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This paper examines how the management control practices of organization members enable the alignment of product development projects with potentially conflicting corporate strategies during the product development process.

Using an ethnomethodology informed research approach, we carry out a case study of an innovative New Zealand food company. Case study data included an internal company document, interviews with organization members, and an external market analysis document.

Our case study company had both sales growth and profit growth corporate strategies which have been argued to cause tensions. We found that four management control practices enabled the alignment of product development projects to these strategies. The first management control practice was having the NPD and marketing functions responsible for different corporate strategies. Other management control practices included the involvement of organization members from across multiple functions, the activities they carried out, and the measures used to evaluate project performance during the product development process.

These findings add new insights to the management accounting literature by showing how a combination of management control practices can be used by organization members to align projects with potentially conflicting corporate strategies during the product development process.

While the alignment of product development projects to corporate strategy is not easy this study shows how it can be enabled through a number of management control practices.

We contribute to the management accounting research in this area by extending our understanding of the management control practices used during the product development process.

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.

Strategy Question: How do we successfully manage our product/service improvement projects?

Summary: The executive has a defined improvement need, and a well thought out specification toward a project to address it. Now the project needs to be done on time. The Milestone Project Management Tool is a structured project management format. It is formatted after classic “stage gate” approaches, with some clever additions that allow it to also serve as an overarching management tool. Each stage gate represents a major element of the development process. Individual tasks supporting the major stage gate item are listed within that heading. By defining these line item tasks, the executive can shape the management tool to fit the particular situation. Color coding completed, ongoing, and incomplete tasks provides a great visual management technique for multiple ongoing projects. The user will be given examples of stage gate milestones (such as Milestone 1 — Project Charter, Milestone 2 — Specification Development, Milestone 3 — Prototype Development, Milestone 4 — Proof of Concept, Milestone 5 — Development, Milestone 6 — Commercialization, etc.) as well as numerous task line suggestions for each stage gate. The user will be encouraged to construct the milestone headings and task line items that make the most sense for their individual situation.

In this paper we develop an integrated model identifying the key factors involved in managing exploratory innovation processes while also maintaining current business models and processes.

We first characterize the problem of innovation as consisting of “the four central problems” organizations face when trying to manage innovation processes (Van de Ven, 1986). We develop an enhanced version of O’Connor’s (2008) Discovery, Incubation and Acceleration (DIA) model by integrating elements of Sanchez’ (2012) theory of architectural isomorphism as well as Markides’ (2008) framework for strategically assessing the benefits of segregation versus integration of innovation processes. We develop and apply our model working with managers in two company contexts to assure the ability of our Integrated Model to identify key organizational and strategic variables that need to be recognized and managed in order to sustain successful exploratory innovation processes.

Reviews of our “Enhanced Integrated Model” with managers in the two companies suggest that our model would help them to recognize and manage key issues that were not addressed adequately in their prior efforts at exploratory innovation.

Our model building process provides a basic template for other research focused on developing normative management models through case-based research. The specific elements included in our Enhanced Integrated Models should provide managers with a useful model for managing exploratory innovation processes.

This chapter extracts a broad range of learning situations in connection with product innovation. The data comprise interviews with the management and employees in five Danish manufacturing firms visited during 2000–2001. Among important learning situations and factors promoting learning have been found the firms’ contacts with customers, project leaders’ cross functional coordinating activities, and cooperation with suppliers and knowledge institutions. The restraints upon learning comprise inter alia strategic patterns, tight time planning, old routines and communication difficulties, changing of roles, ad hoc decisions on training and education and some times among employees lack of motivation. Some policy perspectives are outlined.

To provide an overview of research published in the management accounting literature on methods for cost management in new product development, such as a target costing, life cycle costing, component commonality, and modular design.

The structured literature search covered papers about 15 different cost management methods published in 40 journals in the period 1990–2013.

The search yielded a sample of 113 different papers. Many contained information about more than one method, and this yielded 149 references to specific methods. The number of references varied strongly per cost management method and per journal. Target costing has received by far the most attention in the publications in our sample; modular design, component commonality, and life cycle costing were ranked second and joint third. Most references were published in Management Science; Management Accounting Research; and Accounting, Organizations and Society. The results were strongly influenced by Management Science and Decision Science, because cost management methods with an engineering background were published above average in these two journals (design for manufacturing, component commonality, modular design, and product platforms) while other topics were published below average in these two journals.

The scope of this review is accounting research. Future work could review the research on cost management methods in new product development published outside accounting.

The paper centers on methods for cost management, which complements reviews that focused on theoretical constructs of management accounting information and its use.

This chapter treats new product development in relation to management and organization. The data comprise new product development within four Danish manufacturing firms studied by interviewing the management, product leaders and other employees. The results show how integrated product development procedures have furthered a stronger market orientation. The stage-gate version of integration has fertilized knowledge across functions. The new procedures have made the understanding of cooperation across functions topical and have been followed up by more involvement of the employees. The changes have run into barriers which to a certain extent have been met by organizational changes.

This article considers real options approaches through the lens of firm's resource reallocation processes. It explores some potential drivers and consequences of mismatches between initial resource allocation logics and subsequent reallocation realities, highlighting a process of rational escalation in the presence of sunk costs. It also presents a new perspective on the traditional stage-gate process, and considers some recent empirical evidence on the efficiency of resource reallocation processes in organizations.

This commentary challenges researchers to include grounded social processes generated by individual action and interaction as they study managerial efforts in an attempt to impose prescriptive innovation models on them. Specifically, innovation planning for the middle of the organization and the middle stages of the innovation process should consider a variety of social processes that emerge from the interaction of individuals in their grounded setting. Researchers in this area should place much more emphasis on interpretation and further explore how leaders might facilitate interaction to increase the changes of dynamic adaptive emergence. We also suggest a consideration of managerial mindsets to determine how executives attempt to influence those in the middle, and we call on researchers to explicitly recognize differences in types of innovations and technological discontinuities.

Organization development is focused on implementing a planned process of positive humanistic change in organizations through the use of social science theory, action research, and data-based feedback methods. The role of personality in that change process, however, has historically been ignored or relegated to a limited set of interventions. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a conceptual overview of the linkages between personality and OD, discuss the current state of personality in the field including key trends in talent management, and offer a new multi-level framework for conceptualizing applications of personality for different types of OD efforts. The chapter concludes with implications for research and practice.