Successful product development has been a fundamental part of many of today's companies and their continued prosperity depends on continuing to develop new products in the future. There are many models of product development. The two most common classes of development are market pull (MP) and technology push (TP). TP product development differs from MP in that the development begins with a specified technology rather than a specified customer. Because TP development is generally considered more difficult and challenging, most of the product development research has focused on MP development and many researchers and practitioners favor MP development over TP development. However, successful TP development has been shown to be a source of innovation that cannot be realized through MP development and is performed by many companies. The research in this thesis focuses on developing a comprehensive TP model to guide product developers on how to implement TP development successfully. This new TP model is developed by comparing recently published TP models to published best practices of TP development and known deficiencies of TP models. The comprehensive TP model makes improvements to the existing TP models through the addition of processes and tools that overcome deficiencies and incorporate best practices. The new comprehensive TP model includes elements of existing generic MP models, a "Technology Application Selection" (TAS) process and several new processes and tools associated with prototypes and network groups. Some of the new processes and tools are demonstrated through a case example. The comprehensive TP model provides product developers with the necessary step-by-step guide to TP product development. The model effectively deals with deficiencies of previous TP models, is sufficiently comprehensive and detailed to guide product developers, is complimentary and consistent to existing design processes and terms, is applicable to most TP product development projects, and is useful and repeatable in making product development decisions.

Published Article / Sustainable development is the key issue for enabling the survival of human culture. Product development is sometimes seen as conflicting with the aims of sustainable development. This comes from a twofold impact: the production of new goods exploits scarce resources, and their use creates additional resource consumption and potential disparity. However, innovation and product development are important means to fulfil the needs of present and future generations and to achieve sustainable development. In this context, we must also consider the development of service products - classical services and product - related ones creating surplus value from physical products. The contribution of product development to sustainability will depend on the way sustainability issues are integrated into the development process. An important focus is on the early phases of product development and especially on the process of requirements analysis since this integrates all sustainability role players as potential stakeholders.

Healthcare is a topic that matters since it aims to ensure better well-being for people. An important and essential part of health care is medical devices since it has the potential to increase the quality of life for people with a health problem. Among the suppliers of innovation, the medical device industry is a dynamic field providing thousands of products to the market every year with the aim to enhance people's lives. However, there are many actors that influences the medical device development such as regulations that ensures that medical devices follow a specific procedure during development, at the same time buyers and end-users need to be integrated throughout the medical device design, this results in challenges during medical device development. This thesis focuses on new product development (NPD) and investigates how projects are managed in a medical device context. Furthermore, the thesis elaborates projects of different novelty and the influence from the characteristic of complexity. This is done with a single-case study of a case company that develop and market medical devices. The empirical findings shows that the main challenges are in the area of clinical studies and product development, furthermore, managing NPD projects in a medical device context deals with specialized knowledge that is dispersed among a group of actors which can influence the development of the medical device no matter the novelty. It was found that the difference between the studied projects was minor in terms of complexity. Though, it was noticed that the project of radical novelty had more interaction with the end-user, which can relate to uncertainty in the function of the product, as a consequence from being completely new product. As a result from the findings, the implication is that the projects can not be treated and managed similarly as a result from uncertainty, thus, it depends on the integration of actors, consequently, influencing time of development and resources. This thesis contributes to the community of companies operating in a medical device context where there is minor focus on complexity in projects, it was found that it might be beneficial to make distinctions in complexity characteristics when identifying challenges and addressing NPD projects in a medical device context.

<p>Successful concept decisions are crucial for product development organisations. Failure in theconcept decision-making process means costly rework, requiring resources that could havebeen spent on innovative work with new products instead. This licentiate thesis tackles theconcept decision-making process and how to improve it. The research presented here is thefirst part of a research project, with an action research approach, that will develop newsupporting working procedures for concept decision making and thereby contribute to moresuccessful products.Empirical studies were conducted in Swedish industrial practice, particularly focusing oneorganisation, and it was found that concept decisions are not made at a certain point in time.Instead, many decisions and activities, on several organisational levels, were adding up to theconcept decisions in the investigated organisations. The concept decision-making process wasfound to be a web of interconnected activities, with many decisions integrated and embedded in the process. Itwas also found that both formal and informal factors influence the concept decision-makingprocess and main factors were identified as: Project and product request, Supporting structures androutines, Individual competence and driving forces, Teamwork and company culture and Contextualcircumstances. These factors represent different perspectives, meaning on what level theyinfluence concept decision making: individual, team, project, organisation, and context, and in orderto create improvements in the concept decision-making process all levels have to beconsidered. The knowledge of the different perspectives has implications for howimprovements should be designed.Larger product developing companies do often have internally defined formal workingprocedures that prescribe how to develop products within the company. The thesis discusseshow the internal working procedures relate to academic theory and to practice. It wasconcluded that internal formal working procedures has not been discussed in a sufficient wayin earlier engineering design research. Furthermore, means for improving the concept decisionmakingprocess are discussed, and it was concluded, based on interviews with practitioners,that the strongest pragmatic means for improvement were developing mindset and applyingmethods. Mindset addresses the awareness, attitude and approach needed for management (andco-workers) working in early product development phases. Methods mainly addresses the needfor having relevant supporting working procedures in general and templates for evaluationalternative solutions in particular. Finally, recommendations for future design of a template forevaluation alternative solutions are presented.</p>

Knowledge management (KM) is an essential, if sometimes overlooked part of new product development (NPD). It describes the way information and new knowledge is being shared in a commercial organization, hence, how it is stored and made accessible within an organization. KM is applied to many organizational settings, but the application is sparse. KM has the potential to assist NPD, as previously acquired knowledge can be used more efficiently and redundant work can be avoided. However, there is no successful model or guideline for KM in an NPD environment. This project specifically examined the NPD situation, and the research questions included: What do engineering companies in New Zealand do, if anything, to store acquired knowledge? What would encourage engineers to share their knowledge in NPD projects? These research questions were answered by two methods: a survey and then follow-up face-to-face interviews were conducted. Statistical analysis identified various factors as important. Further, differences between New Zealand and German companies were examined. The survey and interview results showed that knowledge was found definitely important for innovation and NPD. However, Germans tended to rate the overall importance of knowledge higher than New Zealanders. It was found that all NPD companies used codification and personalization KM strategies to store knowledge and to make it accessible. However, a tendency towards a stronger emphasis on personalization was found. Particular knowledge sharing encouragements were identified that could result in a higher willingness of engineers to share their knowledge; supporting a communicative work-climate, setting up regular meetings for knowledge exchange and active encouragement to share knowledge. Apart from encouragements, survey and interview results also pointed out the importance of a clearly set direction for KM from management. Companies that were associated with successful KM did not only apply one particular KM process, but a combination of many. Particular KM practices and knowledge sharing encouragements were associated with KM success; the creation of a tidy, well structured database, regular meetings for knowledge sharing, supporting a communicative work-climate and active encouragement of staff to share their knowledge. Furthermore, the influence of personal relationships, trust and power differences on personal knowledge sharing processes were identified. Poor personal relationships and a low perceived level of trust can decrease the willingness of engineers to share knowledge. Engineers found that the most difficult situation in which to seek knowledge was from superiors, while the easiest was from peers. Thus organizational design and hierarchy structures can have an influence on KM. These results were used to construct an integrative model that describes the factors, and their interaction, for successful KM in NPD. Based on the interview and survey results, the main implications for practitioners are that an overall awareness of KM and the benefits thereof for the company itself and the employees are important for successful KM. Executives should consider setting direction, providing the required tools for KM, educating staff regarding KM, and actively encouraging knowledge sharing processes. Further, executives should be aware of the influence of organizational design on personal knowledge sharing mechanisms. NPD project managers should consider educating their project team regarding KM. Especially for the successful application of personal knowledge sharing processes it is important that project managers are aware of personal relationships and potential issues among their team members. In order to achieve a high willingness to share knowledge within the project team, project managers should consider supporting a communicative work-climate, setting up regular meetings for knowledge exchange and actively encouraging their project team members to share their knowledge. These methods were associated not only with a high willingness of employees to share knowledge, but also with KM success in general. Engineers should consider contributing to the KM process by applying the company’s KM strategy and by having a high willingness to share own knowledge and ask questions to acquire knowledge. Furthermore engineers need to be aware of personal relationships with their colleagues and try to maintain a good work-climate, as this affects personal knowledge sharing processes within the NPD project team. New product development requires knowledge, and in an organizational context that knowledge needs to be managed if there is to be an enduring future for the firm. This work has surveyed industry perspectives and identified factors that contribute to successful knowledge management, creating an integrated model that is applicable to new product development.

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The aim of this review is to provide insights to the usage of Kano-model and innovation product development, and at the same time, answer to the research question “How customer needs can be identified by using Kano-model for innovation product development?” The research is conducted by reviewing existing literature on Kano- model and innovation product development (IPD). The relevant literature used for this research is conducted by utilizing the databases of Halmstad University and Google Scholar. A model for customer needs identification by using Kano model for Innovation Product Development (IPD) was constructed based on the reviewed theories. In addition, a general recognition for the term of IPD was acknowledged.

The research aims at analyzing the internal communication in a new product development project of Sandvik with expectation to explore possibilities of improvement. Throughout the research, internal communication seems to have a great impact on innovation and project performance. Several critical factors in building effective communication were identified as team size, superordinate goals, centralization of communication, early involvement, physical proximity, and leadership. Meetings were considered as a major and efficient method of communication within the project. Based on these issues, recommendations for improving internal communication within the project were suggested.

The aim of this research is to understand the Internet impact on Uppsala Nya Tidning (UNT) traditional newspaper. By answering the question; has the internet resulted in UNT developingnew products? A case study was selected. The findings indicate that the internet has resulted in UNT consumers, demanding quick, free, and user-generated news. The fact that the newspaper is presently unable to accommodate these different needs have made the consumers discard the paper, thus causing a decrease in UNT newspaper readership. This, however, resulted in UNT developing  new  products (e.g., Free online reading, tabloid newspaper, and multimedia portfolio).

There has been a new style of new product development in the Bike Industry of Taiwan. The researcher refers it as ¡§Network-Styled of New Product Development (NNPD). According to the researcher¡¦s understanding, the Network-styled New Product Development is a product development model for which we need to measure its outputs or performances by all aspects of the industry instead of a single company or a single governing mechanism. Different types of firms on the industrial value chain and all external R&D's resources of the industry in Taiwan make a significant contribution to the development of new product. Therefore, firms are able to use an internal and interactive mechanism built among the firms to initiate more creations and to exchange technology of production. A high efficacy produced from the model is attributed to the efforts of all participating firms. Owing to fast and intensive interactions, a continuing and changing evolution of innovation happens, thus, leading to an unpredictable development of various products. This model of new product development, only constructed by the whole industry, is a unique competence of the Bike Industry of Taiwan, which has made it impossible for any other single firm or a conglomerate in other countries to emulate. Taiwan¡¦s Bike Industry then becomes even more competitive in the arena.