses were tested using path analysis in analysis of moment structures.

AO improves the success of new products indirectly through the enhancement of product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility. The positive effect of AO on product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility is heightened when a firm consistently carries out a series of alliance management activities, including alliance scanning, coordination and learning. Market turbulence and the intensity of competition differentially affect the association between product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility and new product success.

The measures were self-reported and may result in the threat of common method bias. While this study focused upon protecting against and assessing this bias, collecting data from multiple sources would have helped to eliminate the bias. Further, the sample consisted of Taiwanese electronics firms. This makes it difficult to generalize this study’s findings to other industrial contexts.

While AO may be viewed as a dynamic capability, product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility represent competitive advantage in NPD program and process, respectively. Managers should not focus only on competitive advantage in NPD while overlooking the development of dynamic capabilities, as this study’s results demonstrate that both elements must work in tandem. AO is relevant at higher levels of the organizational hierarchy, while product program innovativeness and decision-making flexibility are operational, demanding cross-functional coordination and involvement within a firm. Senior executives ought to not only confirm the appropriate provision of their resources to activities and actions associated with product program innovativeness and decision-making flexibility in NPD but also continually monitor and assess whether the inputs of AO lead to desirable competitive advantage in the context of NPD.

This study sheds light on the underlying mechanism through which AO improves new product success. This research proposes two different aspects of AO, level and consistency, and empirically identifies their interactive effect in the context of NPD. The findings offer specific guidelines for the assessment and implementation of AO to improve new product success. Consistency, especially, has not been investigated in relation to alliance-generated new product success.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between strategy and flexibility in new product development, and the operational and financial performance in the supply chain context. The motives for conducting this research are to introduce the supply chain strategies and new product development flexibility (NPDF) as constructs that could have the potential to contribute to the success of supply chain performance. Based on the relational view of the firm, the authors propose that supply chain strategy is an antecedent of NPDF and can create value for the buying firm in terms of better financial and non-financial performance.

The structural equation modeling approach was used to evaluate the proposed model and analyze hypothesized relationships. The analysis, based on data collected from 175 small- and medium-sized (SME) Canadian manufacturing companies.

The analysis shows that there are direct positive effects from strategy on NPDF. The findings indicate also a direct positive association between NPDF and performance and showed that the total effect (direct and indirect) positively influenced performance.

The literature did not reveal any study which attempted to examine strategy, NPDF, and performance in the supply chain context of SMEs. The current study fills this important gap in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the NPD performance success measures that manufacturing organisations use to assess the success of their new products.

Based on relevant literature review and in-depth interviews, a structured questionnaire was developed as a primary data collection method. Questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 558 manufacturing organisations in Jordan, out of which 355 were returned and valid for the analysis. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were applied to reveal NPD performance success measures dimensions.

This study empirically showed that manufacturing organisations in Jordan use a multidimensional construct for NPD performance success measures to assess the success of their new products. The multidimensional construct consists of NPD financial performance, NPD internal learning, NPD capabilities improvement, NPD knowledge sharing and NPD marketing performance. The findings indicate that NPD financial performance is still the dominant dimension amongst the manufacturing organisations while measuring NDP performance. Also, the study has developed an inductive model of NPD performance success measures which shows the construct’s dimensions complexity.

The fact that the paper is a single country study focusing on the manufacturing industry limits its generalisation to other industries/contexts. The paper’s focus on manufacturing organisations limits its contribution to the manufacturing sector. The services sector is a rich field for NPD performance success measures, in addition to being an important contributor to the economy of most, if not all, countries. Further, the paper focuses on only five dimensions of NPD performance success measures, other dimensions of NPD performance success measures might add more insights to their effect on NPD performance success measures.

Utilising the findings of this study can help managers make sense of NPD success and failure and plan the NPD strategy and activities across a range of differing situations. The major contribution of this study is increasing the ability of managers to improve their skills and capabilities and focus on the dimensions of NPD success in the best way that enables them to respond effectively to uncertainty caused by changes in the product life cycle which in turn might affect the performance of NPD. The findings urge managers to deal with NPD as a complex process that should be integrated within corporate, business and functional strategies of the firm.

The originality of this paper stems from its multidimensional construct of NPD performance success measures as well as in developing an inductive model that shows the complexity of NPD performance dimensions that can be used for assessing the success of new products. The study also has its originality since it is the first empirical work conducted on the manufacturing sector in an emerging market business environment, Jordan.

This study aims to investigate whether an organization that is entrepreneurial oriented can benefit from having a formal control structure and process in new product development (NPD). This study investigates two well-known control mechanisms in NPD, namely, stage-gate system (SGS) and project management (PM), as well as decision-making comprehensiveness (DMC), reflecting the amount of information processing and investigative activities undertaken.

Survey data were collected from 238 Australian small and medium enterprises. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

The findings of this study suggest that entrepreneurial orientation (EO) directly impacts new product performance and indirectly does so through DMC. While both control mechanisms positively impact DMC, they affect the EO–DMC relationship differently. While SGS positively moderates the EO–DMC relationship, PM negatively does so. However, the use of SGS and PM enhances the effect of EO on DMC.

This research provides managers with insights into the design of structure and process in NPD to support interfunctional coordination and firm strategy. The findings of this study suggest that managers should be amenable to the application of control mechanisms and DMC. The calibration of the right mix of control systems is required to ensure that EO can contribute to decision-making in the NPD process.

On the surface, the implementation of EO requires flexibility while the control mechanisms and extensive information processing are seen as restricted structures for NPD activities. However, rather than viewing EO and control structure as counterintuitive elements in NPD, the results suggest that appropriate use of control structure can support organizational strategy and decision-making activities, which subsequently enhance NPD outcomes.

The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).

This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.

The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.

This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.

This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.

Emphasizing the importance of product cost deviation; the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the new product development (NPD) literature and research on decision making by discussing: How are decisions related to product cost deviations made during a product development project?

An in-depth single case study approach studying the decision-making process of Volvo Cars Cooperation during a car development project is applied.

The paper suggests that factors influencing how decisions related to cost deviations are made during a NPD are not limited to the classic trade-offs among time, cost and scope, but include managers’ complex cause-and-effect analysis under the influence of values, behaviors and norms. Furthermore, the context is not limited to NPD projects; rather the frame for the decisions and its influencers is at least as wide as the corporate context.

The common limitations of a single case study apply.

The study emphasizes the importance of clearly defined targets during a NPD project that need to well communicated, acknowledged and understood by all involved to serve as true business levers. A poor target is likely better than no target. Furthermore, lack of overview or responsibility for the success of the projects, increase the risk for sub-optimization and silo thinking.

The study is pioneering by highlighting the importance of and explaining the implications of decision making related to cost deviations during a NPD project.

The purpose of this paper is to study two aspects of new product development (NPD) success – the impact of learning and the impact of structure – are studied.

A multiple case study method within a single setting consisting of in-depth interviews of two teams that developed successful, award-winning products and two teams that developed unsuccessful products.

Case 1: flexibility and expertise permitted learning and radical redefinition of the product mid-project and commercial success. Case 2: flexibility enabled adding expertise which was instrumental in success, iterating permitted optimizing pricing. Case 3: flexibility led to focusing on technical issues to the exclusion of commercial viability. Case 4: flexibility led to skipping market definition and partnering with a particular customer whose situation was idiosyncratic. Cross-case analysis: flexibility in teams with both technical and commercial expertise yielded success. Flexibility permitted teams consisting of narrow experts to invest development resources in products with insufficient market.

This paper argues that the right balance between structure and flexibility is dependent on the level of expertise of the members of the NPD project teams. However, getting this balance right is not a sufficient condition for NPD success. The cases were theoretically blocked to develop theoretical insight, but additional cases are needed for a strong test of theory.

The more experienced team members are, the more the project benefits from flexibility. Conversely, an inexperienced team will benefit from a more structured process. Projects require iteration. The dichotomy between structure and flexibility is false: the most expert teams benefit from some structure. The most inexperienced teams must employ flexibility to learn.

The analysis combines the virtues of the stage-gate school and the flexibility school previously thought mutually exclusive.

Firms spend considerable amount of money on information technology (IT) to improve their processes, thereby reducing costs, enhancing quality and getting to market faster. Consequently, understanding the effective relationship between the IT department and new product development (NPD) teams can inform whether firms reap the expected benefits from their IT. The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial observation that helps in recognizing the unique relationship between the IT department and NPD teams.

Mail surveys resulted in 21 dyads (IT department head and NPD team leader) from manufacturing firms in 14 different industries. These data are analyzed by correlations, Wilcoxon's paired signed‐rank tests and crosstabs.

The results demonstrate that IT department and NPD team leaders share similar understanding regarding the role of IT in NPD. Moreover, the results provide evidence that more IT is better for NPD flexibility, but it also increases product development costs.

Future research would investigate why increased IT results in amplified costs. Among the potential reasons discussed in this paper is the assimilation of IT, that is, the degree of success achieved by a firm in making use of the capabilities of IT.

It is useful for practitioners to know that IT department and NPD team leaders share similar understanding regarding the role of IT in NPD because shared understanding enhances innovativeness. Managers should also be cautious about relying too much on IT for coordinating NPD activities and must find a balance between the two.

This paper examines the alignment of perceptions of the IT department and NPD teams while also revealing the effect of IT on several NPD outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to adopt the dynamic capability (DC) view as a theoretical framework to empirically investigate the relationships among human resource (HR)-related quality management (QM) practices: new product development (NPD) as a specific DC, learning orientation, knowledge integration, and strategic flexibility. Learning orientation and knowledge integration represent two antecedents of strategic flexibility, and strategic flexibility is the developed ability that facilitates NPD.

To empirically test the relationships, the authors used data from 236 European firms and performed structural equation modeling.

Results indicate that HR-related QM practices contribute to creating a learning-oriented company, integrating knowledge, and supporting successful NPD. Furthermore, knowledge integration is positively related to NPD through strategic flexibility.

This study is relevant for practitioners because it identifies key points in QM implementation that enable firms to be more strategically flexible and thus better able to regularly develop new products.

When organizations must sustain their competitive positions by continuously adapting to environmental changes, it is important to study not only how QM implementation is positively related to the firm performance on which a significant portion of the QM literature has focused but also to study whether QM implementation is related to strategic variables and can make a contribution to strategic processes. To fill the void in the HR and QM literature, this study offers an integrated framework with empirical support that identifies the role of HR-related QM practices in learning orientation, knowledge integration, strategic flexibility, and NPD.

This study is to compare the impact of organizational agility and flexibility on performance of each type of product innovation (radical vs incremental innovation). Additionally, the moderating effect of technological turbulence on the relationship between the two types of organization is examined.

Based on gaps in the existing literature, the survey data are collected from managers who are in charge of developing new products in three industries: food and beverage, chemical and machinery (N = 431). Confirmatory factory analysis is used to verify measurement items and regression analysis is used to test hypotheses.

The results show that organizational agility increases performance in radical innovation both in a certain situation and an environment with technological turbulence. In contrast, the impact of organizational flexibility is limited to increasing performance in both radical and incremental innovation performance in a certain situation.

Our study extends the knowledge of organizational agility and flexibility in the domain of product innovation. Adaptation of organization to respond the technological turbulence will stimulate creativity of new product development teams to produce new useful ideas and transform these ideas to product innovation. The different types of organizing a new product development team to handle technological turbulence will provide different results in product innovation performance. In addition, the findings provide a recommendation on how the organization of a new product development team can improve performance in each type of product innovation under technological turbulence.