This dissertation considered whether new product development practices employed resolved the uncertainty and equivocality in information processing created by external turbulence. With external turbulence coming from more sources and arriving with greater frequency, this wave of change must be addressed to achieve desired project outcomes. Healthcare was the target industry for this research and respondents were selected from members of HIMSS, the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society. Five hundred sixty-three survey responses were collected about completed new product development projects. The aspects of the projects reported included the external turbulence experienced, flexible new product development practices employed, the effectiveness of information processing and the project’s outcomes. The results using all respondents did not show support for the crucial hypothesis that reduction of uncertainty and equivocality in the information processing environment leads to desired new product development outcomes. While the full respondent set did not support the main hypothesis, the subset of projects that were completed during the ramp-up of the Affordable Care Act showed the hypothesized relationship. With the Affordable Care Act ramp-up, there was a wave of change and a high volume of new information generated by external turbulence. Those organizations that were successful used their information processing capabilities to reduce uncertainty and equivocality and address the changes. Their information processing capability combined with flexible product development practices was directly related to positive new product development outcomes. The extreme example of external turbulence that occurred during the Affordable Care Act ramp-up supported the crucial hypothesis about information processing. The research also found that external turbulence is related to the positive use of flexible new product development practices and that use of those practices is directly related to desired new product development outcomes. In the presence of external turbulence, product development teams use flexible new product development practices to achieve desired project outcomes. The major implication from this study is the need by product development teams to consider external turbulence as a factor in all product plans. It was the strongest relationship reported.

Les projets de gestion des processus métiers apparaissent de plus en plus présents dans les préoccupations des décideurs. Ils semblent apporter de nombreux bénéfices, mais ils amènent les organisations à devoir dépasser d'importantes difficultés ; elles devront concilier de nombreuses contraintes, internes – en termes de performance ou de gestion de leurs ressources – ou externes – notamment en termes de contraintes de normalisation et/ou réglementaires –, source d'équivocité pour les acteurs. Notre problématique est alors la suivante : dans une situation fortement équivoque telle que la prise en compte d'une nouvelle norme, quelle méthodologie de management des processus permettrait de mieux concilier les contraintes internes et externes de l'organisation ? Nous proposons de nous appuyer sur un cas original d'adaptation d'une organisation industrielle aux contraintes de normalisation et sur l'étude de la littérature portant sur le management des processus, la création de sens et la théorie de la régulation sociale. Notre objectif est de mettre en évidence les caractéristiques d'un dispositif de management des processus qui puisse répondre à notre questionnement. Nous proposerons et défendrons alors la thèse suivante : les démarches de management des processus trouvent un réel écho auprès des managers car elles sont susceptibles de les aider à créer du sens, grâce aux cadres que leur mise en place suppose et aux interactions qu'elles permettent. / Managers appear to be more and more concerned by business process management projects. Although these systems seem to bring many benefits, organizations are required to overcome major difficulties; by conciliating numerous constraints, both internal –in terms of performance or resource management– and external –particularly in terms of standards, and/or regulation–, a source of equivocality for actors. The issue could be described as following: in a highly equivocal situation such as a new standard integration, which business process management methodology could conciliate better internal and external constraints of the organization? We propose to build on an original case of adaptation of an industrial organization facing standardi-zation constraints and on the study of the literature of business process management, sense-making and social regulation theory. Our aim is to highlight the characteristics of a business process management system that could enable us to answer our questioning. We will there-fore propose and defend the following thesis: business process management appeals to managers because it is likely to help them in sensemaking through its required framework and interactions introduced.

Background: Medical device companies must consider different laws and regulations when developing new products. Not just laws and regulations put on themselves, but also laws and regulations put on the market, including the public sector. New product development consists of what is known as the fuzzy front end (FFE) of innovation, where companies must make ill-defined decisions with limited information. Problem formulation: There is a vast number of studies within the FFE of innovation, many of which focus on what causes the fuzziness, namely uncertainty, complexity and equivocality. There are, however, limited studies focusing on the FFE within the medical device industry, emphasising the public sector. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the FFE of innovation within the Swedish medical device industry, where the public sector is prominent. The aim is also to highlight industry-specific aspects of the whole FFE for medical device companies to consider when commercialising their products to the public sector, which is arguably an even fuzzier market. Method: To be able to answer the research question, this thesis is built upon a qualitative, multiple case study with an abductive approach to theory development. Five interviews were conducted with four different companies within the medical device industry in Sweden., and two interviews were conducted with two different county councils in Sweden. Findings: The main findings of this thesis are that the public sector creates higher amounts of uncertainty and complexity within the medical device industry. Thus, the FFE of innovation is industry-specific and also depends on what type of product is being developed. Equivocality as well is found to have other dimensions within FFE in the Swedish medical device industry. Conclusion: Many aspects of the FFE of innovation from previous studies exist in the medical device industry in Sweden, but the FFE seem to contain higher amounts of each cause of fuzziness.

No description available.

The first phase of new product development (NPD) is today commonly referred to as the Front End (FE) of NPD. The phase has received a decent amount of attention during the recent years, nevertheless insufficient considering its ability to influence a project’s outcome. The phase begins when an idea is born, and ends when a formal meeting decides whether to invest in the idea or not. The investment then leads the project to enter a formal phase. During the FE, a large number of issues occur, which are believed to be the result of deficient processing of information. If the issues are not managed correctly, the NPD procedure will not be efficient. When information is being processed into knowledge, sometimes an uncertain, equivocal, or complex situation arises, which leads to delays, additional costs, and wasted efforts. These information processing problems (IPPs) need to be managed by firms in order to reduce their negative repercussions. Depending on a firm’s perception of the novelty towards a product, the project is considered to be either radical or incremental. Depending on that novelty, it is theorized that the IPPs will have different dispersions, and pose differently significant challenges to the project. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the differences of the significance and dispersion of the IPPs, during the FE, when comparing radical and incremental NPD projects. For this purpose, a case study approach was deemed appropriate. In order to collect data concerning the IPPs, seven case studies were conducted. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, with respondents that possess' an extensive experience from working with NPD within Swedish firms. The data analysis from the seven interviews proved that indeed there is a difference in how the IPPs vary, dependent on whether the project is of a radical or incremental nature. All the IPPs showed higher levels of significance in the FE in radical projects, than in incremental ones. Uncertainty proved to be the IPP that differed the most and therefore possessed the greatest significance difference. This means that differentiated approaches in radical respective incremental projects are needed in order to reduce uncertainty. Equivocality represented the IPP with the least difference in significance, meaning that the FE in radical and incremental projects require rather similar design in how to prevent equivocal problems. By understanding the differences in dispersion and significance, one can create differentiated management approaches during the FE, that fit the level of novelty of the product at hand. For some products, preventive actions must be taken to a larger degree compared to others. By doing so, the lead time of the FE can be shortened as less problems will arise, creating a faster and smoother process. The resources saved could be spent on improving activities, instead of being wasted on repairing unnecessary problems. The study contributes to the research field of NPD by adding newknowledge, aiding the collective effort of increasing firm’s proficiency in how to manage the FE.

Abstract Large engineering projects are executed by a network of heterogeneous organisations. In order to be effective, risk management in large engineering projects needs to take the perspective of the entire project network instead of focusing on risk management practices of single actors. Contextual factors such as complexity of the project network and the challenging institutional environment pose additional challenges to risk management. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the sources of risks in engineering project networks and the role of risk sources in determining risk management practices. The perspective of information processing theory is used. The role of equivocality and uncertainty as organisations’ rationales for processing information is examined to gain new insights into the selection of appropriate risk management practices. Literature introduces relational contracting as a response to the need for collaboration in project networks. In this study collaborative risk management practices in the workshop-type meeting and in the project alliance were studied. A qualitative research method was employed to study the nature of risk sources, the role of risk sources in determining risk management practices and collaborative risk management practices. The results of this study enhance the understanding of the nature of risks in engineering project networks. The current project risk management literature proposes that contextual factors related to technology, organising projects and environment increase uncertainty in projects. This study shows that it is relevant to categorise risk sources based on their contingency factors related to uncertainty (lack of information) and to equivocality (the existence of multiple interpretations). It is shown how risk sources impact the selection of project risk management practices. Collaborative risk management practices of workshop-type meeting and project alliance are depicted. Project-based companies and organisations executing investment projects can benefit from the results of this study. This study can guide managers when developing practices to enhance risk management. This study shows how informal risk management practices should be considered in addition to the traditional formal risk management practices, particularly in cases when projects confront situations of equivocality. / Tiivistelmä Suuria projekteja toteutetaan heterogeenisten organisaatioiden muodostaman projektiverkoston avulla. Projektiverkoston tehokkaaseen riskienhallintaan tarvitaan koko verkoston näkökulma yhden organisaation näkökulman sijaan. Tilannetekijät kuten projektiverkoston monimuotoisuus ja projektin haasteellinen ympäristö asettavat lisää haasteita riskienhallinnalle. Tämän väitöskirjan tavoitteena on lisätä ymmärrystä siitä, mitkä ovat riskien lähteitä projekteissa ja kuinka riskien lähteet vaikuttavat riskienhallintamenetelmien valintaan. Väitöskirjassa on käytetty teoreettisena viitekehyksenä informaation prosessoinnin näkökulmaa. Erityisesti on tutkittu monimerkityksisyyden ja epävarmuuden roolia organisaatioiden perusteena käsitellä informaatiota. Kirjallisuudessa on esitetty luottamukseen perustuva sopiminen vastauksena projektiverkostojen yhteistoiminnallisuuden tarpeelle. Väitöskirjassa on tutkittu yhteistoiminnallisina riskienhallintamuotoina työpajatyyppistä työskentelyä sekä projektiallianssia. Tutkimuksessa on tapaustutkimuksen avulla selvitetty projektien riskien lähteitä, riskien lähteiden roolia riskienhallintamenetelmiä määritettäessä, sekä yhteistoiminnallisia riskienhallintakeinoja. Tutkimuksen löydökset lisäävät ymmärrystä projektien riskien lähteistä. Nykyinen projektin riskienhallintakirjallisuus esittää, että projektien tilannetekijät, jotka liittyvät teknologiaan, projektien organisointiin ja ympäristöön kasvattavat epävarmuutta. Tämä tutkimus osoittaa, että on tärkeää jaotella projektien riskit tilannetekijöittäin. Jaottelu tulee tehdä sen mukaan onko vallitseva tilannetekijä epävarmuus eli tiedon puute vai monimerkityksisyys eli tilanne, jossa on paljon keskenään ristiriitaista tietoa. Tässä tutkimuksessa osoitetaan kuinka riskien lähteet vaikuttavat projektiverkoston riskienhallintamenetelmien valintaan. Lisäksi kuvataan yhteistoiminnallisia riskienhallintamenetelmiä projekteissa. Projektitoimintaa harjoittavat yritykset sekä investointiprojekteja tekevät organisaatiot voivat hyödyntää tämän tutkimuksen tuloksia. Tutkimuksen tulokset ohjaavat riskienhallintamenetelmien muokkaamista erilaiset tilannetekijät huomioon ottaen. Tämä tutkimus osoittaa, kuinka epämuodollisia riskienhallintamenetelmiä tulisi suosia perinteisten muodollisten menetelmien ohessa erityisesti tilanteissa, joissa monimerkityksisyys on vallitseva tilannetekijä.