The Importance of New Product Development to Maintain a Company’s Competitiveness

The Importance of New Product Development to Maintain a Company’s Competitiveness

The article ‘The Effect of Product Introduction Delays on Operating Performance’ provides an experimental evidence on the effects of product introduction delays on accounting-based procedures of operating performances. The speed of research on product development issues has increased. Delay in product introduction, publicly available accounting data is used to estimate delays on return on assets (ROA), sales over assets (SOA) and return on sales (ROS). A sample of 450 publicly traded firms were considered for the experiment that had faced some product introduction delays and have a statistical negative significance on profit.

Sample selection for the experiment is done primarily from the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones News Service over a period of three year to avoid any overlap. Depending on the method used that is based on annual financial data from Compustat, fiscal year considered 0 and then 1 and so on, which then used to estimate abnormal performance, the median abnormal decline in return on assets (ROA) ranges from 2.70% to 3.44% over a period of three year of the delay announcements. The median decline in sales over assets (SOA) ranges from 5.92% to 10.99%, and the median decline in return on sales (ROS) ranges from 1.48% to 3.06%. Also, cross-sectional regression analysis indicates that on smaller firms the impact of delays on abnormal ROA is more negative, and for those firms that are more profitable before the delay. Also, for firms that operate in industries that are larger and more profitable, its impact is more negative. Round the product introduction delay announcements there is positive association between abnormal ROA and abnormal stock price performances.

The need for a diverse selection of products is not new, but most vendors have taken a long time to move past a single, uncomplicated credit score product. Many financial service vendors have developed their own small businesses model around a credit rating supplying, instead of exploring techniques to offer a full set of expert services that their clients would locate helpful with time.

It is defined that 70% of all new product launches fall short in the main year. The dilemma is, why do some thrive when many others fail? This can be understood from concepts as mentioned in article ‘New Product Development Imperative Strategy’. Increasing customers’ expectations, technology and competition are dynamic factors which are leading to replacement of old products or having altogether a new demand. To meet the changing needs of the customer a company need to evolve continually.

The new product development is of vital importance for a business to grow in long run. It plays a crucial role to achieve market leadership. Product development skills helps firm to enhance its existing product lines and make way for new and development capabilities of the firm. Intense competition, changing customer expectations, product and technical diversity are the key driving forces that lead to development of fast, responsive products with distinction and integrity and ultimately lead to shorter development cycles, leverage critical resources and increase total product quality.

Effective, efficient principles are required for strategic product development. This can be done by following three steps process:

  1. Company must have a right set of development projects.
  2. The projects must be executed on right time, right budget and on right target.
  3. Company must capture the lessons learned from each project so as to be prepared for future.

For better and faster product development company should follow principles as:

  • Selecting projects having focus on main objective, no random or disconnected projects taken.
  • Do not over commit resources, so strategically resources should be properly allocated as per the requirements.
  • Do not change projects priorities based on competitors move.
  • For different projects have different process as per project.
  • Take previous project experience and can use on other projects also.
  • Review is important but not going again and again for review which causes unnecessary delay in completion of projects.
  • A revolutionary development strategy-and outstanding project execution

A company can focus its attention on different areas to pursue growth and sustainable profit and can build its development strategy on any three mentioned strategy: 1) New Product Development (if product is no longer competitive or market is saturated then can create a new product to maintain and increase market penetration); 2) New Customer Development (creating new product to complement established products and company’s offering); 3) New Market Development (using new as well as old products to enter a completely new market segment).

To create a development portfolio company can follow process which are broadly classified into three process- pre-project, project execution and learnings from projects, which can be further subdivided into 8 steps.

  1. Characterizing project types. Projects are diverse in nature in terms of scope, team size, budget, duration etc., so it is important to first characterize the projects to decide on level of discrete development activities to be performed. Most firms categorize projects on four different categories. Breakthrough – a type of project which has completely new product and process, created for the future. Platform – a project that establishes the next generation of product line and solution to a product challenge. Derivative – it is an incremental change to an existing platform or product’s manufacturing process. Used on less demanding project and require less cost. Maintenance – it is simplest type of project which is carried out for sustaining and have routine processes. To have a clear understanding projects are narrowly categories that overlap with other.
  2. Strategic choice of project mix. To be in competitive market a project needs to be improved continuously and require addition of platforms. Project mix depends on factors like resources availability, firm’s strategic action and age of the firm that are built on the core product.
  3. Creation of road maps. Once strategies are in place it needs to be linked to the project mix. It is the task of the firm to construct a project roadmap so as all the project need to be proposed, approved and executed to support business.
  4. Aggregate project planning. Ones the tools to categorize, project mix and project roadmaps are in place, firms’ management need to cumulatively look at all them to get ahead with new product launches. In combination these tools help the development projects to fit with available resources, link them with business strategy, helps in decisions regarding creation chartering and resource allocation of a project. Company need to now define scope and objectives of each individual project that involves gathering data regarding customers, markets, competitors and company capabilities to determine focus of each projects. Focus groups, targeted market research studies, industry reports, advice from experts and various other techniques used to gather data to meet the customers need and have edge over the competitors.
  5. Type of project team. After determining the appropriate set of projects, project execution is carried out. Project execution starts by building the right team and this involves around defining the tasks to be carried out. Extent to which team controls the resources and nature of performance to evaluate the team and project results. Types of development team are: 1) functional team structure (a type of traditional team in which individual member are answerable to their respective function heads): 2) lightweight team structure (most common form of team, one functional team manager has oversight over the entire team); 3) heavyweight team structure (team having more control over the resources used and decision made); 4) autonomous team structure (these team are integrated cross-functional structure and is designed to handle most challenging development projects).
  6. Prototyping. Helps in executing development projects and consists of cycle that involves designing, building and testing. This helps companies to understand customers requirement and deliver the project on time.
  7. Project audits includes post project audits regularly to keep project updated and on right track.
  8. Learning across projects, where available previous project learnings should be used to build new product which can both save time and cost and further enhance project outcome.

Conclusion and Learnings

For a firm to remain in market for longer time and have a sustainable business it is very important to change over time and introduce new product at right time, within budget that can hit the target completely. Firms following the strategy and step by step procedure for new product development could leverage the use of the above discussed development skills which lead them to a more efficient and cost-effective product. This ultimately help firms to meet and fulfil customer’s requirements and can be a market leader.

New Product Launch Structure

New Product Launch Structure

Introducing new items is a typical strategy for many organizations to maintain core capability and market share, but those organizations face a problem that can be very expensive and risky. A product is whatever that can be offered to a market for consideration, use or utilization that may satisfy a need or want. The main objective of marketing is to fulfill customer needs and need at a profit.

The reasons for a company to introduce new items can be:

  1. To make the most of market opportunity.
  2. To fight rivalry.
  3. To extend overall market through division.
  4. To utilize excess capacity.
  5. To use up outdated materials.
  6. When an item is at decline stage.

After the organization has carefully fragmented the market, chosen target clients, different kinds of needs, advertising positioning, bringing new items is better arranged to launch new items. Each firm should create and launch new items, since they may impact the fate of the company. Clients want new items and the competitors will do anything to give them.

Key objectives of this paper is to convey a structure regarding to the new item launch.

Getting to Know the Consumers

The first thing to know is the customer needs based on the past product processes and then developing new items that address those needs. It is basic practice to acquire knowledge based on buyers’ attitudes towards the new item and their buying intention. Gathering knowledge from marketing tells the buyer intention to launch of new product. While marketing, three issues that have been well examined and are good for future:

  • Buyer Innovativeness. Those are divided into socio-demographics and psychographics. The first one studies about how old the buyer is, what the salary is, highest level of education, and so on. The latter include about recognition of the brand, confidence on themselves, value and so on. The feature of new product should match what the buyer use to assess a new item.
  • Development of new products. Nowadays, the main objective of the managers is growth and most of the organizations launch new items in the market for growth. We can see the development of new items can be critically determined by the preference of the buyer to adopt them.
  • Network externalities. The feature of adopting new products can have an impact from network externalities. This exist only when more buyers adopt the new item and the utility of the item got increased. It can be direct and indirect. If the utility is increased by the other buyer of same item, then it is direct network externalities. If it’s got impacted by other buyer of other item, then it is indirect network externalities.

Getting to Know the Organization’s Perspective

Till now, we were looking for the buyer needs and wants, now we will see from the organization’ view of point for the launching of new products. There can be different factors influencing the ability of the company.

Resources

It has been seen that the main element that drive an organization is resources. Communication is the basic requirement for sharing and gathering the data related to marketing, environment which helps with new ideas for the new product within a firm.

Environment

Organization must gather data and opportunities through innovation so that they can use launch of new items as a protective shield to defend themselves from uncertainty. A competitive market will always make you seek new ideas, look for better way to compete and understanding the survival method that can be a launch of new products in the market.

Demographics

The innovation level is influenced by the demographics. But as the company grew old, they get addicted to keep the same method of doing the work and don’t welcome any new changes, but this same thing can be seen in new firms also because it can impact the resources.

Structure

The structure can be seen as the footsteps which is kind of mandatory for the innovation process to be complete. There should be complexity in the firm to see the change which is required, promotes new ideas and group discussion among the employees.

Conclusion

Introducing new items in the market by the firms is very common tact to keep a good share in the market and also give a competitive advantage over the others. The three factors which are buyer innovativeness, development of new products, network externalities should be checked and identified to make a better future of the firm. The firm should make some really important decisions regarding the launch of new products which bring the factors that promote the firm’s capability in introducing the product those are resources, environment, demographics and structure. To conclude, the new product launch consist of various things which can be decisions, strategy, actions which highlight the context of launching of new products and the operational approach.

Relation between Supply Chain and New Product Development: Analytical Essay

Relation between Supply Chain and New Product Development: Analytical Essay

Abstract

In order to build value for product and to achieve better share, companies rely on strategic partnerships with their customers and suppliers. In today’s rapidly changing markets are the design of products to fit processes and supply chains, processes to fit product platforms and supply chains, and supply chains to match product platforms and processes. If this co-design is done well up front with adequate management of the product development process, the product will cost much less overall and the time to market will dramatically decrease. In view of this issue, the purpose of this report is to provide information on defined management techniques and practises for the involvement of suppliers in the PDP. A model for the supply chain management of product production processes has been discussed.

Case study

In the case study, Matt O’Toole is a procurement manager at Voltz HGV, a manufacturer of electric and hybrid heavy good vehicles. Matt is about to work with the new head of the product development who is future driven but before meeting the Head, Matt wants to understand what the implications for the procurement and other departments for developing a new product considering there is uncertainty about developing new technology.

1. Introduction

This paper is introduced in the context of study on the relation between supply chain and new product development. Many companies consider new product development as a key strategic activity and a short time to market as critical to long term success 1. The importance of beginning of study of supply chain for product development is mainly because it is at the product of lifecycle phase that the decision responsible for 80% of the products final cost (Rozenfeld and Amaral, 2006).

Today’s market place is all about uncertainty and turbulence. However in order for organizations to remain in business they must be competitive by introducing new products to the market in order to meet the ever changing needs of the society, World-class firms excel at a crucial triad of activities, new product development, the design of the required production process, and the design of the optimal supply chain, it explains further the main reason for new product development as the rapid changes in technology, the emergence of global industrial and consumer markets, increasing market fragmentation and product differentiation, and the increasing options for developing products have increased the pressure on all firms to more effectively and efficiently develop new products(Xiao et al., 2019).

Importance of new product development

Company

Society

Sales and revenue increase

Create jobs

Replace fading products

Increase standard of living

Spread Risk

Increase Competition

2. Aim

The aim is to evaluate appropriate procurement and supply chain approaches for new product development in Voltz HGV. Also, it deals with reviewing supply chain concepts and attaining an in-depth understanding and critical argument of SCM (Supply Chain Management) issues.

3. Method

The Methods involve the study of current literature.

4. Procurement in New product development

4.1. The role of procurement in new product development

To keep pace with business demands, the procurement function continues to adopt more strategic tasks that extend its capabilities beyond simply purchasing. Shifting the focus to what the business needs to accomplish its goals allows procurement to consider elements such as supplier quality and reliability and to interact with other areas of the enterprise.

One way in which the procurement function can deliver additional value is through participation in the development of new products. According to APQC’s Open Standards Benchmarking in product development, 86 percent of responding organizations involve the procurement function in new product or service development. Specifically, 39 percent involve the procurement function extensively, and 47 percent involve the procurement function to some extent (Santos et al., 2007).

In the product development process, the procurement function can evaluate proposed materials for new products and potential sourcing countries based on factors such as:

  • The amount of materials needed
  • Whether the potential sourcing countries have free trade agreements with the United States, and the respective duty rates of potential sourcing countries(Claro, 2016).

4.2. Procurement approach in new product development

In the recent studies, APQC found that best-practice companies require procurement early in the product creation process in a new analysis of how top-performing companies handle buying across product categories. Procurement will guide the company to choices that bring long-term benefits by providing its unique insight before product creation decisions have been solidified. The procurement role will assess proposed materials for new products and potential sourcing countries in the product development phase on the basis of factors such as the quantity of materials required and the respective duty rates of potential sourcing countries.

In some industries, it may be possible for product development teams to tweak aspects of the design to take advantage of similar materials with an overall lower price or from a more reliable sourcing location.

Some industries have specific product quality criteria, either from regulatory authorities or clients, in addition to global trade considerations. In such situations, getting sourcing teams into the process as early as possible with respect to material modifications is important. Complex products manufactured by these industries which require specialized materials which, in the short term, are not readily available. Any material modifications later in the production phase will lead to increased direct costs as well as product launch delays that can affect product revenues.

5. Supply chain in new product development

5.1. How supply chain can improve new product development

A good-aligned and mobilised cross-functional team is a key to optimising the NPD process. As an example, businesses that include supply chain experts in the NPD phase as early as possible gain competitive advantage in driving new product success by ensuring that the supply chain can support the product functionally and profitably. In exchange, top-performing supply chains engage partners and vendors in the NPD phase early on. The aim is to capture and correct any possible negative or suboptimal supply chain impacts on end-to-end supply performance, cost, service and quality before there is a downstream effect on launch or post-launch activity [6].

Across the stage-gates, there are important supply chain considerations and questions that can affect the success of NPD. For example:

  • Plan—how accurate is the new item forecast? What is the supply chain impact of the inaccuracies?
  • Procure—do our suppliers have the flexibility to react to changes in demand?
  • Make—should we produce the new product within our current internal network? Or should we outsource, either in the short or longer term as product volume ramps up?
  • Deliver—what service requirements are expected by our customers and are our current distribution network set up to meet them?
  • Overall—what supply chain metrics should be used to measure cost, service, quality and efficiency tied to NPD?

In the NPD phase, supply chain output plays a critical role because it not only drives the capital expenditure into production and distribution capacities, but also defines the critical direction for launch dates in many instances. Along with the supply chain, many roles, including distribution, marketing, research and development (R&D), legal and regulatory, efficiency, program management and executive management, play a vital role in making NPD a success. Companies should be better placed to enhance the market success of launched goods by using a systematic and methodological approach to close NPD performance gaps and execute targeted opportunities for supply chain and other involved functions.

5.2. SCM

Supply Chain Management (SCM) refers to management between companies across their business processes, aiming to optimise possible synergies, minimise duplication, improve productivity and business process productivity, with the goal of delivering value to consumers and stakeholders, making the supply chain more efficient(Lambert, 2008;Handfield and Nichols, 2002). Initially, company processes were seen as a way of incorporating the organisational functions of corporations. Companies are currently trying to structure operations across business processes between the various members of the supply chain in order to make them manageable in the long run(Handfield and Nichols, 2002). The PDP is one of business process of SCM (Lambert, 2008;Handfield and Nichols, 2002). PDP encompasses technological and management dimensions of which a company translates business prospects and technological possibilities into knowledge for commercial product manufacturing. This approach involves the development of a new product in a way that is compatible with the life cycle of the product, which begins with its preparation and ends when it is discontinued or taken off the market(Rozenfeld and Amaral, 2006). A reference model for PDP was proposed to provide a common reference, a holistic view of the process of product creation, levelling information across the various knowledge fields, which is illustrated in Picture 1.

5.3. Supply chain risk in new product development

Supply chain risk buffering practises: Purchasing / supply management is required to mitigate risk and, at the same time, control costs and maintain supply consistency. Previous research findings suggest that there are relationships between risk, strong target pursuit, early involvement of suppliers, and careful growth, assessment and management of suppliers.(Handfield and Nichols, 2002). Traditional techniques that were used to buffer risk, however, suggested that the main function of the buyers was to respond to internal customer needs. Under this theory, another department receives a procurement request and an order is put with a supplier. Buying is generally transaction-oriented and risk-averse. Traditionally, most buying practitioners have implemented strategies that hedged against threats after the incidents had already occurred.

As mentioned above, the buffering approach worked when buying was more tactical, as we transition to more strategic risk management approaches becomes a preferred choice, such buying practises include market consolidations, e-procurement, deliveries just in time, smaller supply bases, and a focus on overall costs. Risk management is an ongoing process involving the long-term commitment of supply chain stakeholders, and ongoing risk assessment includes knowledge collection, communication and evaluation that helps to establish effective risk management strategies(Xiao et al., 2019).

Situational risk management – Risk is present in every supply chain to some degree. Every purchased commodity, product, or service exhibits a different risk profile. With today’s unpredictable circumstances and increased knowledge of supply hazards, determining the degree of risk across their buying categories is especially relevant for supply managers. These modern supply chain strategies pose risks.

6. Dealing with uncertainty in supply chain management

Companies need to follow the concepts of these new supply models, in an industrial competitive world marked by the need to recover, along with strong adjustments and rivalry.

These are characterised by globalisation (network dimension), increased outsourcing use, decreased supplier base (single sourcing), leanness (e.g. decreased buffers, lead times, and lot sizes), consumer concentration, increased demand for in-time delivery in shorter windows, lead times, mobility, shorter product life cycles, and a large number of partners. Modern supply chains, with this sophistication, inherently tend to be more fragile. This kind of fragile industry deals with huge risk and this risk management is concerned with very different forms of risk that can be: internal to the business (process, control), external to the business but internal to the supply chain dealing with demand and supply, and external to the network which is environmental(Shipley and Hamburger, 2017).

7. Conclusion and Future work

In the current work, some of the major models of PDP and SCM have been discussed which are a basic conceptual structure was generated which connects the supply chain management and product development processes. These have been discussed at a surface level and have an immense scope for its utilisation in the diagnosis of the supplier involvement in the company in the electric hybrid sector(APQC, 2012).

The next step with the organisation after the diagnosis of the current situation is to establish the strategy for supplier participation in PDP or SCM, using the resulting model as a guide and also to maximise the profitability of activities, and also to consider how the supply chain network can grow over a long-term horizon(APQC, 2012). These models would include the definition of scenarios for the potential development of supply, demand, transport and other essential components of the supply chain network for this purpose.

8. References

  1. APQC 2012. Involve the Procurement Function Early in the New Product Development Process. APQC Supply Chain Journal.
  2. CLARO, L. O. J. P. D. S. J. 2016. Dealing with uncertainity in modern supply chain: vulnerability and risk management.
  3. HANDFIELD, R. B. & NICHOLS, E. L. 2002. Supply chain redesign: Transforming supply chains into integrated value systems, Ft Press.
  4. HILLETOFTH, P. & ERIKSSON, D. 2011. Coordinating new product development with supply chain management. Industrial Management & Data Systems.
  5. LAMBERT, D. M. 2008. Supply chain management: processes, partnerships, performance, Supply Chain Management Inst.
  6. ROZENFELD, H. & AMARAL, D. C. 2006. Gestão de projetos em desenvolvimento de produtos. São Paulo: Saraiva.
  7. SANTOS, A., KIECKBUSCH, R. E. & FORCELLINI, F. A. 2007. Product Development Process Managing in Supply Chain.
  8. SHIPLEY, J. & HAMBURGER, H. 2017. How the Supply Chain Can Help Improve New Product Development Success. The Hackett Group Inc.
  9. XIAO, C., PETKOVA, B., MOLLEMAN, E. & VAART, T. V. D. 2019. Technology uncertainty in supply chains and supplier involvement: the role of resource dependence. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.
  10. UKESSAYS November 2018. Supply Chain Risk of New Product Development Management Essay. [online]. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/supply-chain-risk-of-new-product-development-management-essay.php?vref=1 [Accessed 25 October 2020].

Analytical Essay on New Product Development and Integration

Analytical Essay on New Product Development and Integration

This quantitative research work aim to investigate the influence of supply network strategies on innovation and supply chain competence in pharmaceutical industries, by explicitly focusing on the moderating effect of knowledge sharing relationship between supply network strategies and innovation. summarized research finding will be explained, discussion will help to answer the research questions mentioned in chapter one as the following: (R1) To what extent do supply network strategies influence a pharmaceutical manufacturer’s innovation?. (R2) To what extent do supply network strategies influence a pharmaceutical manufacturer’s supply chain competence?. (R3) To what extent does knowledge sharing influence a pharmaceutical manufacturer’s innovation?. (R4) To what extent does innovation influence a pharmaceutical manufacturer’s supply chain competence?. Moreover, discussion of the hypothesis of this research, the key study finding related to previous literatures will be examined.

2 Interpretation of the Findings

The study data were analyzed with a series of statistical analyses to establish the dependability, validity, and strength of the scales using IBM SPSS Statistics and SPSS AMOS (version 23.0). Cronbach’s alpha test was used to establish the internal consistency of the scales. The scores ranged from about 0.882 up to the rate of 0.930 suggesting that the scales are reliable. Thereafter, the convergence factor was derived through exploratory analysis

First, The supply network strategies: Strategic alignment and integration for new product development, knowledge sharing (Firms Absorptive capacity, firm’s desorptive capacity), innovation, and supply chain competence with eigenvalues ranging from a certain point together explained 70% of the variance. A variance factor technique Harman’s single test was applied to investigate for possible common method bias in the data. Exploratory factor analysis on a single fixed factor revealed that the factor explained about 40% variance from the variable investigated compared to almost 70% of variance explained by the six-factor model, suggesting that common method bias is not a problem in the data.

Second, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement scales. All the scales yielded acceptable values for average variance extracted and composite reliability. thus, establishing convergent reliability. To establish discriminant validity, the approach suggested by Fornell and Larcker (1981) was adopted. Being apparent that construct that encase correlation which seem to be extremely lower than the square root of a relatively variance, the value explored are relatively extreme when compared to the shared variance in the values. Thus, the data look to be discriminant validity.

A selection of fit indices indicate that the data has a reasonably good fit with the measurement model: χ2 = 1001.307; χ2/df = 1.987; TLI = 0.935; CFI = 0.942; RMSEA = 0.052. After achieving acceptable results for the measurement model, model identification was confirmed and then the full structural model and hypotheses (no interaction) were tested. The structural model results indicate that the data has a good fit with the proposed model: χ2 = 700.194; χ2/df = 2.251; TLI = 0.932; CFI = 0.940; RMSEA = 0.058. Table 5.21 presents the results of the proposed hypotheses. All of five of the direct study’s hypotheses are supported.

Third, hypothesis tests were conducted to assess whether allotment and knowledge sharing. that is, (firm Desorptive capacity and as well Absorptive capacity check the rapport that occur between the innovation and development of product and as well alignment which are seen to be supply network approach. The results are summarized where it was revealed that the firm absorptive capacity (H3) fails to correspond with both alignment and innovation form of supply strategy. The same thing applicable at (H4) the innovation and development also fails to correlate. However, in H5 the firm’s Desorptive tends to serve well-performing a moderator role between innovation and alignment form of supply strategy but was otherwise in the way round as it is in H6, all in table 5.22.

Fourth, tests were conducted to assess whether the so call innovation as a supply network approach acts as a mediator in the relationships between innovation, integration, and development of invented products as well as supply chain. It was shown that innovation as an approach has a slight effect between supply chain and alignment, and partially affect supply chain competence and the integration and development of new product.

Last, multiple mediation tests were conducted to know if the firms mediated in supply network approach, the result show that this firms strongly mediated between development and integration of invented product and innovation and the other supply strategy in table 5.25

3 Research Key Findings

The findings of this research work play a role in supply network approach, supply chain competence and innovation, knowledge sharing and the one that ensues

  1. Six out of the nine proposed hypotheses were supported. Thus, each of the supply approach that is the development and integration of invented product as well as alignment has consequential contribution with innovation as well as supply chain. Also, this so call innovation has a positive relationship with supply chain competence. Results support that firm’s Desorptive Capacity is moderating the relationship between strategic alignment and innovation
  2. Out of the hypothesis envisaged, only three seem not to be proven Thus, Firms Absorptive capacity is not moderating the relationship between supply network strategies (Strategic alignment and integration for new product development) and innovation. Firm’s Desorptive Capacity is not regulating the rapport between integration for new product development and innovation.
  3. The rapport between strategic alignment and innovation fully mediated by Firm’s Absorptive capacity and Firm’s Desorptive Capacity.
  4. The relation between Integration for new product development and innovation fully mediated by Firm’s Absorptive capacity and Firm’s Desorptive Capacity
  5. Multiple mediation test results indicate that Firm’s absorptive capacity and Firm’s Desorptive Capacity both are positively mediating the rapport between supply network strategies and innovation.
  6. Improving supply chain competence in Pharmaceutical manufacturing industries needs to set up the right strategies with the partners in the supply network.
  7. Achieving supply chain competence needs to go beyond the supply chain management concept. It needs to manage supply network as a whole.
  8. This research has indicated the implementation of integration for new product development strategy on pharmaceutical manufacturing industries, leads to innovation and supply chain competence.
  9. The network theory succeeds to explains the connection between the supply network strategies and supply chain competence.
  10. Implementation of strategic alignment strategy is a vital to improve firm’s innovation as well the supply chain competence.

4 Discussion

After reviewing literature related to supply network strategies, knowledge sharing, innovation, and supply chain competence. The findings obtained from the literature review assist the researcher to find out the research gap and set the research questions mentioned in Chapter one. Therefore, it is concluded that the existing literature emphasizes the need for researchers to investigate the supply network strategies and knowledge sharing that could influence innovation and supply chain competence. However, no studies have been conducted to investigate the impact of supply network strategies: strategic alignment and integration of new product development on innovation and supply chain competence with the moderation effect of knowledge sharing: firm’s absorptive capacity and desorptive capacity.

The objectives of this research are to create a conceptual model that links strategic alignment and integration for new product development (together referred to a supply network strategies) with innovation and supply chain competence in pharmaceutical manufacturing firms. As well, to assess the moderating effect of firm’s absorptive capacity and firm’s desorptive capacity in the relationship between supply network strategies and innovation, as these two forms of knowledge sharing have been rarely examined together in the pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, To propose guidelines/recommendations that will have value to pharmaceutical manufacturing firms in improving their supply chain competence.

The precepts of network theory, knowledge-based view theory, and dynamic capabilities theory were used to argue for the links between supply network strategies and innovation and supply chain competence with the moderating effect of knowledge sharing. This relate to a report by Tan and Tracey (2007), submitted that, the agreement between supplier and customers in effective project planning aids firm performance, this result thus support the following:

First, the results indicate that strategic alignment effectively creates an impact on innovation. When firm’s strategically aligned their process and strategies, that results to innovations as both firms get the benefits from the shared resources and the capabilities, eliminate waste and reduce risk. Strategic alignment with Pharmaceutical manufacturing firms enhance the market success as well as the production design, research and development by means of enabling coordination and collaboration. The results of this study suggest that firms may promote innovation through strategically aligned with their partners. This is consistent with the previous innovation literatures linked the strategic alignment to the potential critical success factors of innovation. (Acur et al., 2012, Burn & Szeto, 2000; Kearns & Lederer, 2003). The following is a summary of discussion of the research hypotheses:

  • H1: Strategic Alignment is positively related to Innovation.

Second, development and integration for new product necessitate innovation, by integration of the parties within the supply network to create a new innovative product. When different pharmaceutical manufacturing industries works to achieve creation of unique product. Moreover, increase the access of using new technology, components, materials, and ideas. To create new drug and introduce it to the market it takes near 10 to 15 years and approximately cost around $5 billions. The result is consistent with the previous studies which highlight on importance of collaboration between partners for innovation (Francesco et al., 2015; Kumar et al., 2017; Zhou et al., 2017) that support the hypothesis below:

  • H2: Integration of new product development is positively related to innovation.

Hypothesis One and Two provide answers to the first research question: does supply network approach affect pharmaceutical innovation?

Third, with regards to Hypothesis 3: firm’s absorptive capacity regulates the rapport that exist between innovation and alignment strategic. by testing the moderating effect of the Firm’s Absorptive Capacity on the relationship between Strategic Alignment and innovation, researcher did not find statistically significant evidence that under conditions of greater moderating influence levels of firm absorptive capacity on the relationship between strategic alignment and innovation on the other word the Firm’s Absorptive Capacity when it is hypothesized to acts as a moderator it shows that it doesn’t have any impact on the strength of the relationship. Despite not finding statistically significant support for H3.

Fourth, with regards to Hypothesis 4: firms absorptive capacity regulates the rapport as regards integration and new product development on the other (innovation the findings doesn’t provide support for the positive moderation effect of the absorptive capacity on the supply network in relationship between integration of new product development and innovation. This result build on existing evidence of Ruizl Moreno, Roldan Bravo & Lloren (2016), they submitted that an extreme absorptive will necessitate or encourage what so call unscrupulous act in respect to supply network, peradventure it fails to correlate desorptive capacity. The result of work communicates that absorptive capacity does not influence the INPD and as well innovation. Alternatively, once the firm is cohesive with other firm, solely for the expansion and growth of product, this postulation is considered to impact innovation absolutely, as being reflected in H1, without the firm being dependent another firm

Fifth, finding shows that, aligned to previous literature that linked a knowledge source’s desorptive capacity to supply chain management Roldan et.al the desorptive capacity of each actor involved in knowledge sharing as the moderator roles between strategic alignment and innovation does exist. That supporting what the study hypothesized in Hypothesis 5: the desorptive capacity regulate the rapport that exists in respect of strategy alignment and innovation. In fact, the results show that the moderating role of firm’s desorptive capacity is the optimum solution for innovation within the supply chain terms.

Sixth, The findings of this study also revealed with regards to H6: A Firm’s Desorptive Capacity moderates the relationship between Integration for New Product Development and Innovation. Addressing desorptive capacity from supply network perspective, it demonstrated that there is no moderating effect of desorptive capacity in the relationship between integration for new product development and innovation. This result doesn’t support assumptions in the desorptive capacity literature that knowledge sharing can produce economic and non-economic benefits for the sender firm (Tranekjer and Knudsen, 2012). While previous research by Simonin (1997), Madhok and Tallman (1998), and Hardy et al. (2003), and the study by Ryo and Kim (2015), has focused on that sharing knowledge in a network setting can improve operational performance for organizations by fitting or adapting their inter-firm processes. these results demonstrate that desorptive capacity as a dynamic capability has no value on moderating the relationship between INPD and innovation.

A Post hoc analysis carried out to check mediation impact of Firm’s absorptive capacity and Firm’s Desorptive Capacity on the relationship between Integration for New Product Development and Innovation. According to Lichtenthaler and Lichtenthaler (2009) proposed theoretical framework that presented absorptive and desorptive capacity as two particles that go together. Accordingly multiple mediators test is consider in this study.

This study has contributed to a new model which expands knowledge sharing contexts, Firm’s absorptive capacity, and firm’s desorptive are multiple-mediators variables intervention in the relationship between supply network strategies and innovation. the results of simultaneously test indicates that Strategic alignment was positively related to innovation, which supports earlier findings in H1. However, relationship of strategic alignment on innovation vanished after introducing Firm’s absorptive capacity, and firm’s desorptive as a mediating variables which fully mediates the relationship between strategic alignment and innovation, which implies that strategic alignment has an indirect effect on innovation only through Firm’s absorptive capacity. Similarly, Integration for new product development was positively related to innovation, which supports earlier findings in H2. The impact of Integration for new product development on innovation disappeared after introducing Firm’s absorptive capacity, and firms desorptive capacity as a mediating variables which were fully mediates the relationship between INPD and innovation

Project Management Process and Its Involvement in the New Product Development: Analytical Essay

Project Management Process and Its Involvement in the New Product Development: Analytical Essay

Chapter 1. Introduction

The investigation carried out through this research study is focused merely on the context of Project Management and innovation practices in new product development. The focus of this research is on the organizations that aim to manufacture new products by using project management processes and achieve high innovation. The three categories which projects come into when it is new product development here are the use of technologies of project management that helps in product launch, using the project is already available products of the organization and new product development that is the main focus here which consist of the whole process. The entire focus relating the project management process and its involvement in the new product development are explored further.

It has been an acknowledged fact that the growing competition in the global market, organizations around the world are continuously finding practical means for resource utilization leading to the creation of value and survival in the market (Hoda and Murugesan, 2016). When it comes to the management, the solutions have always been looked inside the organization, instead of finding it outside (Polat et al., 2018). The inside solution can be taken as the available resources which could help in achieving sustainability (Bierwolf et al., 2017). Management, serving the role in the organization contains the integration of the resources that are needed and achieve the tasks leading to objectives of the organization.

Several research studies point out that the only solution to use the resources and to bring a positive change in the organization effectively is through projects. Another few research studies have supported it after exploration of the literature that projects mean to bring the improvement in the organization (Lee and Ram, 2018; Paton and Andrew, 2019; Midler, Killen and Kock, 2016; Adler, Pittz and Meredith, 2016; Dingsøyr and Lassenius, 2016). The competitiveness achieved through projects helps in reducing the costs, along with effective utilization of time and scheduled resources.

New product development is considered as the critical activity for the organizations aiming to engage in this task (Andersson and Chapman, 2017). The increase in inclination towards new product development has been the result of the growing influence of globalization (Ciric et al., 2018). For achieving the competitiveness with regards to the increase in market competition, the businesses require to have the new product to retain the old customer and target new markets (Saltan, Jansen and Smolander, 2018). The new product development process has taken the core place in the attention of the organization, and therefore, it requires to manage and appropriately done (Barrales-Molina, Kaynak and Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, 2018). Several organizations have started using the approach of project management and its processes for new product development. There have been several research studies (Noe et al., 2017; Laine et al., 2017; Conforto et al., 2016; Stettina and Hörz, 2015; Cooper, 2016) conducted exploring an extent to which the project management process’s utilization in new product development.

The efforts subjected to projects contains several divisions, both from outside and inside the organization for accomplishment of the project objectives (Solan and Shtub, 2019). The traditional way which had been pointed out in many research studies explained its working through the pyramidal hierarchy structure (Giannetti, Magnacca and Mariani, 2018). It contains the independence of the operation’s division in the project development and the organization (Chang and Taylor, 2016). Even though project management practices are the appropriate way through which the projects are executed in an organization, but considering the case of new product development; the traditional approach stands not as effective as it was for other projects (Gemünden, 2015). Traditionally, the structure is rigid, and it creates the change a hard to adopt the process. The unsuitability of the change adoption makes it hard for the organization to hive the tasks of new product development (Conforto et al., 2016). Another factor which highlighted traditionally was frequent delays and vertical chain of commends that can slow the process.

The central idea of the creation of project management is because it provides the integration of complex tasks and the possibility of maximum efforts to reduce the bureaucracies (Laine et al., 2017; Barrales-Molina, Kaynak and Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, 2018; Ciric et al., 2018; Dingsøyr and Lassenius, 2016). These two main factors have been considered as the ideal factors for new product development. The design and development of the process of project management have always been considered quite vital for the success of the organization through creative and reduced cost manners. When it comes to the achievement of the goal through an efficient and effective way, workers and management from different departments in one organization could work in an organized manner (Adler, Pittz and Meredith, 2016). The new product development requires such a sort of organized manner, ensuring active involvement of all the departments in the development of new products — all departments ensuring market research, innovation, and resources.

In the rapidly changing environment of both external and internal organizations, project management took place the core practice of the business and is also used as the tool for handling the activities which are complex or novel (Midler, Killen and Kock, 2016). The reason behind this much importance that has been given to the project management is because it helps in reducing the cost-inefficient manner and the use of resources and time has also become efficient through project management (Paton and Andrew, 2019; Lee and Ram, 2018). The organizing, planning, controlling, and directing that project management provides through effective manner enables the organization in achieving the new product development process (Harris, 2017). These factors mentioned are pointed out by many researchers. However, these factors identified are the processes of the organization that manages the resources of the organization.

It is quite vital when it comes to the methodologies that have been created by the project management field because these methodologies provide the guidelines and checklists that leads to the achievement of the goals and objectives (Haverila and Fehr, 2016; Bierwolf et al., 2017; Hoda and Murugesan, 2016). In the meantime, the new product development also contains the lifecycle that requires monitoring, tracking, and evaluation, which can be done by project management (Lee and Ram, 2018). It helps in ensuring all the activities, and even the smallest one carried out in a perfect manner that helps in achieving the innovation in the product through project management.

1.1 Background

Development of new products is classified into three categories according to their functionality and features. Products developed aiming standing markets developed by making minimal modifications in prevailing functionalities are coined under ‘Incremental New Product Sector.’ ‘Significant Important Products’ are classified underdevelopment of products targeting trending markets and potential customers by incorporating or eliminating certain features on products making them standout. A proposed idea converted into a new product or technology is coined as an ‘Innovative New Product’ when it creates a face shift in the current technological or market trends. Innovative new products are mainly aimed at market adoption and are usually adopted by visionaries (Jetter et al., 2016).

New product development (NPD) is the utmost significant factor that drives an organization to either failure or success. Studies all over the world indicate that for organizations to be successful in terms of the development of new products mainly two basic parameters must be satisfied that are minimal time taken to launch the products into the market and to stay true to the maximum in customer requirements (A. Schilling et al., 1998). Transitional waves in lifestyles and livelihood of people undergo a phase shift by the introduction of new products and technologies. Innovations happen as a result of standout thinking form the trending attributes around. Implementation of a product from a mere simple idea and introducing it to the market requires a fair amount of planning, research, and management.

Project management drives in creating a difference from the contemporary approaches practiced by companies by driving changes in the functionality for implementing change. For fulfilling requirements, project management focuses on the integration of project techniques and technologies. The main idea of project management is to deliver quality products or services according to client or market requirements integrating quality benchmarks under specified schedule and budget paradigms (POPA et al., 2019).

In a nutshell, the research includes how project management factors in the field of new product development. The study relates to how the scope of the new products is set according to the market research conducted are how new product development influence the success factors of a company. The research gives a clear idea of how new product development in different industries and sectors are managed using project development. Project Management Methodologies practiced for the development of new projects are also focused in this study. How to effectively manage and incorporate and manage changes in even later stages in the project lifecycle is also mentioned, including quality benchmarks.

1.1.1 New Product Development

The new product development can be described as the introduction of the new product in the organization considering the marketing patterns and organizational resources (Paton and Andrew, 2019). New product development considered as one of the most critical processes in the organization that leads to value creation (Midler, Killen, and Kock, 2016). The creation of excitement, interest, and new opportunities is being done by new product development. It considers the perspective of the consumers in the market, and they are being entertained in lower prices of high quality, which helps in fulfilling their needs. There have been several changes that have been brought in the last few decades when it comes to new product development (Adler, Pittz and Meredith, 2016; Andersson and Chapman, 2017; Saltan, Jansen and Smolander, 2018). The most critical aspects are low cost and sustainability that leads to saving the resources that help the organization and the overall environment.

1.1.2 Project Management Practices

The project management practices have been explored and discussed in several research studies, it can be described as the endeavor that is being undertaken by the organization that leads in the creation of a unique and new product, result or services (Noe et al., 2017; Ciric et al., 2018; Adler, Pittz and Meredith, 2016; Gemünden, 2015; Cooper, 2016). It takes place when the organization is aiming to bring the change in the organization. There are several changes in the organization, and it consists of the changes in the existing product or changes in the manufacturing that creates the new product (Conforto et al., 2016). The project management has been created for several other objectives, but recently, it has been focused on the new product development. The planning of the project matters the most because it helps in achieving the benefits through a strict process of monitoring.

Hence it has been increasingly viewed as the necessity for the project managers to seek the advanced skills of the project management that includes the strategic management, leadership, and management of the business. In earlier days, project management was blamed for being not relevant to innovation because it has always been focusing on controlled project environments under linear project management (Andersson and Chapman, 2017). The linear project management approach simply deficiencies uncertainty because it follows only the defined activities (Ciric et al., 2018). However, in the contemporary past, the new project paradigms have been introduced which includes the uncertainty and creates the plans through learning-based approaches also known as the targeted flexibility (Saltan, Jansen and Smolander, 2018). The innovation, mainly product innovation, which is now part of the project management deals with the approaches of the adaptive nature.

1.2 Research Aims and Objectives

This research aims to identify the roles of project management in new product development and identifying suitable methodologies for the implementation.

To conduct studies on different practices undertaken in vivid industries for product development.

Product innovation management.

To find out different approaches to handle different projects simultaneously.

Market research.

Quality standards for developing products.

Implement changes in different phases in the project lifecycle.

To develop new ideas and innovative ideas for new products before market research and requirements.

1.3 Research Questions

  • Managing new product development projects with project-adapted vs. traditional or standard management practices?
  • How to implement project management in product development?
  • Which methodology should be practiced better for product development projects?
  • How to manage quality and change management in developing new products?

Qualitative Investigation on the New Product Development in Pharmaceutical Industry in Pakistan

Qualitative Investigation on the New Product Development in Pharmaceutical Industry in Pakistan

New product development is an important success process, which is required for continuous development and long-term growth of the company in pharmaceuticals. In addition, new product development is a process that is more difficult in this pharmaceutical sector in Pakistan and high risky process. There are factor, which are highlighted as per the previous literature and research. These factors include, senior management support (SMS), Cross-functional team (CFT), Customer involvement (CI), Supplier integration (SI), and Time to market (TIM). These factors, which are, consider by the researcher as an independent variables for the research related to the new product development in the pharmaceutical industry.

A qualitative research methodology was applied to analysis this research study and the data was collect by the researcher through the interview session with the concerned respondents who have sound knowledge of working this stat of art. A number of factors were study by the researcher during this study. This research also identifies some additional factors, which can affect the new development of product in the pharmaceutical sector.

Keywords: product innovation, new product development, factors of new product development.collected

INTRODUCTION: The NPD process is recognized to be costly, complex, time-sensitive and risky. The harsh reality is that the majority of new products never make it to the launch stage, and those that experience a failure rate are about twenty-five to forty percent (Crawford 1987. Cooper, 2001). Boozetl (1982) argue that for every new seven product ideas, about four go in development, one and have had launched, and one succeeds. Given the importance of the NDP process for the success and development of companies and judging from the fact that new products have high failure rates, there are numerous examples of literature that investigate the NPD process as well as the factors that influence it. While most of the literature is developed based on economics, this research is interested in extracting the most important factors that affect NPD process in the context of developing countries. It also seeks to determine the main internal challenges and constraints facing companies developing new products, and limits in their ability to invent and develop.

In the pharmaceutical sector with regard to methodology, the study applies a qualitative research method to study NPD in this targeted sector. The paper is organized as follows. After introducing the research problem the research objectives and the research importance the proceeding section gives an overview about the theoretical framework of the research. More specifically the section two introduces the literature review on NPD and some importance that theoretically affect the NPD. Section three shows the research methodology and data collection methods that are appropriately designed to collect the necessary data to meet the research objectives and criteria. Additionally, explanation on the research type and rational behind using qualitative research, the research population, research sample data collection method, interview description and data analysis techniques are provided in thus section. More ever operational definitions for research variables were presented in this section in addition to the research model. Section four presents the analysis and discussions of the collected data. Section forth summarizes the paper and provide an overview of the main research findings, research findings, research limitations and prospect for future research.

Literature Review:

Research, which was analyze previously define the new product development in slightly different manner (Ebrahim et al., 2010). New product development describes the new product design, production system and introduction product and increase productivity (Johnson, 2007). Krishnan and Ulrich (2001, p.1) define NPD as ‘the transformation of a market opportunity and a set of assumptions about product technology into a product available for sale”. In the handbook of ‘New Product Development’, Loch and Kavadias (2008) describe the NPD to consist of the activities of the firm that lead to a stream of new or changed product offerings over time. Literature provide some important factor that affect the new product development. Which are,

2.1 Senior management support and NPD: In the pharmaceutical sector new product development required more employees, finance and time to launch a single product for the business growth. SMS help to gain new product, projects, goals and objectives (Esteves and Pastor, 2001). Therefore, senior management support is determined as significant for productive and fast New Product Development. Senior management support can create a conductive environment for creativity and innovativeness because it helps to overcome the functional obstacles, by allocating the necessary resources with the commitment spirit it could create (Jiang et al., 1996).

2.2Cross Functional Teams (CFT) and NPD: A Cross-Functional Team (CFT) is stat as a group of people with clear purpose representing a variety of functions or disciplines in the organization whose combine efforts are necessary for achieving the team purpose (zikmund, 2003). A number of scholars noticed that building a CFT and credence of departmental joint responsibilities is positively is related to a new product performance (Urban and Hauser. 1993). Customers preferences should be deeply understood using a CFT because it is essential for better performance of the new product (Joshi and Sharma, 2004). Coordination between functions are expected to be higher in NPD projects with cross-European Scientific Journal February 2015 edition vol.11, No.4 ISSN: 1875-7881(print) e-ISSN 1857-7431 478 functional structures (Griffin and Hauser, 1996). This is also expected to increase developmental efficiency, speed, and adherence to the budget (Gebert et al, 2006).

2.3Customer Involvement (CI) and NPD: In NPD customer involvement helps companies to understand in better way customer needs and desires and it provides products that full fill defined need and desires (Zirger and Maldique, 1990). This helps in enhancing him concept of effectiveness of the developed product and provides more ideas about new potential opportunities (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1995, Bilgram, 2008, Hippel, 198). Another benefit of CI in NPD is the facilitation of cross-functional relations such as between R &D and marketing, where customer can play a mediating role in stimulating communication and reducing conflict (Li and Calatone, 1998). Cooper and Edgett (2008) suggest several methods of capturing the customer’s voice. These methods include depth interviews, focus groups, ethnographic observation, brainstorming, and information technology approaches. Previous research suggest several benefits of CI in NPD including some European Scientific Journal February 2015 edition vol11.NO 4 ISSN: 1875-7881(print) operational benefits such as enhancing cost efficiency (Auh et al 2007), reducing the cost of developing and marketing the new product, reducing lead-times, decreasing cycle time , enhancing customer satisfaction, influencing the originality of ideas and improving service innovation .

2.4 Supplier Integration (SI) and NPD: The supplier’s role in NPD program is also becoming increasingly important because of the wide range of knowledge and ideas that suppliers are available to share with manufacturers. Vertical integration is importance in dominating products that are identify by ongoing radical innovation. According to the Brown and Eisenhardt, (1995), SI into NPD is one the factors that affect the success of the project. The impact of the SI variables on project performance is clearly mediated by the degree of the component change. However, effective integration supplies into NPD can help in reducing cost, improving the quality of the purchased material, reducing time to market and improving the application of technology. SI in the development team provides more expertise and information regarding ideas and technology of new product and help in identifying expected problems and in resolving them early.

2.5Time to Market (TM) and NPD: NPD process can be describe as the length of the needed to get a product from the ideas into the market place. A product life cycle is decreasing every year, which is problematic when customer demand is increasing dramatically. This makes responding quickly to customer requirements important, especially with the increased complexity of product design and rapidly changing technologies. Moreover increasing the number of competitors in the market, as well as product dependence on rapidly changing technologies make it necessity to pay more attention to TTM and to find the right way to optimize TTM probability. Going to market early increase market dominance.

Research Design:

The research is design is expiratory in nature, which aims at investing factors that affect NPD in the pharmaceutical industry. Zikmund (2003) argues that expiratory research is initial research conducted to clarify and define the nature of the problem. In order to investigate the aim of this research a qualitative research method was used. However, the qualitative method research method refers to an unstructured expiratory research methodology based on small samples that provide insights and understanding the problem setting. Rossman and Ralls argue that qualitative research occurs in the natural setting. The researcher often goes to the participants’ place to conduct the study. Thus European Scientific Journal February 2015-edition vol.11. NO 4 ISSN 1857-7881(print) e- ISSN1857 this enables him to develop Blass towards an individual or place and he inadvertently becomes involved in the actual experience of participants. According to them qualitative research uses multiple humanistic, interactive and data collection methods in order to involve in actual participation but includes the open-ended observations, interviews, focus, groups, documents, emails, scrapbooks, sound and other forms. All qualitative research methods was recommended in this research instead of using qualitative research methods for many reasons. Firstly it is not always possible to use fully structured or formal methods to collect information from respondents. Thirdly it is better to use qualitative research in conducting a study with small reference population- like in the study where are just twelve pharmaceuticals companies , and a small number of respondents were expected to participate.

Research Population and Sample: The research population and represents all Jordanian pharmaceutical organizations that produce new products. The targeted population encompasses all people who are involved in NPD process such as research and development, managers and marketing managers.

Data Collection Method: In this study, in depth interview method was chosen to collect the desire data. Interviewing is a systematic way to collect data and gain knowledge from individuals through conversation. This allow the respondents to involved and speak from their point of view. Malhotra (2003) identifies several advantages and disadvantages of the in-depth interview in comparison to focus groups. He argues that an interview can uncover great depth of insight than a focus group. A free exchange of information from in-depth interviews may not be possible in focus from. However, in depth interviews require skilled interviews who are expensive and difficult to find. The interviews collected were between 20 minutes. It began with general questions that encouraged the respondents to talk freely about their attitudes toward the issues at hand. The interview conducted in this study are individual (personal) interviews.

Interview questions were open ended questions that allow respondents to participate freely and describe their opinions using their own words and statements. The number of questions was carefully considered to prevent participants from becoming tried or disinterested. The first set of questions was concerned with the variables related to the company and its strategies. In addition to reflecting the personality and functional specifications of the respondents, it also forms a prelude to the investigate variables that affect a group of independent variables including SMS, CFT, CI and TTM on NPD. The third set of questions aimed to investigate the most important challenges and constraints that NPD faces from the participants point of view. After finishing all questions the researcher asked the respondent if they wanted to add anything and thanked them for their interest and the dedication of their valuable time.

Data Analysis Techniques: Qualitative data analysis is the most challenging aspect of using the qualitative research method. Qualitative data consist of words and Observations, but not numbers. However using numbers requires creativity, discipline and a systematic approach for the analysis there is no single or best way to analyzed qualitative data. Content analysis by which text is converted into numerical. Variables for qualitative analysis is a formal technique for analyzing qualitative data. According to Mostyn (1985) content analysis refers to diagnostic tool of qualitative researchers which they use when faced the mass of open-ended material to make to make a sense of. According to Hsieh and Shannon (2005) there are three distinct approaches of content analysis, firstly conventional content analysis in which coding categories is derived directly from the text data . Secondly is the directed content analysis approach which starts the analysis with a theory or relevant research findings as guidance for initial codes. Thirdly, the sum mutative content analysis approach involves counting and comparisons of content or keywords and also the interpreting of underlying content. The directed content analysis approach has been chosen to analyze the collected data. An open-ended European Scientific Journal February 2015 edition vol.11 NO 4 ISSN: 1857-71 (print) e – ISSN 1857-7431 484 question was used followed by a group of targeted questions for each predetermined category.

Theoretical model:

Through the number of study in literature review, there are five factor, which can affect NPD SMS, CFT, CI, SI, & TTM are independent variable and NPD itself is the dependent variable. As shown in table,

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Senior management support

NPD

Cross-Functional Teams

Customer Involvement

Supplier Integration

Time to Market

The research results are consistent with the previous research findings that address the importance of SMS in NPD success (Cooper and Kleinschimdet, 1994; Gupta and Wilemon, 1990; Zirger and Maidique, 1990). Therefore, this is because senior management involvement and participation is critical to foster firm’s broad acceptance of the development project, to make decisions quicker, and to get sufficient resources for the project (Welti, 1999). Also, it helps in building effective relationships between R&D and the marketing departments (Gupta et al., 1986; Gupta and Wilemon, 1990), as they tend to show more concern about the project when

They perceive senior management’s involvement in the NPD process (Swink, 2000). So, SMS is considered substantial for a productive and fast NPD. In addition with above some important actors which identify during research are, Knowledge and Technology, teamwork, Cost, and marketing strategies. Therefore, the research model can be redefined as:

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Senior management support

NPD

Cross Functional Teams

Customer Involvement

Supplier Integration

Time to Market

Knowledge

Technology

Team work

Development cost

Marketing strategies

Conclusion Recommendation:

Recommendation for future research the research investigation the most important factor that affect NDP in pharmaceutical industry. The research result shows several positive and negative factors that influence NDP process at pharmaceutical companies. More specially, the research result illustrates that the main positive factor affecting NDP is the senior Management support factor, which include financial resources the human resources. Employee training and motivation, empowerment, in addition to financial and moral support. The second factor affecting NDP is TTM. Statically, the research result show that taking the due diligence on TTM factor has an independent variable, dependent variable senior management support roles and regulation (R&R), senior management support, customer involvement (CI), cross functional team (CFTs), senior management support (SMS), and time to market (TTM) supplier integration (SI), Teamwork (TW), knowledge of development (KD). Market strategy (MS) NDP technology (Tec), development cost (cost). European Scientific journal February 2015 edition Vol.11, No.4ISSN: 1857-1857-7881 (print) e ISSN 1857-7431 492 positive effects on NDP. The third positive factor affecting NDP is performing CFT in NDP process. The fourth positive factor affecting NDP is customer involvement, especially at the ideas generation stage in NDP process. The fifth factor is R&R which statistically affect the NDP process negatively. Market strategy and competition comes in ninth rank.

Because of the finding of the research the study comes out with a few recommendations enhance the process of new product development. First referring to the study finding, SMS was determined as the most important NDP driver, so it is important to afford enough support from senior management to enhance NDP process. Firm can offer SMS in several form like financial support, moral support, human resources, motivation, and empowerment. A managerial vision that supports NDP, positive work culture, job stability, and employee appreciation respect and follow up.

In addition, company has to show enough care to human resources through providing them with the needed experience and training. Moreover, companies have to insure enough work knowledge with each department and find specialized team work place and enough space.

Companies have to speed up NDP process in order to get the benefit of going early to market. Some important issues can help to reduce TTM like doing some work stages in a parallel way, not delaying in marking the development decision.

Several additional factors were investigated in this study to affect NDP. These factors include R&R TW knowledge, DC, MS, technology and competition. Therefore, there is an opportunity for future to conduct studies that focus in-depth in the effect of this factor in NDP.

Reference

  1. Esteves, José and Pastor, Joan (2001).
  2. Gebert, D., Boerner, S., & Kearney, E. (2006). Cross-functionality and innovation in new product development teams: A dilemmatic structure and its consequences for the management of diversity. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 15(4), 431-458.
  3. Griffin, A. and Hauser, J. R. (1996). Integrating Mechanisms for Marketing and R&D. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 13(3), 191-215.
  4. Griffin, A. and Somermeyer, S. (2007). The PDMA Tool Book 3 for New Product Development, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
  5. Harbi, S., Calvi, R. and Le Dian, M. A. (2002). New Product Development and Early Supplier Involvement: A new Supplier Involvement Portfolio.
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Essay on DBQ Product Proposal

Essay on DBQ Product Proposal

Introduction of the Product

Couplet Timekeeper Ring is one of the innovative gadget with various features such as setting a noiseless alarm, GPS tracker, and 24-hour digital timer device. It can transform your waking up style in a very smooth way by not disturbing your partner who is sleeping very next to you. This modern waterproof and convenient device can be advantageous in various other situations, including siblings that share the same bedroom at home or roommates in a hostel or travelers using the same dormitory, and even hearing-impaired people. One of the coolest features of this ring includes setting an automatic alarm along with the rising of the sun by locating you anywhere in the world.

Description of the Product

The product comprises dual flexible rings with a wireless charging pad. The dual ring contains an LCD display that indicates 24-hour digital time. The GPS Tracker of the ring can link with 4 Android phones at the same time. The primary feature of the ring is to provide a noiseless vibrating alarm facility.

Technical Concept of the Product

The charging base of the device has two ring ports where the rings are placed for the purpose of charging without any connecting wires. One of the unique features of this ring includes solar charging which can be accessible in different circumstances and places without depending on the availability of its charging base.

Distribution Channels of our Product

The primary distribution channel of our product is through our official website i.e. www.ctkr.com.au. That can make our product easily accessible from anywhere. We are currently in the progress of sourcing retailers in order to enhance sale of the product to expand its markets which will be updated on our official website soon.

Country where our Product will internalize

  • Canada

Reasons of choosing Canada for the proposal of our product:

Canada is included in one of the countries as it has Free Trade agreements with several Nations including Australia (CANATA) and as well as additional global agreements focusing on international import and export. Currently, the country is primarily focusing on technological improvements. The Canadian market (Toronto) is in the top five, based on CBRE’s annual tech talent survey. Therefore, the advanced technology market of Canada will surely welcome our product. According to Consumer Technology Association, most Canadians are always thriving to buy new gadgets thereby making it easier to internalize our product.