In emergent high technology industries, entrepreneurs and their new ventures play a critical role in enhancing economic growth. In these industries, we can easily see some new ventures grow more rapidly to outperform their competitors. However, looking beyond the surface, new ventures’ growth path is idiosyncratic. More specifically, when growing, new ventures pursue different paths in terms of 1) which technologies they develop, 2) which products they make, and 3) what markets they enter. The question that has struck me is why high-tech new ventures differ on these key strategic choices. Building on literature on entrepreneurship, strategy, industry evolution, and network, this dissertation tries to answer this important question by focusing on intra-firm factors, more specifically, the individual and structural attributes of new ventures. Types of founder experience and new ventures’ knowledge structure are examined in depth. My three studies, each presented as a separate essay herein, investigate how individual (i.e. founder experience) and structural attributes (i.e. knowledge structure) affect key strategic choices regarding i) product market scope (Wernerfelt and Montgomery, 1988), ii) technological search scope (Katila and Ahuja, 2002), and iii) the types of new products (Sanchez and Mahoney, 1996; Henderson and Clark, 1990), respectively. In each, I discuss the relevant theories, methodology, data sources, results and implications. By investigating intra-firm factors that trigger different entrepreneurial strategies, my dissertation responds to an important call – micro-foundation of strategy formation – thus filling a key gap in the entrepreneurship literature. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

This dissertation investigates causal factors that lead to implementing a top-down approach to platform product design as well as performance outcomes from such a design. A top-down approach to platform product design requires intentional planning of a new platform-based product design during the new product development process, incorporating a level of modularity into the new design, and planning derivative products based on common subsystems and interfaces. A thorough review of literature was used to build a theory of platform product design founded on risks and benefits. Benefits are that platform design can drive revenue, introduce cost and time efficiencies, lead to more reliable products and offer managerial benefits in the form of adjacencies. Risks include increased costs and time to market for the first product, reduced revenue due to commonality, sub-optimal product design, and increased management complexity during the NPD process. A conceptual model was then developed encompassing antecedents, contributing factors, and market performance measures to implementing a top-down approach to new platform product design. The model was empirically tested in the context of U.S. manufacturing firms using data collected from 249 manufacturing product design managers. Respondents included managers from B2B firms and B2C firms as well as small and large firms. In order to test the model, a new continuous multidimensional measurement scale of top-down platform product design was developed. Results showed that market turbulence, technological turbulence, a product that is new to the market and competitive strategies of differentiation and design for supportability are positively related to platform design. Firm type - B2B versus B2C - and firm size - large firms versus small firms - was found to moderate this relationship. Regarding firm type, products that are new to the market are positively related to platform design for B2C firms, not B2B firms, while a competitive strategy of design for supportability is positively related to platform design for B2B firms, not B2C firms. Regarding firm size, a competitive strategy of design for supportability is positively related to platform design for large firms, not small firms. These findings suggest that an important predictor of top-down platform design is risk or uncertainty. Results also showed that top-down platform product design is positively related to both short term and long term market performance although this relationship is significantly greater for long term market performance. In the short-term, performance as measured by sales and market share was greater than performance as measured by profits. In the long-term, performance measured by sales and profits was greater than performance measured by market share. Organizational support in the form of management buy-in and cross-functional integration partially mediates the relationship between platform design and long term market performance. Finally, strategic flexibility was found to have an inverse relationship with top-down platform down. Firms lacking strategic flexibility were more likely to pursue a top-down platform design. This is in line with findings that suggest top-down platform design is undertaken when uncertainty is high and strategic flexibility is an advantage These findings contradict conventional wisdom in new product development literature and offer a better understanding of why platform design is important in a way that has not been previously defined. / Business Administration/Marketing

Recent years have witnessed a growing concern for the ability of firms to effectively manage their new product innovation in the face of disruptive technological changes, increased global competition, and rising costs of research and development. These concerns notwithstanding, firms are additionally required to launch radical new products to the market, as incremental new products provide their developers with only short-term sales and profitability. In response to these challenges, firms have entered into collaborative alliances to share the risks and costs involved in the new product development (NPD) process and to enhance their product innovation performance. Turning research discoveries into marketable radical new products through collaborative alliances is even more important for relatively small firms operating in technologically intensive industries. Such firms are often underfunded and unable to undertake a full NPD cycle internally due to an inability of assembling the right mix of internal capabilities. The inevitable need to access capabilities from alliance partners may lead some small firms to form collaborative alliances under unfavourable situations, which make alliances prone to failure (70% by some estimates) to reach new product innovation goals. The substantial rate of alliance failure is embedded in a clash between the logic of radical new product innovation management (the need for flexibility between alliance partners), and recommendations for alliance management (the need to determine the responsibilities of each partner from the onset of the alliance). Despite the benefits of alliances in providing required resources, alliances can impose substantial transaction costs to focal small firms. Thus, it is crucial to investigate how firms, particularly small firms, can make a balance between the benefits and costs involved in alliances, to mitigate alliance risks and increase the probability of new product radicalness. In this thesis, I introduce a new typology and demonstrate its application to product performance. The typology categorizes alliance partnerships along two dimensions of partnership timing (the stage of the NPD process during which alliance is formed) and partnership type (the role of alliance partner during the NPD process). I use this this typology to determine the interaction effects of partnership timing and type on the probability of product innovativeness (radicalness). To this end, I rely on insights from Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and Resource Based View of the firm (RBV) theories as well as the absorptive capacity concept to develop testable hypotheses. I use a sample of 230 drugs developed by 85 biotechnology firms in collaborative alliances with 384 alliances in 1982-2016 with universities and research institutes, other biotechnology firms, and pharmaceutical firms formed during discovery, development, and prelaunch stages of the new drug development process. I find that the probability of drug radicalness increases when alliances with universities and research institutes, as well as other biotech firms, are formed during the discovery or development stages of the new drug development. However, results indicate that partnership with pharma firms during the discovery or development stages reduces the likelihood of drug radicalness. During the prelaunch stage, except for negative relation between alliances with other biotech and drug radicalness, results failed to find a significant relationship between university as well as pharmaceutical partnership and drug radicalness. By disintegrating alliances along two dimensions of partnership type and timing, this thesis substantially increases the understanding of the benefits and costs of each partnership type and during each stage of the NPD process. This helps relatively small firms to better understand when and with whom during the process of NPD they need to initiate alliances to increase their likelihood of product radicalness. This thesis also contributes to the current theoretical insights of TCE and RBV theories by considering costs and benefits of each partnership type variant along different stages of the NPD process. Methodologically, instead of focusing on analysis using firm level outcome variables (count number of new products), this thesis turns the unit of analysis to product level (innovativeness of the product) and links each product to its designated alliance attributes (timing and type) to provide more subtle and fine-grained implications. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No / This study contributes to the literature on shareholder value and financialization, which to date has produced few case studies at the individual firm level. We provide a grounded account of management control under financialization, focusing on the apparently dramatic turnaround in performance of one factory, located in the northeast of England (Midco). However, in contrast to some of the more prescriptive accounts of shareholder value implementation, we resist overly simplistic explanations that the turnaround was 'due to' EVA. Instead, we suggest that both the factory's prior experience of change, particularly TQM, plus the presence of economic insecurity facilitated the turnaround. We compare our findings with other relevant studies and suggest that EVA and financialized solutions do not constitute a panacea for struggling organizations. Specifically, a strategy prioritizing new product development may be incompatible with the type of practices introduced by Midco.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how Swedish banks leverage service quality to handle the changed customer expectations shaped by COVID-19-related product development. Due to COVID-19, the digital shift along with product development accelerated resulting in changed customer expectations within the banking sector. The authors acknowledge the gap in the literature regarding what changed customer expectations that arose, which is essential to understand service quality. To reach a conclusion aligned with the purpose that answered the three formulated research questions, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees from the Swedish banking sector. The data was analyzed through a thematic approach allowing the authors to structure and analyze the findings. The findings revealed several changed customer expectations and that banks continuously handle these. It was concluded that service quality permeates the bank's operations, and the focus is directed toward the customer, fulfilling their needs and meeting expectations. Banks leverage service quality by integrating NPD, needs analysis for customer satisfaction, feedback, and exceeding expectations by providing extra services. Due to growing competition, leveraging service quality allows banks to reduce the risk of customers switching to competitors and differentiate.

The ongoing globalization of companies has resulted in a highly competitive business climate where companies have to be cost-effective but still flexible with fast response to customer feedback and present in the international scene. In order to meet the fast paced technological development from the competition and changing demand of the customers, companies focus on creating new products and reducing their time-to-market with an early product launch to gain profits from increased market shares. However, in order to maintain profitability of the new product, it becomes even more important for the company to quickly deploy a full-scale production of the product, also known as the production ramp-up phase. Despite being known as a major cost driver in new product development projects, production ramp-up is a research area which have yet received sparse attention compared to research on product launch and time-to-market in new product development projects. However, with shorter product life-cycles and higher market competition it has resulted in a need to shorten the length of a new product’s ramp-up time without making any trade-off to the cost-effectiveness of the ramp-up project and the end product’s final quality. The study identifies the common problems in volume production of a contract electronics manufacturer and their sources of disturbances from the new product introduction process. It also identifies the factors influencing the new product introduction process at the company and how these factors are connected different sources of disturbances. To identify these findings, a single case study was designed and performed at Orbit One AB, a contract electronics manufacturer with a low-volume production of products. The data collection course was executed in an iterative manner over a period of four months through interviews, observation and internal documentation and was backed up and analyzed with a literature study. The data collection through interviews was carried out in two separate rounds, where the first round of interviews was focused on identifying the common problems in volume production and the second round was focused on the factors influencing the output from the new product introduction process. The discoveries from the interviews were analyzed together with the other sources of collected data to reach a conclusive analysis. The results of the study showed that the most common problems in volume production of the company could be traced to six different sources of disturbances: Product, Production System, Design-Production Interface, Quality, Resource Management, and Personnel. The most common problems could also be summarized as: Problems with manufacturability of product; High variation of process performance, Poor correctness of information, Quality issues with products, and High workload on resources. The factors identified in the findings of the study shows that there are multiple and connected factors which affects the final output of the new product introduction process which corroborates with earlier studies and research in the area of production ramp-up. The study did identify two factors which has not been identified by other ramp-up studies, these were: Lack of organizational project culture and customer flexibility.

This paper concerns about key business process in the production companies, namely, the new product development. The object of this thesis has been to create a tool to estimate the risk of the new product development. To reach this goal, current tools used to deciding the risk must have been explored. As the best tool, appropriate for assessing the risk of new product development has proved the Bayesian Network. This paper explains the construction of the Bayesian network and shows the way how to generate the probabilities in the network to be accurate for the risk estimation. Based on this theoretical knowledge has been built an information system, which estimates the risk of the new products and administer the risks.

I dagens digitala värld har artificiell intelligens (AI) ett omvälvande inflytande som påverkar människors liv och arbete. Företagens användande av AI hittar ständigt nya områden där det förändrar och skapar möjligheter som tidigare varit otänkbara. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur AI kan användas inom nyproduktutveckling (NPD) för små och medelstora företag (SME) för att förbättra effektiviteten i NPD-processen genom att studera möjligheter och hinder för utökad användning samt hur SME kan gå till väga för att applicera AI i NPD-processen. Syftet är baserat på ett fallföretags behov av större kunskap på området inför utökad användning av AI i verksamheten och NPD-processen i synnerhet. En fallstudie har genomförts hos ett projektorganiserat fallföretag specialiserat på NPD och tillhörande kategorin SME med kunder främst inom industrisektorn. Studiens syfte är baserat på fallföretagets behov av större kunskap på området inför utökad användning av AI i verksamheten och NPD-processen i synnerhet. En kvalitativ insamling av empiriskt material har gjorts genom litteraturstudie och genomförande av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultaten har analyserats och diskuterats och lett fram till studiens slutsatser med rekommendationer, så att studiens frågeställningar har besvarats. Fallföretaget använder generativ AI som sökverktyg i dagsläget och vill utöka användningen av AI till NPD-processen, men ser säkerhetsaspekten och avsaknad av AI-anpassad dataskyddsförordning (GDPR) som stora hinder. Studien undersöker valda metoder och verktyg med AI som skulle kunna användas inom NPD för att automatisera och effektivisera processen från idé till färdig produkt. Studiens resultat visar potential till förbättring och effektivisering av NPD-processen med hjälp av AI, men också att oklarheter finns som kan bero på att AI ännu är nytt inom NPD för SME. / In today's digital world, artificial intelligence (AI) has a transformative impact on people's lives and work. Companies' use of AI continuously finds new areas where it transforms and creates opportunities previously unimaginable. This study explores how AI can be used in New Product Development (NPD) for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) to improve efficiency by examining opportunities and obstacles for expanded use, and how SME can apply AI in the NPD process. This aim is based on a case company's need for greater knowledge before expanding the use of AI in its operations, particularly in NPD. A case study was conducted at a project-based company specialized in NPD, categorized as an SME with customers primarily in the industrial sector. The study’s aim is based on the case company's need for greater knowledge before expanding the use of AI in its operations, particularly in NPD. A qualitative collection of empirical material was conducted through a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The results were analysed and discussed, leading to conclusions with recommendations, ensuring that the research questions were answered. The case company currently uses generative AI as a search tool and wishes to extend AI use to the NPD process but identifies security concerns and the lack of an AI-adapted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) solution as significant barriers. The study examines selected methods and AI tools that could be used in NPD to automate and streamline the process from idea to finished product. The results indicate potential improvements and efficiencies in the NPD process with AI, but also highlight uncertainties since AI is still new within NPD for SME.

Innovation requires an ambidextrous knowledge creation strategy, which is defined as the simultaneous pursuit of both exploration and exploitation. A temporal ambidexterity strategy is one in which an organizational unit dynamically balances its investments in exploration and exploitation over time. This thesis provides new insights on various factors which should be considered when developing and executing a temporal ambidexterity strategy. In the Essay 1, I empirically examine the impact of exploration, exploitation and learning from cumulative innovation experience on the likelihood of successfully versus unsuccessfully generating a breakthrough innovation. The data sample, based on patents in the biomedical device industry, is drawn from the National Bureau of Economic Research patents database. I demonstrate three important tenets for developing a theory of temporal ambidexterity. First, I confirm, as conceptually expected, that when pursued independently, exploration and exploitation have opposing variance-generating versus variance-reducing impacts on innovation performance, respectively. Second, I find that when pursued jointly exploration and exploitation have a negative interaction effect on innovation performance. Third, I show that the benefits of ambidexterity accrue in the long-term, as a result of learning from prior failure experience. However, I demonstrate that prior failure experience and exploitation are jointly necessary, but not independently sufficient, for learning from failure to occur. In Essay 2, I introduce a dynamic optimization model of temporal ambidexterity. I examine the optimal sequencing of exploration and exploitation knowledge creation activities throughout the innovation process. I consider how an innovation manager’s optimal dynamic investments in exploration and exploitation are driven by the innovation team’s knowledge creation capabilities and prior innovation experience, and by the manager’s short-term and long-term innovation risk objectives. The results demonstrate the conditions under which various temporal ambidexterity strategies endogenously arise. Finally, in Essay 3, I extend the single firm model introduced in Essay 2, to develop a model of temporal ambidexterity for two firms jointly pursuing knowledge creation and knowledge-sharing under co-opetition. Here, I consider how co-opetition, that is, cooperative knowledge-sharing with a competitor, impacts a firm’s optimal ambidextrous knowledge creation strategy. I consider two-way knowledge sharing, and I assume that each firm freely reveals its knowledge to its competitor, without receiving compensation. The dynamic analytical results contribute to the open questions regarding optimal knowledge-sharing strategies under co-opetition, by demonstrating under what conditions knowledge-sharing with a co-opetitive partner is beneficial. Importantly, I also analytically examine the factors which drive empirically observed alliance dysfunctions, wherein organizations delay knowledge-sharing and withhold information from their alliance partners.

Driven by the highly cyclical nature of their increasingly commoditised product offerings, many capital goods manufacturers are seeing the benefits of delivering services integrated with their core product offerings. Whilst existing research is almost unanimous in advocating the value of a servitization strategy, understanding how these product-service systems (PSSs) can be developed and delivered remains a significant challenge. The closely related PSS field, which has its heritage in the environmental and social science disciplines, is more mature in this area and a number of models have been proposed. The research reported within this thesis contributes to knowledge by investigating whether the approaches to PSS development, reported within the PSS literature, reflects the PSS development practice of servitized manufacturers. More specifically, soft systems methodology was used to explore the delivery of PSSs within the UK railway industry in order to gain an understanding of the implications for developing new PSSs. With this understanding, the existing approaches to PSS development were evaluated with respect to one servitized manufacturer through an in-depth single case study. The findings highlighted a number of significant differences between the practice of the servitized manufacturer and the literature. A survey was used to investigate whether the differences were generalisable to a larger sample of servitized manufacturers. The findings point towards the simplification of the reported phases within PSS development and the inclusion of a number of previously unreported processes and activities. Based on these results a new model of PSS development is proposed to better reflect the practice of servitized manufacturers. The model, consisting of four phases and seventeen processes, was operationalised in the form of a workbook and tested through application. Applying the workbook resulted in the successful creation of a number of new PSS concepts.