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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.

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 purpose of this study is to investigate the role of existing, local performance measures in the process of developing and implementing an integrated performance measurement system. Performance measurement has received much attention since the 1980s, based on the notion that performance measurement systems should be adapted to modern manufacturing systems. However, relatively few empirical studies have investigated implementation processes of such systems.

The paper describes a case study of the development of a performance measurement system in a medium‐sized company.

It was found that the process was strongly guided by the need to identify existing reports and metrics at different levels within the organization, which informed the development and implementation of the new performance measurement system. This is a more significant role than has usually been proposed in the literature – one side of the gap between existing measures and an ideal system that has first been developed following a kind of “greenfield” approach.

Future research could use other longitudinal case studies to obtain more insights into development and implementation processes, and also focus on information systems in these processes.

The value of this paper lies in highlighting the interplay between organizational experiences that are embedded in informal, local performance reports and new performance measurement initiatives that are initiated from a higher management‐level.

To present a measurement framework to capture the importance of the use of knowledge within the new product development (NPD) process.

A literature review enabled 200 product development measures to be compiled. These were categorised into six dimensions: stakeholder contribution, operating context, reuse, invention, exploitation, and NPD performance. Four companies applied selected measures and assessed the cube for its ability to improve measurement and management of their NPD process. This process refined the approach. A web‐based questionnaire (with 130 responses) assessed how a wider population perceived their performance and capability to measure performance in each of the six dimensions.

Respondents consider themselves capable of delivering good products and services, but are less confident in their ability to manage and measure knowledge reuse, invention and exploitation activities.

Full implementation of the measurement cube was not possible. Further research should assess the comprehensiveness, applicability and usefulness of the approach in more detail.

Introduction of the measurement cube and measures in the six dimensions identified would enable companies to go beyond traditional financial measures for their NPD processes and move towards a more performance‐oriented culture.

This paper synthesises the results from many other isolated studies on NPD metrics. In addition, it focuses on the measurement of the NPD process from a knowledge perspective, providing an integrating framework (the measurement cube), which is unique.

Unobtrusive measurement methodologies are critical to implementing intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) for teams. Such methodologies allow for continuous measurement of team states and processes while avoiding disruption of mission or training performance, and do not rely on post hoc feedback (including for the aggregation of data into measures or to develop insights from these real-time metrics). This chapter summarizes advances in unobtrusive measurement developed within Army research programs to illustrate the variety and potential that unobtrusive measurement approaches can provide for building ITS for teams. Challenges regarding the real-time aggregation of data and applications to current and future ITS for teams are also discussed.

Describes research undertaken to evaluate the appropriateness of strategic performance measurement (PM) system development processes for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). An evaluation is undertaken of ten PM approaches found in the literature. To facilitate this evaluation a typology is presented which synthesises current theory. This evaluation resulted in the identification of a process, based on its congruency to the theoretical model, which is used for an empirical investigation. Empirical data from SMEs is collected and analysed using the typology. This indicates a discontinuity between current theory and the requirements of practitioners in small companies. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations to facilitate the development of appropriate PM processes for SMEs.

Examines the thirteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Provides a review and ready reference to recent writings on new service development (NSD), especially for the financial services sector. Discusses the types of new service development, the purposes served by them and the processes. Refers to the key activities of NSD and measures its success. An annotated bibliography supplies a very useful guide to the new service development literature.

This empirical study examines the influence of environmental uncertainty on industrial product innovation. Addresses a perceived shortcoming in the new product development literature and explores direct and moderating effects of environmental uncertainty on the development process, project organization, and on new product success. Finds that several external market and technology factors do impact new product success directly. Further, finds that several market and technological uncertainties moderate the relationship between development process, project organization, and new product success. Consequently, innovating companies benefit by adapting their development approaches to different environmental conditions and to varying degrees of uncertainty. The results of 82 product development projects indicate, among others, that under conditions of high market and technology unpredictability process compression may increase time efficiency and product profitability.

Purpose – To investigate the effects of headquarters (HQ) involvement in innovation development and transfer at unit level.

Methodology/approach – We develop a theoretical model that we test on a sample of 71 innovations belonging to 52 business units located throughout Europe, Asia, and the USA. The data were collected by personal interviews and analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) technique.

Findings – While HQ involvement in innovation development enhances the effects on the unit engaged in the development, it is detrimental to performance of the innovation transfer process. We also find higher HQ involvement in the innovation development process and stronger innovation impact on the subsidiary to be associated with higher HQ involvement in the transfer process.

Research limitations/implications – There is a significant beneficial effect of HQ involvement in the development process in terms of the increased impact of the innovation in the unit, and a harmful influence on the specific performance associated to the transfer process.

Practical implications – HQs will benefit from improved performance if they become more involved in important innovations while limiting their direct engagement in the transfer of “marginal” innovations. It might also be wise for the HQs to rethink their involvement at unit level by separating the development process from the transfer process in their decision framework.

Originality/value of the paper – This is one of the first attempts to empirically connect the processes of innovation development and transfer at unit level in MNCs and to show the implications of HQ involvement in innovation projects at subsidiary level.