Stock Market Reaction to Green Vehicle Innovation

We study the stock market reaction to announcements of global green vehicle innovation over a 14‐year time span (1996–2009) using the event study methodology. We document that the stock market generally reacts positively to automakers' announcements of environmental innovations, consistent with prior research on the wealth effects of innovation announcements. Our results indicate that crucial green product development decisions such as innovation type and market segment choices exert direct influence on a firm's market value. These results hold after controlling for firm size, leverage, profitability, R&D intensity, and oil price changes.     

Framing the multifaceted nature of design thinking in addressing different innovation purposes

Scholars and practitioners acknowledge the role of design, and specifically design thinking, as a driver of innovation and change. Design thinking is gaining attention in the business community beyond the traditional product innovation realm and is increasingly promoted as an engine for the creation of novel user experiences, new businesses, strategic transformation, organizational and cultural change. Is it reasonable to assume that the same set of practices fits such a broad range of applications equally well? This study addresses how design thinking applications are differently framed when addressing diverse innovation purposes. Specifically, we compare two purposes: innovation of solutions, encompassing traditional product and service development projects, and innovation of direction, encompassing strategic and organizational renewal projects. Based on data collected from 146 design thinking projects conducted by European consulting firms we investigate the relationships between the design thinking practices adopted and the value generated by the projects. We then analyze how these relationships vary depending on the purpose of the innovation project, namely whether focused on innovating solutions or direction. The results show that different purposes indeed call for different practices. In projects aimed at innovating solutions, market value is positively related to capturing current user needs and envisioning future society. Conversely, in projects aimed at innovating direction, market value is positively related to challenging current assumptions.     

基于应用扩展和网络论坛的领先用户识别方法研究

回顾了领先用户识别的电话网络法,分析了它的应用局限性。电话网络法只适合领先用户相对分散的情况下,企业需要找到部分领先用户为企业新产品概念开发贡献产品创意。但当领先用户的应用扩展到产品推广之后,为了使领先用户在市场中的领导地位能影响普通用户,并进一步带来更好的新产品绩效,需要找到目标群体中的全部领先用户。网络论坛的设立使得领先用户在产品开发论坛中相对集中,从而问卷法识别领先用户的效率能够得到保证。确立了识别领先用户的三大指标:市场或技术趋势、客户收益、信息复杂性。用统计学与概率论的方法建立了领先用户的识别模型。     

Product Modularity,Process Modularity,and New Product Introduction Performance: Does Complexity Matter?

Modularity has the potential to impact various facets of new product introduction performance including product development lead time, frequency of new product introduction, on time introduction and product innovation. The impact of modularity on new product introduction performance, however, may vary for different levels of product and process complexity. This study empirically investigates relationships between perceptual measures of product modularity, process modularity, and new product introduction performance and explores whether an objective product/process complexity measure moderates these relationships. Using survey‐based methodology we probe both manufacturers of technically simple products and technically complex products. Hierarchical regression models are used to test hypotheses concerning the main effects of product and process modularity and the effects of their interactions with complexity on new product introduction performance. The results show that the main effect of product modularity was positive and its interaction with complexity was disordinal and negative, suggesting that the positive effect of product modularity on new product introduction performance is dampened when complexity is high. For process modularity, only the interaction effect (positive) was statistically significant and it was also disordinal in nature. Thus, the effect of process modularity on new product introduction performance is heightened when complexity is high. The implications of these findings are discussed and more specific theoretical and managerial implications are delineated by examining the impacts of these main and interaction effects on individual measures of new product introduction performance (frequency of new product introduction, product development lead times, product innovation, and on‐time product launch).     

消费者异质偏好结构下动态创新竞合系统定价与创新策略研究

基于消费者对产品创新属性和价格属性的异质偏好结构，针对潜在创新企业和非创新企业间的动态竞合关系，构建了潜在创新企业和非创新企业间的集中式决策模型和Nash分散式决策模型，进而分析消费者异质偏好结构对潜在创新企业和非创新企业决策的影响机理。研究表明：(1)相较于分散式决策系统，集中式决策系统是把双刃剑。集中式决策系统虽然提升了非创新企业和潜在创新企业的产品定价、系统整体利润，抑制了非创新企业发展，压缩了落后产能；但是，集中式决策亦抑制了潜在创新企业的产品创新活动，降低了创新产品产能，不利于社会的创新研发。(2)随着消费者对产品创新属性偏好的增加，潜在创新企业产品定价和供货量上升，非创新企业产品定价和供货量下降；系统利润先下降后上升，非创新企业利润一致单调下降，潜在创新企业利润一致单调上升。(3)随着产品创新难度的增加，潜在创新企业以及非创新企业的产品定价、系统盈利水平均下降。此外还发现，产品相对创新度对系统主体决策存在复杂影响。     

Configuring knowledge connectivity and strategy conditions for foreign subsidiary innovation

We argue that product innovation by foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations is a complex undertaking requiring a theoretical understanding of how managers combine subsidiary structural arrangements, knowledge connectivity, and contextual conditions into configurations that yield innovative products. Accordingly, we integrate relevant conditions from interrelated literature streams and explore their complementarities and substitutions in relation to subsidiary product innovation. Using a neo-configurational approach and data on 183 foreign subsidiaries operating in Europe, we identify six equifinal configurations associated with subsidiary product innovation. We leverage the configurational patterns to elaborate theory of how subsidiary product innovation is primarily driven by the interrelations among the relevant conditions, thus contributing novel insights to research on subsidiary management and global innovation.     

Global innovation performance: Strategic challenges for multinational corporations

In the emerging knowledge economy many companies are forced to access globally dispersed technological and market knowledge to maintain their competitive advantage. A conceptual model is presented to analyze the relationship between the globalization of the innovation function and firm performance. Longitudinal data from 10 multinational companies are used to support the proposed model. The analysis concludes that the relationship between global innovation reach and firm performance is concave and time lagged. The results suggest the strategic importance of globalization decisions. The managerial implications are structured in five distinctive strategic challenges to successfully manage global innovation.     

策略型消费者创新感知与产品定价换代策略研究

科学技术迅猛发展促使厂商频繁推出创新型产品以抢占市场份额,产品定价和换代策略成为厂商经营成败的重要因素。本文在产品技术创新视角下构建双寡头厂商三阶段产品最优定价与换代决策模型,结合效用函数和博弈分析方法从同质产品市场拓展为异质产品市场,求解出单品换代策略及共生换代策略下新品上市时点和旧产品退出市场时点的显示解,并通过仿真模拟探讨产品技术创新水平、消费者创新感知度对最优产品定价和换代策略的影响。研究表明产品技术创新水平和消费者创新感知度对厂商产品定价和换代策略有重要影响。同质产品市场下,市场潜在需求越大,产品初始定价越高。厂商面临内外部产品竞争时,市场潜在需求较小且两代产品处于共生状态下,为减弱内部竞争新旧产品最优定价差距不大;当市场潜在需求较大,厂商新品定价由技术创新水平决定,消费者技术创新感知值越高,新品定价越高,反之越低。当厂商技术创新水平处于劣势时,两厂商技术创新水平差距越大,劣势厂商越应提早退出市场。     

A reference model for collaborative design in mould industry

The mould industry is an indispensable foundation for mass production by manufacturer and influences the time to market of new product. It is difficult to integrate the new product development processes and information systems among the mould companies which are mainly small and medium enterprises. The design chain operations reference-model (DCOR) provides a well-recognised methodology to standardise the management process for a product development project and enables the integration for mould industry. The DCOR focuses on a primary and preliminary product development process and is necessary to extend the detail templates for the industrial requirements. Hence, the purpose of this research is to develop an approach that extends the DCOR to the mould industry. The framework of the developed model, which is called the design chain operations reference-model for the mould industry, is adopted for a case mould company for a feasibility discussion.     

A dynamic model of process and product innovation

This article reports results from empirical tests of relationships between the pattern of innovation within a firm and certain of the firm's characteristics: the stage of development of its production process and its chosen basis of competition. The hypothesized relationships posed for the present investigation are a synthesis of prior research by the present authors on two distinct but complementary conceptual models of innovation, concerning respectively: the relationship between competitive strategy and innovation, and the relationship between production process characteristics and innovation. The empirical investigation is carried out with data available from the Myers and Marquis study of successful technological innovation in five different industry segments.The essential aspects of the hypothesized relationships are that the characteristics of the innovative process will systematically correspond with the stage of development exhibited by the firm's production process technology and with its strategy for competition and growth. As a more specific example these relationships predict that there will be coherent patterns in the stimuli for innovation (market, production or new technology); in the types of innovation (product or process, original or adopted, etc.) and in barriers to innovation.The presently reported statistical evidence is decidedly favorable to the hypothesized relationships, even though the adaptations needed to implement tests with existing data introduce dependencies that limit conclusions which would otherwise be warranted. The broad implication is that strong and important relationships exist among the capability of a firm to innovate, its competitive strategy and the posture of its production resources.     

A taxonomy of international manufacturing networks

Abstract

Manufacturing firms with multiple product groups do not need to involve all factories in the production of all product groups. Some factories may specialize on a small set of products, while others participate in the manufacturing of a broader set of products. However, current theories on international manufacturing networks do not explain in detail how organizations design international manufacturing networks for different products or product groups involving different sets of factories. This research investigates 20 product group networks at five global manufacturing firms. We distinguish between three types of factories: component manufacturing factories, assembly factories, and integrated factories (having both component manufacturing and assembly). Furthermore, we identify four network types: linear, divergent, convergent, and mixed structures. These four types exhibit distinctly different characteristics in terms of key characteristics, factory roles, product types, process types, market types, sourcing, and key managerial challenges. Most networks are relatively small – on an average consisting of four factories and some contain a number of subnetworks that are self-sufficient in terms of material flow and serve separate market regions. We identify two new types of factory roles related to component manufacturing competences, which we call ‘strategic feeder’ and ‘full lead’.     

Does applying design thinking result in better new product concepts than a traditional innovation approach? An experimental comparison study

Both practitioners and researchers have developed various approaches to support product development teams in their creative process of generating new and valuable product concepts. A key concern of all innovation approaches is to translate the needs, wants and aspirations of users and customers into product and service solutions that match the underlying needs. Many existing innovation approaches focus predominantly on the translation process itself by providing support for aggregating data and making trade-off decisions between user preferences traceable. For that reason, we label these approaches user preference-driven. In contrast, over the last two decades, design thinking (DT) has emerged as an approach that assumes knowledge of user needs information to be fuzzy and unreliable; it addresses this challenge by focusing on developing user experiences through empathic in-depth user research and iterative prototyping. Consequently, we label approaches such as DT user experience-driven. Although DT has generated particular interest among both practitioners and educators, the academic literature investigating the usefulness of DT remains scarce. To help close this gap, we study the performance implications of applying DT processes and tools in terms of new product concept creativity relative to applying a traditional innovation approach. Using an experimental design and collecting quantitative data from 53 teams and their projects, we find that teams applying DT outperform the control group that applies an alternative innovation approach, namely quality function deployment (QFD), in terms of the feasibility, relevance and specificity of concepts, but not the novelty. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice.     

Product universality and design for supply chain management

We describe our experience of developing models in which the principles of design for supply chain management (DFCM) have been implemented for new product development at Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). This experience arises from the development of a new product that is scheduled to be released in 1995. A key design decision faced by the product development team was whether to use a universal module or regionally dedicated modules to satisfy global market requirements. We describe a wide range of factors—including manufacturing and logistics costs—that could be used to support the design decision; these factors associated with product and process design contribute to tolal supply chain costs. We review the analytical model used to evaluate the cost and service implications of the two design alternatives. Finally, we discuss qualitative considerations that might influence the eventual decisions as well as the lessons learned from this real world experience.     

Global product development projects: measuring performance and monitoring the risks

Abstract

This article investigates the development and application of key performance indicators for global product development. Two in-depth, longitudinal case studies with multinational Danish manufacturing companies were conducted, and highlight how key performance indicators, typically used for collocated, cross-functional product development, do not provide the predictive insight required to avoid the additional risks encountered in the global product development environment. Grounded in the case study results and building on established methodologies in performance measurement literature, a framework was developed and validated in two additional Danish companies to support project managers to develop: preventive indicators, which support the avoidance of identified risks, and outcome indicators, which support the measurement towards the attainment of project objectives. The study is unique as it is one of the very few longitudinal studies of engineering design activities in a global context, providing the in-depth contextual understanding towards key risks and their influence on performance; an important step to support researchers and practitioners with the development of preventive measures.     

进口国质量管制条件下的出口国企业创新与产业升级

本文从进口国产品质量管制角度来研究出口国企业创新和被动产业升级的内在机制。进口国产品质量管制构成出口国出口企业的市场进入障碍,后者必须通过工艺创新来达到最低质量标准并降低成本保持优势,由此出口国实现被动性产业升级。本文构建理论模型证明了出口企业进行创新必须满足的条件,并且出口企业创新利润会随着进口国质量管制水平高低而变化,存在令出口企业创新利润最大化的质量管制水平。同时出口企业定价能力提高能促进被动性产业升级,出口国政府也能在被动性产业升级过程中发挥积极影响。     

Developing new innovation models: Shifts in the innovation landscapes in emerging economies and implications for global R&D management

Over the past two decades, there has been a substantial shift in the global innovation landscape. Multinationals from developed economies are increasingly globalizing their R&D activities and are developing an “open innovation” model to source innovations from outside the firm, including from emerging economies such as those in Asia. In addition, emerging economy firms, which traditionally have played a secondary role in the global innovation landscape, have now begun to catch up in developing their own innovative capabilities. This study explores the implications of this new innovation landscape for CEOs of multinationals and emerging economy firms, as well as for international management scholars and educators. While the multinationals might appropriate rents from their existing capabilities and source new ones in emerging economies, they may be threatened by weak intellectual property rights regimes and unintended knowledge spillovers to local firms, creating potential competitors. Firms in the emerging economies can learn from and catch up with investing multinationals, but to do so they need to develop their own innovative capabilities and move from a process to a product focus and from imitation to innovation.     

Designing Distribution Systems to Support Vendor Strategies in Supply Chain Management*

The interactions among a firm's distribution strategy, market share, and distribution costs are an important consideration in the design of supply chain networks. However, these interactions are largely ignored by existing distribution system design methodologies, which assume demand is constant regardless of the firm's distribution strategy. This paper describes a multidisciplinary framework that considers these interactions in the design of “profit maximizing” distribution networks. The framework employs two major decision support methodologies: (1) binary logit models for estimating market share considering various demand-influencing parameters such as product price and distribution service, and (2) a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model for finding optimal distribution network designs. We applied the framework to an actual design problem facing a national distributor of industrial chemical products. The test results verify the framework's large-scale capability and the potential benefit of the integrated solution methodology.     

Towards an integrative framework of innovation network for new product development project

The increasing complexity of product and radical changing environment lead companies towards innovation network (IN) collaboration. Although recent researches highlight the importance and benefits of innovation network (IN) to new product development (NPD), this subject is still developing and it has the potential to expand into new dimensions. However, there is a significant lack in the literature regarding holistic, systematic and integrated framework when it comes to manipulating the challenge of true NPD projects. The current researches mainly focus on the strategy level which provides less application guidance for NPD. Thus, in this work, the authors propose an integrative framework of innovation network for NPD based on the literature review. In addition, a case study of new refrigerator development reveals the feasibility and potentials of the overall framework to its broad usage in industry.     

Production systems and supplier selection: a multi-phase process model

Abstract

Purpose: This paper presents a combined multi-phase supplier selection model. The process repeatedly revisits the criteria and sourcing decision as the development process continues. This enables a structured adoption of product and production system innovation from strategic suppliers, where previously the literature purely focuses on product innovation or cost reduction. Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopted an embedded researcher style, inductive, qualitative case study of an industrial supply cluster comprising a focal automotive company and its interaction with three different strategic stamping suppliers. Findings: Our contribution is the multi-phased production and product innovation process. This is an advance from traditional supplier selection and also an extension of ideas of supplier-located product development as it includes production system development, and complements the literature on working with strategic suppliers. Specifically, we explicitly articulate the previously unreported issue of whether a supplier chosen for its innovation capabilities at the start of the new product development process will also be the most appropriate supplier during the production system development phase, when an ability to work collaboratively may be the most important attribute, or in the large-scale production phase when an ability to manufacture at low unit cost may be most important. Originality/value: The paper identifies a multi-phase approach to tendering within a fixed body of strategic suppliers which seeks to identify the optimum technological and process decisions as well as the traditional supplier sourcing choice. These areas have not been combined before and generate a valuable approach for firms to adopt as well as for researchers to extend our understanding of a highly complex process.