No description available.

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.

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.

No description available.

This research investigates three approaches to new product sales forecasting: statistical, judgmental and the integration of these two approaches. The aim of the research is to find a simple, easy-to-use, low cost and accurate tool which can be used by managers to forecast the sales of new products. A review of the literature suggested that the Bass diffusion model was an appropriate statistical method for new product sales forecasting. For the judgmental approach, after considering different methods and constraints, such as bias, complexity, lack of accuracy, high cost and time involvement, the Delphi method was identified from the literature as a method, which has the potential to mitigate bias and produces accurate predictions at a low cost in a relatively short time. However, the literature also revealed that neither of the methods: statistical or judgmental, can be guaranteed to give the best forecasts independently, and a combination of them is the often best approach to obtaining the most accurate predictions. The study aims to compare these three approaches by applying them to actual sales data. To forecast the sales of new products, the Bass diffusion model was fitted to the sales history of similar (analogous) products that had been launched in the past and the resulting model was used to produce forecasts for the new products at the time of their launch. These forecasts were compared with forecasts produced through the Delphi method and also through a combination of statistical and judgmental methods. All results were also compared to the benchmark levels of accuracy, based on previous research and forecasts based on various combinations of the analogous products’ historic sales data. Although no statistically significant difference was found in the accuracy of forecasts, produced by the three approaches, the results were more accurate than those obtained using parameters suggested by previous researchers. The limitations of the research are discussed at the end of the thesis, together with suggestions for future research.

Firms frequently use brand extension strategies to enter new product categories. Another type of entry strategy is co-branding by effectively exploiting the equity of both constituent brands. Co-branding may effectively drive consumer preferences if consumers believe the combination of two brands offers a better solution than either one separately. However, there is also the risk that consumers may get confused with the combination, or have perceptions of strengths regarding one of the brands diluted, leading to the failure of this strategy. While much has been written on brand-category extension, despite its prevalence, the use of co-brands to enter a new category has attracted relatively little attention. In this study, the author models the effects on consumer perceptions and preferences of combining two brand names for a new product. The proposed model provides a mechanism to represent how consumers’ prior attribute beliefs about constituent brands, the extendibility of the brands into the extension category, the compatibility between the constituent brands, and the uncertainty associated with them can jointly determine their preferences for the co-branded product. The contribution that this model enables is a means to study co-branding and new category entry simultaneously, by assessing the drivers of consumer preference for a co-brand in a new product category. An empirical study is designed to test the model, using real brands and hypothetical extensions and co-brands. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications of this study are discussed.

The first essay studies the channel relationship between the reseller and the manufacturer based on a social network theory framework. We propose a conceptual model that approaches this topic from a relational embeddedness perspective. Our analysis shows how the reseller can strategically develop relational ties with a manufacturer that transform the latters common marketing mix into unique resources that enhance the resellers own profit. Results from a large scale survey of beer resellers in a local Chinese market suggest that in a channel setting, social norms (e.g. communication effectiveness and conflict resolution) and social relations influence the resellers access to the manufacturers valuable resources. Furthermore, we find that over embeddedness affects the resellers profit in a non-linear manner. That is, a resellers effort to develop a relationship with a particular manufacturer may generate information that lacks freshness, objectivity or usefulness, thereby diminishing the resellers profitability. Theory of social contagion states that individuals adoption of new product depends on the adoption of his immediate neighbors in a social network in addition to the influence from other sources. This research models the dynamic diffusion process of new drug in a social network of physicians. We simulated the information transmission process in a social network, where each network entity repetitively influences the probability of connected entitys new product adoption. The simulation approach integrates two seemingly contradictive concepts of cohesion and structural equivalence into a single modeling framework. Besides, it incorporates a coefficient that describes an individual entitys efficiency of information transmission. On the one extreme it assumes that information transmits to only one of the network neighbors and on the other extreme it assumes that information transmits to all of the network neighbors. We revisited Medical Innovation data and empirically find an optimum point for each of the four cities in this data set, using a discrete time hazard model. The four cities demonstrate different patterns of information transmission. Managerially, we suggest different ways of pinpointing initial adopters in different types of social networks. / Marketing

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.