Search results

The purpose of the present research is to introduce a combined framework that integrates innovative work behavior, product innovation process and customer knowledge management; then, to explore the mediating effect of customer knowledge management in the relationship between innovative work behavior and the product innovation process.

The basis for the present research is a cross-sectional design. Data collection from 154 employees occurred using the following structured questionnaires: Customer Knowledge Management (CKM), Innovative Work Behavior (IWB) and Product Innovation Process (PIP). Data processing used SPSS version 26.0, including the PROCESS (3.5) macro analysis.

The results show positive relationships between innovative work behavior and the product innovation process (r = 0.420, p < 0.01). Pearson's correlation shows a coefficient of 0.42, meaning that 42% of the variations in perceived product innovation are due to variations in innovative work behavior. The second condition of the mediation test involved testing the relationship between the independent variable (Innovative Work Behavior) and the mediating variable (Knowledge Management) and showed a significant relationship (r = 0.272, p < 0.01). The findings suggested that knowledge management that other determinants supported, such as collaboration in idea exploration, idea championing and encouragement of participation in idea implementation, significantly contributed to the product innovation process (r = 0.509, p < 0.01). The bootstrapping method confirmed that innovative work behavior supports product innovation through the mediation of customer knowledge management (z = 3.01, p = 0.002).

The cross-sectional design, along with the relatively low number of participants and the self-reporting nature of the questionnaires, represent the current study's main limitations. Developing the research model could integrate new variables, such as customer co-creation processes, performance-based compensation, employee citizenship activities and transformational leadership.

This research has both theoretical and practical implications. These emphasize the importance of further investigation into the factors influencing companies' innovation processes. They also provide managers with a means of finding a fit between the deployment of customer knowledge mechanisms and the achievement of innovative workplace behavior, to improve innovation process efficiency.

The current study broadens the empirical research area of customer knowledge management and its impact on both innovative work behavior and the product innovation process, particularly in knowledge-intensive market scenarios that require organizations to be innovative.

This study examines how technical drivers as well as social drivers influence organic communication and top management involvement (TMI) in new product development (NPD) projects. Technical drivers are of strategic importance and product innovativeness and social drivers are of intrinsic and extrinsic relevance. Organic communication is defined as continuous, bidirectional and informal communication between top management and the NPD teams. Further, arguing that TMI must be studied as a multifaceted construct, it is conceptualized to occur as guidance, active motivation and providing resources and creating a tolerant climate. Subsequently, the effect of TMI and organic communication on NPD performance is investigated.

The data set, collected via surveys from top managers and project managers involved in 86 NPD projects in 85 firms, is analyzed using PLS structural equation modeling.

The authors show that the strategic importance of the project has a positive influence on TMI through active motivation, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate for innovation, but does not have an effect on guidance. Results also show that active motivation and organic communication improve budget and schedule adherence, whereas providing guidance and stimulating a tolerant climate have detrimental effects. In summary, the results show that only active motivation enhances all types of performance while stimulating a tolerant climate appears to have the opposite effect. The results revealed that organic communication between top management and the NPD team has a strong positive effect on all elements of TMI (providing guidance, actively motivating the NPD team, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate). In other words, when top management communicates with the NPD team throughout the project in an informal way and listens to them in addition to engaging in a one-way communication, they are more likely to be seen by the team as being deeply involved in the project.

Executives must walk a managerial tightrope to actively motivate and to assist in providing resources, yet they must not be overbearing with direct guidance and must limit their tolerance for failures.

Involvement of key organizational actors such as top management and the link to project performance has attracted significant attention in research. However, nuanced empirical insights into the dyad of top management and project teams has so far been absent. The study’s findings detail the effect of technical and social drivers of top management involvement in new product development projects. Most notably, (1) the effect of motivation and stimulating a tolerant climate on performance, and (2) the effect of organic communication on top management involvement. Moreover, this study is unique in that it empirically examines TMI from both top management and team perspectives.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of design for lean six sigma (DFLSS) on operational functions of the innovation management model by appraising an innovation management assessment framework.

An empirical approach for evaluating causal relationships among various constructs in the model phases that identify optimum pathways in achieving commercial success was adopted. A quantitative analysis of survey data were collected from large, medium and small organiations, including incubators in ANZ (Australia, New Zealand) and TMSV (Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam).

The structural equation modelling recursive path analysis results of the model provide empirical evidence and pathways through the various constructs considered in the model. All these pathways lead to delivering optimum commercialization success (CS). Furthermore, DFLSS is confirmed as an enabler and has direct one-to-one and indirect influence on all the operational function constructs of the model including commercial success.

This study had a relatively small sample size of completed responses obtained from the population and a constrained ability to compare commercialization success (CS) between the two regions in the dataset. Future studies could be conducted on a global scale to increase responses.

The research findings enabled the development of important and practical guidelines for managers and innovation practitioners engaged in planning and management of innovation.

This research offers a holistic approach for integrating DFLSS with stage gate phases of innovation management assessment framework, supported by empirical evidence, to aid organizations in effectively managing the innovation process and achieving greater success in commercialization.

This study explores the mediating role of marketing management in the relationship between online presence and product innovation among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The sample comprises 205 Costa Rican SMEs collected by the Global Competitiveness Project during the first half of 2019. The data were analyzed using a two-stage modeling strategy for ordinary regression models to analyze mediation effects.

Marketing management as a strategic resource or capability accounts for the relationship between online presence and product innovation performance in SMEs, meaning that online presence resources require complementary organizational capabilities in marketing management to enhance product innovation.

This study, grounded in the resource-based view theory, contributes to the innovation field by identifying marketing management capabilities as an intermediate strategic interaction between online presence and product innovation performance in SMEs. Thus, managers should recognize the advantages of integrating marketing management principles and tactics into online presence tools to realize the value of their products by tailoring them to their client’s needs.

This study aims to explore how green supply chain management (GSCM) strategies can be effectively implemented for business supply chain operations, relationship management and product design to gain green competitive advantages.

An exploratory in-depth case study was conducted with one of the largest Chinese electronics manufacturers that is considered a leading GSCM adopter in the industry, to understand how the company adopts green supply chain practices across its multiple product lines.

The findings show that businesses can build different green focuses across GSCM elements of green operation, green relationship management and green product design to form diverse hybrid strategic solutions. They include green control, lean, leagile, agile and clean innovation while taking consideration of supply chain type and product lifespan. A taxonomy of four key GSCM strategic combinations is proposed based on the findings. The strategies align with green demand and supply chain characteristics balancing a series of business competitive objectives in terms of reducing pollution and waste, improving green cost efficiency, enhancing green demand innovation and building green service effectiveness.

This study lends insight into the strategic alignment relationships between product supply chain types and approaches to GSCM.

The findings of this study can support industry practitioners in formulating aligned GSCM strategies based on product types to achieve optimal results.

Optimised green supply chain design, operations and relationship management incorporating product attributes can help further minimise negative impacts of business activities on the environment.

This research provides a systematic understanding of how product supply chain types can influence GSCM strategy formulation. It gives a holistic picture of how hybrid choices of strategies with green supply chain operations, relationship management and product design can be formulated based on product and supply chain characteristics.

This study aims to demonstrate the simultaneous effects between inventory leanness and product innovation, with market concentration being a moderator.

Using a large panel data collected from 3071 listed manufacturing enterprises from 2004 to 2021, this research employs a simultaneous system of equations via the three-stage least square method to explore the simultaneous relationship between inventory leanness and product innovation. In addition, the moderating role of market concentration is demonstrated via one four-model system.

As its core, inventory leanness positively impacts product innovation, while product innovation negatively affects inventory leanness. Moreover, there are differential impacts of the leanness of three inventory types on product innovation. Specifically, the inventory leanness of raw material negatively affects product innovation, while the inventory leanness of work-in-process and finished goods positively affect product innovation. Further, moderation analysis highlights that market concentration is a key moderator of this relationship.

Managers should carefully gauge the tradeoffs between inventory leanness and product innovation. Concretely, managers ought to consider the connections between inventory types and product innovation. In addition, managers are suggested to emphasis on market strategy.

This paper not only contributes to the current understanding of inventory leanness by verifying the impact of inventory leanness on product innovation but also investigates the simultaneous relationship between various inventory types and product innovation. Furthermore, it empirically demonstrates the moderating effect of market concentration on the relationship between inventory leanness and product innovation.

Scarcity of resources, ecological imbalance, global warming, rising energy prices and the ever-changing need for variety have attracted the government and manufacturers for sustainable development of the industries. The integrated sustainable-green-lean-six sigma-agile manufacturing system (ISGLSAMS) provides a solid platform for meeting both the customers’ variety needs and business sustainability requirements. Many organizations opted for ISGLSAMS, but still due to various barriers organizations are not able to fully implement ISGLSAMS. The purpose of this paper is to identify the barriers to the ISGLSAMS, so that a more sustainable industrial manufacturing system and industrial symbiosis can be developed.

A literature review, from the Web of Science and Google Scholar database, has been carried out to identify the various barriers to the implementation of ISGLSAMS in the entire value chain. A total of 168 research papers have been reviewed for identifying the ISGLSAMS barriers.

This paper elaborates the concept of the ISGLSAMS, its attributes and various barriers and contributes to a better understanding and successful implementation of ISGLSAMS to meet business’ sustainability and market performance goals in the entire value chain. The paper also projects the future research framework and directions for the ISGLSAMS, integrated sustainable-green-lean-six sigma-agile (ISGLSA) product and ISGLSA supply and value chain.

The study contributes to a better understanding of ISGLSAMS’ barriers. The government, stakeholders and policymakers may plan the policy, road map and strategies to overcome the ISGLSAMS’ barriers. In-depth knowledge of subclauses of ISGLSAMS’ barriers will help the practitioners to overcome the ISGLSAMS’ barriers strategically. By overcoming the ISGLSAMS barriers, a more sustainable 7 Rs based market focused manufacturing system can be designed. This will also increase the opportunities to enhance the industrial ecology, industrial symbiosis and better recovery of the product, process and supply chain residual value. This will reduce the waste to the ecosystem.

This work has been carried out in search of a more sustainable manufacturing system, i.e. ISGLSAMS (which is 7 Rs based, i.e. 6 Rs of sustainability with 7th R, reconfiguration) to meet the customer variety needs along with sustainability in the ever-changing customer market. This study adds value to the practitioners to identify and prioritize the ISGLSAMS’ industry-specific barriers and design the solution for the more sustainable development of (1) industries, (2) the industrial symbiosis system and (3) the ISGLSA product, process, system and supply value chain with minimum resource consumption and environmental impact. The research also contributes to the (a) ISGLSAMS (b) ISGLSA supply chain (c) reconfigurable, sustainable and modular products and (d) redesign, recovery and refurbishing of the product to increase the product life cycle.

Nowadays, it is hard to retain a knowledge monopoly since tacit knowledge has become essential for innovation and organizational effectiveness (ORP). This study analyzed the role of product innovation as a mediator in the relationship between the tacit knowledge management process (TKMP) and organizational performance. In addition, two moderating variables were examined: (1) Affective trust (AFT) between the tacit knowledge management process and product innovation relationship and (2) Task efficiency in product innovation and organizational performance (ORP) relationship.

Around 344 questionnaires were collected from various Chinese regions between February and April 2023 to conduct this study. The regression, mediation and moderation analyses on lower and higher-order data were evaluated using the SmartPLS approach.

The results validate that product innovation mediates the connection between managing tacit knowledge and the organization’s performance. Affective trust also plays a positive moderating role between tacit knowledge and product innovation. These results provide valuable theoretical and practical insights, substantiating various direct, indirect, mediate, and moderated effects hypotheses.

The scope of the study was restricted to manufacturing companies; however, further research may broaden the model’s scope to include other industries. Furthermore, future research should continue to explore the role of task efficiency in the innovation process and identify strategies for enhancing task efficiency in organizations.

The study establishes the significance of effectively managing tacit knowledge for fostering product innovation. Company managers and leaders can promote employee trust, enhancing innovation capabilities and overall organizational effectiveness.

This study, involving dual moderation, explores the connections between processes of managing tacit knowledge, product innovation and organizational performance. It addresses research gaps, enriching the understanding of managing tacit knowledge, leading to organizational innovation and performance improvements. The study also highlights how affective trust is vital in strengthening the connection between TKMP and product innovation.

This paper aims to describe the product development process (PDP) of companies in the textile industry, seeking to understand the dynamics of their management from different actors along the production chain.

Qualitative empirical research adopted a multiple case studies design in five large Brazilian organizations, each representing a link in the production chain.

Textile PDP follows structured steps. However, it is still an informal process. The use of methodologies and tools for decision-making and control gates throughout the process is limited. Performance indicators do not cover all dimensions of the PDP since sales and profit are the main parameters for assessing projects. The predevelopment macro phase varies according to the product type and the company's business model, whereas the postdevelopment macro phase is nonexistent. PDP projects are executed through collective efforts of multiple departments in cross-functional teams, except for the commodities firms.

The study allows managers of Brazilian textile companies to understand the best practices in the PDP and those that require more attention, taking into account different business models and sectors of the production chain.

Our results contribute to the literature and practitioners by providing an overview of PDP management in the textile industry, covering its different production chain actors, types of projects and companies' characteristics.

This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the industry practice to guide the formation of support tools with a rigorous theoretical backing. Cross-functional teams are an essential component in new product development (NPD) of complex products to promote comprehensive coverage of product design, marketing, sales, support as well as many other activities of business. Efficient use of teams can allow for greater technical competency coverage, increased creativity, reduced development times and greater consideration of ideas from a variety of stakeholders. While academics continually aspire to propose methods for improved team composition, there exists a gap between research directions and applications found within industry practice.

Through interviewing product development managers working across a variety of industries, this paper investigates the common practices of team utilization in an organizational setting. Following these interviews, this paper proposes a conceptual two-dimensional management support model aggregating the primary drivers of team success and providing direction to systematically address features of team management and composition.

Based on this work, product managers are recommended to continually address the positioning of members throughout the entire NPD process. In the early stages, individuals are to be placed to work on project components with explicit consideration toward the perceived complexity of tasks and individual competency. Throughout the development process, individuals’ positions vary based on new information while continued emphasis is placed on maintaining a shared understanding.

Bridging the gap between theory and application within product development teams is a necessary step toward improved product develop. Industrial settings require practical solutions that can be applied economically and efficiently within their organization. Theoretical reflections postulated by academia support improved team design; however, to achieve true success, they must be applicable when considering product development.