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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

The consequences and antecedents of cognitive simplification processes in new product development teams

Tenkasi, Ramkrishnan Vaideeswaran January 1994 (has links)
No description available.
2

Collaborative Boundary Crossing Behaviours Of Product Development Teams : Role Of Direct And Indirect Factors

Randhir, R P 07 1900 (has links)
Emerging markets are fraught with uncertainty, diverse global players, rapid technological change, wide-spread price wars, and seemingly endless reorganization (Ilinitch, 1996). These changes have presented challenges to organizations in the form of shorter product cycles, increased segment fragmentation, blurring industry boundaries, breaking corporate hierarchies, and increased interdependence of world markets (Ozsomer et. al., 1991). Organizations are responding to competition by capitalizing on global policies and adopting self-directed teams and horizontal structures that enhance external activities. To do this organizations are getting conscious of the boundaries they are operating in. With hyper competition and globalization organizations blur boundaries to gain maximum business opportunity from other geographic boundaries. For this to happen organizations must engage in boundary crossing behaviour. Competition is also managed by focussing on bringing out new products to the market. Product development (PD) is critical because new products are becoming the nexus of competition for firms (Clark and Fujimoto, 1991). They are the means by which members of organizations diversify, adapt, and even reinvent their firms to match evolving market and technological conditions (Schoonhoven et. al., 1990). This calls for a closer look at boundary crossing behaviour as part of the external activity during PD. The studies carried out in the process of PD identify external activity orientation as important criteria for success (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1995). PD processes involve project management activity. Unlike other processes of an organization, PD is a knowledge intensive activity, which brings together individuals having different skill sets and mindsets. These individuals need to interact regularly to understand and coordinate their activities. The non-routine nature of the process makes boundary-crossing activity more critical for successful PD. This thesis focuses on the boundary crossing behaviours performed by PD teams. Literature review showed that external activities play a crucial role in PD (Calantoue and Di Benedetto 1990a, b; Griffin and Hauser 1992; Olson et. al., 1995; Song et al., 2000; Souder 1987). The importance of external activities for successful project development was shown by Allen (1971, 1977) based on his seminal work on communication and organizations. He showed that R&D team’s frequency of communication within the team has no relationship to performance, while increased communication between teams and other parts of the laboratory was strongly related to project performance. Teams carrying out complex tasks in uncertain environments were found to perform higher levels of external activities (Ancona and Caldwell 1992). External activity was found to result in high percentages of successful projects and sales derived from new products (Cooper 1984; Dougherty 1987; Ancona and Caldwell, 1992; Ancona, 1990; Sheremata 2002). PD is an activity with high uncertainty. The external activities that are performed by PD teams and their nature of relationships shared are variously classified as interactive and collaborative behaviour (Kahn 1996). Underlying this classification is a dichotomous behaviour where in the former embodies presence of informal behaviour between partners, while the latter embodies formal behaviour. Further research on these behaviours have shown that informal type of external activity also known as collaborative behaviour plays an important role in the successful development of products. Collaboration represents the unstructured, affective nature of interdepartmental relationships. They were found to result in improved product development. A study on software product development teams by Kraut and Streeter(1995) also showed the importance of informal behaviour. He found that product development requires personal communication across functional boundaries to cope with uncertainty. The external activities performed by PD teams were also found to be influenced by variables like product development life cycle (Brodbeck, 2001; Sawyer & Guinan, 1998; Boehm, 1987), informal groups (Hirschhorn and Gilmore, 1992), awareness, (Pinto and Slevin, 1987), and open climate (Ashkenas et. al., 1990). After identifying the missing gaps in gaps were the objectives of the study was defined. The objectives of the study are as follows: To understand the interactive and collaborative boundary crossing behaviour of product development teams To study the difference in boundary crossing behaviour of horizontal, geographic and value chain boundaries of product development teams To understand the relationship of variables influencing boundary crossing behaviour of product development teams To give suggestions to better understand management of boundary crossing behaviour in product development teams A combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques was adopted to study these objectives. Based on the past literature a conceptual framework was developed. It consisted of defining the role of collaborative and interactive boundary crossing behaviours across product development teams and certain variables influencing this behaviour. The model was validated through preliminary interviews. These interviews were conducted across team members, team leaders and knowledge management experts. A few more variables were identified that were considered to influence the collaborative behaviour performed by PD teams. These variables are sharing behaviour and confidence with the time available for developing the product. The variables were operationally defined and measurement instrument, namely a questionnaire, was developed. The questionnaire was administered to team leaders and team members. The measurement instrument was tested for its psychometric properties namely, reliability and validity. Cronbach alphas are reported. For the main study, data was collected from 73 product development teams of IT organizations located in Bangalore. From the team leader the general characteristics of the PD team were understood, as well as the level of newness of the product developed. The latter was used as a measure of level of innovation. From team members, the interactive and collaborative behaviour of PD team members was studied. The statistical techniques that were used for analyzing the data are F-Test, t-test, Kruskall Wallis test, chi-square test , correlation and regression analyses. After the analysis it was found that the interactive and collaborative behaviour expressed by the teams across the three boundaries showed that as compared to collaborative behavior, product development teams more commonly used interactive behaviour. Interactive behaviours were also found to be used to the same extent across all the three boundaries. Since interactive behavior is formal and forced in organizations it is predominantly practiced although its efficiency may vary. The challenge for organizations hence is the collaborative behaviors. On the other hand, collaborative behaviour was seen used the most across horizontal boundary and the least across value chain boundary. Since the geographic distance across boundaries increases when moving from horizontal to value chain boundaries the chances of collaboration get decreased. Hence an influence of distance on boundary crossing behavior was sense influencing collaborative behaviour of product development teams. Hence further analysis focused on collaborative behaviors. The collaborative behaviour was further studied to understand its relationship with product development team behaviour, sharing behaviour of teams of outside the boundary, demographic variables and innovation level of product developed. Correlation analysis showed that the collaborative behaviour of teams were correlated with the sharing behaviour, informal groups, autonomous team leader behaviour, and open climate only. These variables were termed direct influencers of collaborative behavior.Innovation level did not play any significant role in influencing collaborative behavior.Collaboration behaviour was further studied to understand how they are causally related with these variables. Using regression analysis, the causal study considered collaboration behaviour of PD teams in general, as well as the collaboration behaviour across horizontal, geographical and value-chain boundary as the dependent variable. The independent variables studied are sharing behaviour, informal groups, open-climate behaviors, autonomous team leader behaviour. Regression results showed that open climate behaviours was causally related to overall collaboration behaviour of PD teams in all boundaries. With respect to collaboration across horizontal boundary, it was found that sharing behaviour, as well as autonomous team leader behaviour influenced them. Across geographical boundary, the open-climate was found causally related. Across value chain boundary sharing behaviour was found to influence collaborative behaviour. It was found that only some variables influence boundary crossing behavior namely, collaborative behavior, the most. These were open climate behaviors, sharing behaviour, and autonomous team leader behaviour. These were labeled direct influencers. The ones that did not show a direct influence were termed as indirect influencers. Since the role of direct influencers was clearly understood, the role of indirect influencers needed further analysis as these were variables selected from literature and expert interviews and expected to have influence on boundary crossing behaviour. Those variables that did not directly enter the regression analysis were further studied tounder stand if they had a relationship with the direct influencers independent of collaborative behaviors. It was assumed that if they did then they may indirectly influence collaborative behaviors. For this the indirect variables were correlated with the direct influencers. The results showed that open-climate was positively correlated with awareness of objectives, PD life cycle and the team’s confidence in time line of the project. Interestingly sharing behavior and autonomous behaviour of the team leader was not correlated with any potentially indirect influencer or variable. This meant that awareness of objectives, PD life cycle and the team’s confidence in time line of the project can influence collaborative behavior indirectly. In the next analysis the role of PD was understood deeper in the context of level of innovation and duration of projects vis-à-vis collaboration. This is specifically done as the poor influence of level of innovation and duration were a surprise since they were expected to have influence on boundary crossing behavior. Teams were classified into low, medium and high innovation level teams. The collaboration behaviour within these teams was then studied. The results showed that there was a pattern in the usage of collaboration behaviour across the different channels. Collaboration behaviour was used most across medium innovation level team as compared to low and high innovation level teams. This was the case of collaboration across horizontal and geographical boundary. In the case of value chain boundary, no such pattern was recognizable. Interestingly it meant that in low and high innovation collaborative behavior was lower and it increased only during medium innovation. Further to this, the influence of collaboration on duration of product developed was studied. The correlation study showed negative relation between the two only for horizontal boundaries. This meant that increase in collaborative behavior across horizontal boundaries result in lesser time taken to develop the product. The last chapter in this thesis describes the conclusions from this study and the managerial implications regarding nurturing and managing boundaries of PD teams.
3

Building Flexibility Into Production Development Terms : Role Of Structural Antecedents On The Efficiency Of The Teams

Prasad, Srikanth Krishna 05 1900 (has links) (PDF)
How to make teams Flexible without sacrificing their Efficiency? This is an important question especially in the context of Product Development (PD) organizations, as they operate in a dynamic environment and are highly team-driven. The answer to this question lies in understanding the role of all individual constituents that contribute to building Team Flexibility. One such constituent is teams’ Structure. This research work examines the role of Structural antecedents in building Flexibility into PD teams. This study considers PD Team Flexibility as a means to deal with both change and uncertainty. A conceptual framework of structural practices was developed to reflect this perspective. An ex-post facto survey based research design with Convenient Sampling technique was adopted for this study. Data was collected from 108 PD teams (both public and private sector) about their current structural practices, complexity of product development activity and their performances. The information collected from these teams was analysed to determine the key factors which would result in building Team Flexibility. The analysis of the data resulted in producing five antecedents. The results from the study suggest that, in general, designing structural practices centered on team ‘Participation and Control’ and ‘Time Bound Formalization’ antecedents helps in simultaneously achieving high Flexibility and Efficiency. The result also hints at the possibility of Large teams achieving both Flexibility and Efficiency with the introduction of appropriate practices designed around these antecedents. A caveat to the above claim is that complexity of PD activity would moderate the effectiveness of these antecedents and hence should be borne in mind before implementing them.
4

ProVIL - Produktentwicklung im virtuellen Ideenlabor [Präsentationsfolien]

Albers, Albert, Bursac, Nikola, Walter, Benjamin, Hahn, Carsten, Schröder, Jan 20 December 2016 (has links) (PDF)
No description available.
5

The Effects of New Product Development Teams on New Product Quality: A Taiwanese-American Comparison

Chang, Tsang-Jung 20 June 2005 (has links)
New product development quality has been found to be a key determinant of the market success and profitability of a new product because of its contribution to superior customer value, the cornerstone of a firm¡¦s competitive advantage in the marketplace. Therefore, enterprises are increasingly utilizing new product development teams for new product development. Previous studies have suggested that the diverse backgrounds of cross-functional team members can increase the amount and variety of information available to design products, thereby improving design process efficiency and product development performance. However, researchers still know very little about how such teams can improve new product quality. Thus, our first research question was; what are the relationships between team characteristics and organization contextual factors and new product quality? In addition, as nationality has been shown to influence individual¡¦s cognitive schema, values, and nonverbal behavior, all of which influence behavior in teams, new product development teams pose a particular type of challenge in different countries. Team-based work designs have been easier to implement in countries with collectivist as opposed to individualist cultures. To address that issue, this study will examine the differences of how team characteristics and contextual influences affect new product quality in collectivist and individualist cultures. Thus, our second research question was; do team characteristics and organization contextual factors affect new product quality differently in collectivist cultures and individualist cultures? Because this was a cross-national research, samples were taken from two countries, one in Taiwan and the other in the U.S.A. We received 184 completed questionnaires from Taiwanese teams, and 176 completed questionnaires from American teams. In order to make sure that the instrument used in this study could measure what it was intended to measure, we used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine the validity of the measurement models of both dependent variables and independent variables. We then used hierarchical moderated regression analysis to test the contingency hypotheses. Research results reveal two different outcomes of hypotheses testing. For Taiwanese teams, new product quality is positively affected by the capability of information integration in the team and quality orientation in the firm, but is negatively influenced by speed-to-market pressure and product innovativeness in the firm. Functional and tenure diversity have a moderate no effect on new product quality. The capability of information integration in a team can also reduce the negative effect of speed-to-market pressure on new product quality. In contrast, for American teams, new product quality is positively affected by functional diversity and the capability of information integration in the team and quality orientation in the firm, but is moderately negatively influenced by supplier involvement in the firm. Customer involvement in a firm can increase the positive effect of the capability of information integration on new product quality. In conclusion, the present study contributes to the literature on new product development teams in several ways. First, it extends research on new product development teams across collectivist and individualist cultures and identifies boundary conditions for theories of new product development teams. Second, this study is the first to empirically examine how team characteristics and organization contextual factors affect new product quality across cultures. Third, it provides a thorough and integrative review of the literature from diverse disciplines such as new product development, organizational behavior, and management and innovation as a means of establishing links among team characteristics, organization contextual factors, and new product quality. Finally, the model we have provided will assist managers in identifying the team characteristics and organization contextual factors needed to assist new product development teams in collectivist and individualist cultures to develop high-quality products. Since these factors can be directly manipulated by managers, they can create the effective conditions, specific to the industry characteristics they are engaged in, for new product development teams to develop high-quality products.
6

The entanglement of culture, leadership and performance in information systems development projects

Geeling, Sharon 07 May 2019 (has links)
Information systems (IS) development represents a significant area of research interest in the IS discipline. Despite this interest, IS development projects consistently fall short in delivering anticipated outcomes within time, quality and cost constraints. Attempts by researchers to uncover contributors to high failure rates are complicated by fragmented views of the nature of the problem. These range from challenges to the validity of performance reports to contesting the conceptualization of success. Furthermore, there is a tendency in practice to address immediate symptomatic problems of IS project failure rather than resolve the fundamental issues. Consequently, recent measures indicate that 48% of IS projects fail to meet time commitments, 33% exceed their budget, 32% don’t achieve their business objectives and 15% fail outright. This PhD thesis presents research to explore and offer explanatory theory of how culture and leadership are implicated in the performance of IS development projects. Importantly, IS development is positioned as a form of social interaction. Thus, an understanding of the social context and the situated meanings that arise through social interaction are necessary conditions to effectively explore this research topic. Within this context the study reveals the performative nature of IS development work and offers explanations for the actions of organizational leaders and IS technical specialists involved in IS development. An interpretive research paradigm and inductive reasoning were adopted for this research and understanding is developed through a hermeneutic mode of inquiry. Two IS projects responsible for delivering strategic benefit to an organization in the financial services sector are the two cases in this study. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, observation and documentary evidence between January 2017 and June 2017. The nature of the relationships between culture, leadership and performance in the course of IS development work was revealed through two analytical iterations. The first iteration used the theory of Cultural Implications in Information Systems Development as a structural framework to support a thematic analysis of the data. A second iteration used frame analysis as a theoretical foundation to examine the interplay of culture, leadership and performance through a within-case and cross-case analysis of the two cases. Key contributions from this research include the development of a conceptual model explaining cultural implications in IS development, the development of an explanatory theory of the entangled nature of culture and leadership and the performance of IS projects, and 11 propositions that offer a basis for testing the emergent theory in future empirical studies. The findings from the research also reveal the performative nature of IS development work and identify concepts important to organizational managers and IS technical specialists. While the theory emerged in the context of IS development projects and the concepts in the emergent theory are central to the practice of IS development, each could be equally relevant to other IS phenomena where culture, leadership and performance are implicated, such as IS management and offshoring. The grounding of theoretical concepts to empirical data enabled the application of the theory to practice; practical guidelines are offered in respect of the influences of culture and leadership on the performance of IS development projects. This research supports the suitability of the Cultural Dynamics Model as a sensitizing lens for data collection in interpretive studies where culture is implicated.
7

Technology stack selection : Guidelines for organisations with multiple development teams

Martinsson, Hugo, Svanqvist, Victor January 2022 (has links)
When starting a new software project, selecting what technology stack to use is one of the most important decisions to make. Selecting a technology stack is a large part of the software architecture design, and the choice of the technology stack is crucial to get right since it can make or break a project and is usually hard and expensive to change in the future. This thesis was conducted to develop guidelines for organisations to use during the technology stack selection process by identifying the essential steps of the technology stack selection process at private sector organisations with multiple development teams that perform in-house development. As well as identifying scenarios where it is reasonable to choose similar technology stacks for different development teams, and scenarios where it is reasonable to select different technology stacks for different development teams. The guidelines aim to help organisations evaluate different solutions and help organisations decide whether it is worth it to choose different technology stacks for different development teams. The guidelines provide the essential steps of technology stack selection, control questions that can be used to evaluate whether a given technology stack would work for an organisation, as well as scenarios where it is reasonable to select similar or different technology stacks for multiple development teams. The guidelines are developed using Design Science Research and semi-structured interviews with software developers, software architects and managers at Husqvarna and other organisations that agreed to participate. The interviews were analysed using thematic content analysis to develop a draft of the guidelines, which was then attached to a survey that was sent out to gather feedback which helped further improve the guidelines and validate that they apply to a broad audience. This thesis does not cover technological aspects of technology stack selection, such as performance or efficiency, nor does it cover programs or tools used to aid the development, like integrated development environments (IDE:s), code-sharing software or team communication tools.
8

Intercultural communication in information systems development teams / M.E. Nhlapo.

Nhlapo, Moleboge Emma January 2013 (has links)
Communication is a critical success factor to information systems development (ISD) projects. Intercultural communication involves two or more people from diverse cultures communication and using different worldviews and context transmit messages to each other. The aim of this study is to gain an understanding on the influence of the intercultural communication on the performance of an ISD team. In order to achieve this aim one needs to understand information systems research and to justify the selection of the chosen research methodology; to understand information systems development and ISD teams; to understand culture and communication; to understand what affects communication has between different cultures; to discover how cultural misunderstandings impact upon ISD team performance and to discover the steps taken to eliminate miscommunication due to cultural issues in organizations. The interpretive research was carried out in several organizations in Gauteng province of South Africa that develop or has a department that develops information systems. A multiple case study using interviews and content analysis as research methods were instrumental in coming to the conclusion of the research. A multicultural dyad conducted interviews in three participating organizations. Diverse information systems development team members participated in this study. The results of the study describe how intercultural communication influences ISD teams in a South African environment. They also provide an understanding on culture and communication. The results of the study also report on culture and personality as determinants of behaviour, and also on different perceptions of culture. The different ISD team dynamics may be affected by team members’ culture and personality. The results also report on intercultural communication in information systems development teams and how it is affected by the different cultural context. / Thesis (MSc (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.
9

Intercultural communication in information systems development teams / M.E. Nhlapo.

Nhlapo, Moleboge Emma January 2013 (has links)
Communication is a critical success factor to information systems development (ISD) projects. Intercultural communication involves two or more people from diverse cultures communication and using different worldviews and context transmit messages to each other. The aim of this study is to gain an understanding on the influence of the intercultural communication on the performance of an ISD team. In order to achieve this aim one needs to understand information systems research and to justify the selection of the chosen research methodology; to understand information systems development and ISD teams; to understand culture and communication; to understand what affects communication has between different cultures; to discover how cultural misunderstandings impact upon ISD team performance and to discover the steps taken to eliminate miscommunication due to cultural issues in organizations. The interpretive research was carried out in several organizations in Gauteng province of South Africa that develop or has a department that develops information systems. A multiple case study using interviews and content analysis as research methods were instrumental in coming to the conclusion of the research. A multicultural dyad conducted interviews in three participating organizations. Diverse information systems development team members participated in this study. The results of the study describe how intercultural communication influences ISD teams in a South African environment. They also provide an understanding on culture and communication. The results of the study also report on culture and personality as determinants of behaviour, and also on different perceptions of culture. The different ISD team dynamics may be affected by team members’ culture and personality. The results also report on intercultural communication in information systems development teams and how it is affected by the different cultural context. / Thesis (MSc (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.
10

ProVIL - Produktentwicklung im virtuellen Ideenlabor [Präsentationsfolien]

Albers, Albert, Bursac, Nikola, Walter, Benjamin, Hahn, Carsten, Schröder, Jan January 2016 (has links)
No description available.

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