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The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the screening of product ideas is supported by the NPD (new product development) process design throughout the NPD phases.

Data were collected with an internet survey questionnaire from 43 large companies producing high and low‐technology consumer products.

Results reveal that the screening of product ideas is detached from the NPD process design, but significantly influenced by the market conditions facing companies.

To understand NPD in companies, NPD literature will benefit from knowledge of the process of implementing “best practices” of NPD. Companies follow guidelines, but how is the NPD process followed through? This paper supports the need for improved insight into the complexity of screening decisions as well as knowledge of the screening determinants.

The implementation of cross‐functional teams and interacting phases demands more attention by management in order to reduce costs of NPD relative to the ROI of new products.

By showing that the screening is detached from the NPD process design, the paper gives valuable insight into the need for theory to investigate the complexity of implementing “best practices” of NPD.

Today’s knowledge economy era is characterized by short product life‐cycles, dynamic customer requirements and complex business processes, knowledge management (KM) is becoming the pivot of new product development. In this article, the interactions between five activities of KM and new product development process are discussed in detail. Then, a novel concept – electronic new product development (E‐NPD) is put forward. E‐NPD is defined as the convergence of customer relationship, business processes, enterprise IT applications, and knowledge management system necessary to perform continuous innovation through new business model in the new knowledge‐based economy. Based on a case study in the high‐tech industry, we demonstrate that the convergence of KM and new product development have greatly enhanced the efficiency of new product development, accordingly led to the success of new product. In the end, it is concluded that competence of NPD is from KM by describing the E‐NPD structure as an organism.

The Internet of Things (IoT) real-time data collection can help to more efficiently optimize and control companies' internal processes. Prior research analyzed IoT benefits and potential applications. Nevertheless, there is little empirical evidence and theoretical understanding of how IoT impacts new product development (NPD). This article aims at narrowing this gap.

In total, 54 case studies were selected from an IoT database – IoT ONE. IoT ONE has a section on NPD. NPD was divided into three phases: discovery, development and commercialization. The adopted IoT technology maturity level was also analyzed. A content analysis was carried out to identify the impacts of IoT in NPD.

This study’s findings capture the emerging patterns of IoT adoption and its impact on NPD. Of the total, 33 IoT adoption cases in the sample were in the machinery and equipment sector. Adopted technologies were at least two years old in 85% of the sample. Only 15% adopted cutting edge technologies (less than 2 years old). Key actors (e.g. vendors) facilitate IoT adoption. By a small margin, the larger impacts of IoT were in the commercialization phase, where it was primarily applied to improve and optimize production processes, to better execute and synchronize new products launching, and to increase the factories' productive capacity. In the discovery phase, IoT was mainly used to identify new opportunities in the market and to collect customer data, to generate a better customer experience. In the development phase, IoT allows greater integration across departments, increasing internal collaboration and allowing more flexible NPD.

Many articles studied the impact of information technologies in NPD. Few address the impact of IoT in NPD. IT tells about the impact of better communications with relevant people. IoT tells about machine acquired information and knowledge. This is new, much broader and deals with quite different impacts on NPD.

This study aims to focus on creating sales capability as part of new product development (NPD). The aim is to define generic requirements for building sales capability as a part of NPD and to propose a necessary process by defining key activities for sales readiness.

An inductive and qualitative research method was used to construct a sales capability creation process based on a current state analysis in seven companies.

The results indicate that the status of companies’ sales-related planning varies during the NPD, and the related activities are not systematically managed. Considering sales early is necessary to enable a smooth and cost-efficient start of sales, and to avoid unnecessary delays and problems in other functions. At the same time, the companies recognise the need for improvement.

This paper presents a potential process including systematic activities for creating sales capability in conjunction with product development, which is novel to the literature. The proposed process is applicable in aligning industrial company needs.

This study deals with waste in New Product Development (NPD) processes of SMEs. The purpose of this paper is to reveal opportunities for SMEs to overcome resource constraints in their NPD process.

The authors employed qualitative key informant interviews. This design was chosen because research in this field is still limited. The authors performed 49 interviews in engineering-oriented German SMEs to examine the dimension of waste in NPD processes. The data were collected by conducting semi-structured, face-to-face interviews.

The study highlights substantial waste types such as waiting times, rework and duplication of work. In contrast to contemporary literature, waste of material is considered to be relevant in particular for NPD processes of SMEs. In addition to that, the authors found that waste drivers differ to a great extent between the study and the hitherto literature on larger companies.

The overall outcome of this study can help organisations to address waste in NPD more thoroughly. The research presented was not specifically designed to draw statistical generalisations. For this reason, the results may not be applicable to all SMEs.

Based on waiting times as the major waste type in NPD processes of SMEs, the authors claim that firms should pay special attention to disruptions of these processes.

The paper gives insights into current waste types in the NPD processes of SMEs. Moreover, it uncovers the NPD activities which can lead to waste.

Despite the numerous implementations of process improvement approaches (PIAs) in new product development (NPD), the espoused benefits of PIAs are rarely realized in practice. This paper explores how managers' cognitive frames provide knowledge structures that affect the use of PIAs in the development of new products.

A qualitative multiple case study method was used to elaborate theory in relation to the use of PIAs in NPD. Four large multinational companies were selected. Interviews with informants from different functional specialisms were conducted, and internal and online documents were collected and analyzed.

Two main findings emerge. First, the authors identify three types of managers' cognitive frames: conflicting, paradoxical, and supporting. Second, these cognitive frames are found to influence managers' decisions over whether to promote, adapt or prevent the implementation of PIAs, sometimes in contrast with the managers' organization’s strategic intent.

This paper generates insights into the importance of managerial decision-making in determining the scope and depth of implementation of PIAs in NPD.

This study helps explain conflicting findings in the literature regarding the implementation and effects of PIAs in NPD by identifying managers' cognitive frames as a key factor. Moreover, the paper highlights managers' roles in shaping an organization's approach for managing contradictory goals and shows how an organizational frame may conflict and sometimes be displaced by individual managers' cognitive frames.

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.

The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is one of the means that can be employed in the pursuit of effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical research evidence on the process innovations and the NPD (new product development) processes/practices adopted by the food industry as well as their interface.

The study was conducted in the Greek food industry. A total of 44 companies that have developed new products were identified and personal interviews were conducted with company managers. Three different aspects of their innovativeness was investigated, namely the use of new raw ingredients/materials, new machinery and new controls. Questions were asked on the adoption of 33 different processes for the development of these new products and the importance attributed to these NPD processes/practices.

Firms in the food industry may operate on the basis of a U‐shaped process innovativeness. They employ either the same raw materials/ingredients with new equipment/machinery or new raw ingredients/materials with old equipment/machinery. New controls/procedures go together with new equipment/machinery. Increased process innovativeness is associated with only a small number of NPD processes/practices. These revolve around manufacturing and its preparation.

The small number of identified innovations and the focus sector limit the results to the target sample.

The exact NPD processes used by the food industry and which of these are associated with increased process innovativeness, bear important implications for food industry managers and research.

The paper fills a gap regarding what is the nature of innovativeness in the Greek food industry, what new product development processes/practices are followed and which of these are associated with increased innovativeness. As such it provides further specialised evidence for the food sector across European countries.

Owing to intensifying competition and changing trends, the process of new product development has become increasingly important to competitiveness in the brewing industry. Consumers are now demanding more innovative products, thus requiring brewers to find better and quicker ways of introducing new products. This paper through the use of two case studies, aims to capture the essential attributes of new product development in the brewery industry.