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Businesses within the physical product domain seek to transform the way they manage new product development, through more flexible approaches. Traditionally, this was done through a fixed approach, characterized by linear and rigid workflow. In this context, however, a complete transition over to a flexible approach, characterized by iterative workflow and adaptability, is not feasible in most cases. To increase flexibility more suitably, hybrid approaches emerged, which combine elements from fixed- and flexible project management approaches. Existing literature lacks in the area of suitability assessment for when and how to combine these two approaches. Therefore, this exploratory study set out to identify factors that affect the suitability of any of the three approaches, fixed, flexible, or hybrid. The thesis took a qualitative approach, collecting data from semi-structured interviews and company documents. Interviewees included project managers and developers. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings revealed a total of 19 relevant factors within four primary areas, Communication & Engagement, Knowledge & Principles, Contextual Constraints, and Risk & Change Management. Stakeholder- and Team Communication and engagement were shown to be highly influential and recurrent factors. The practical contributions of the thesis aim towards increasing the assessment capabilities amongst managers, trying to determine the suitability of any particular project management approach. By evaluating the factors, conditions regarding the characteristics of a project can be established and more appropriate management approaches can be adopted. / Tillverkande organisationer inom den fysiska produkt-domänen som strävar efter att förbättra sättet de hanterar utvecklingen av nya produkter, kan vända sig till flexibla metodiker. Traditionellt sett gjordes detta genom mer fasta metodiker som kännetecknas av linjära och stela arbetsflöden. I denna kontext är det oftast inte optimalt att helt övergå till ett flexibelt arbetssätt, som kännetecknas av iterativa arbetsflöden. För att öka flexibiliteten på ett mer lämpligt sätt har hybrida metoder utvecklats, vilket kombinerar element från både fasta och flexibla projektledningsmetoder. Den befintliga litteraturen brister när det kommer till lämplighetsbedömning för när och hur organisationer ska kombinera dessa två. Därför syftar denna explorativa studie till att identifiera faktorer som påverkar lämpligheten för någon av de tre arbetssätten: fast, flexibel eller hybrid. Studien använde sig av en kvalitativ forskningsmetodik och samlade in data genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och företagsdokument. Intervjupersonerna inkluderade projektledare och utvecklare inom studierelevanta områden. Analys av samtlig data skedde genom metoden Tematisk analys. Resultaten visade på totalt 19 relevanta faktorer inom fyra huvudsakliga områden: Kommunikation & Engagemang, Kunskap & Principer, Kontextuella Begränsningar samt Risk- & Förändringshantering. Intressent- och Team Kommunikation & Engagemang visade sig vara mycket påverkande och återkommande faktorer. Studiens praktiska bidrag syftar till att öka förmågan hos företagsledare att bedöma lämpligheten hos en specifik projektledningsmetod. Genom att utvärdera faktorerna kan förhållanden gällande ett projekts karaktärsdrag fastställas och mer lämpliga projektledningsmetoder tillämpas.

Purpose - This research contributes to the new product development conversation by investigating different firms’ new product development processes in volatile contexts, to better understand the way Cross-Functional Integration impacts internal efficiency. Method - We conducted a qualitative study and interviewed product managers and product owners responsible for the development of digital products.  Findings - Our main contribution lies in examining different structures and their viability in volatile contexts. Our findings bring nuances to prior research that indicate appropriate ways of implementing cross-functional integration. We found that the team structure could be determined by the availability of resources and the size of the firm, and not solely depend on the nature of the context.  Originality - The study provides a different view on internal efficiency where the managers emphasize product superiority and development time as priority and factors for increased new product development performance. Consequently, development cost is not as prioritized as indicated in previous research and seems to be left out as an objective, which we conclude may stem from the digital nature of the product.

在全球化的趨勢下，產品的生命週期縮短、競爭也越來越激烈，各企業面對新產品的開發、新技術的發展及商業化速度的要求比以前更高。為了有效的開發新產品，為企業創造高額之利潤，強化企業競爭力，企業必須能夠在最短的時間內整合組織資源（例如行銷、研發與製造等核心能力），成為最有效率的公司。尤其，面對快速變化的動態環境之下，企業應以全球性的市場需求及標準，執行全球化的新產品開發流程與組織架構。 　　本研究從行銷與創新研發的整合，來探討新產品開發時有哪些成功關鍵因素，例如應該建立何種的流程與機制，可以快速有效的開發新產品，成功達到商品化的目的;行銷人員如何針對市場的需要，客戶的需求作市場調查，以確認、掌握機會；何種的組織創新平台，可以讓研發團隊能快速開發新產品，可以有效整合行銷與研發團隊，發揮組織之最大綜效。本研究主要在探討以下四項新產品開發時的重要問題，期望能提供給企業界一些具體之建議與做法。 　　1. 企業應採取何種新產品開發策略，才能快速有效的發展出新產品，並成功的商品化上市？ 　　2. 如何建立卓越的新產品開發流程，迅速成功的開發新產品？ 　　3. 新產品開發團隊中，行銷與研發團隊人員應如何有效整合？領導者如何發揮領導與溝通的角色？ 　　4. 哪些績效評估之機制與參考指標，可促進新產品開發之績效？ 　　本研究整理過去相關的新產品開發文獻與從四個個案之研究與分析中，可以從策略面、流程面、團隊領導溝通面與工具面，就新產品開發與行銷與研發之整合，發展出以下幾項之研究結論： 　　策略面： 　　1. 企業在規劃新產品開發策略時，應該採取新產品線與產品改良等同步進行的開發策略。 　　2. 為了加速新產品的開發，公司應同時採取內部自行研發與外部研發中心建立策略聯盟的合作方式。 　　流程面： 　　1. 明確的新產品開發流程，工作職掌分明，流程標準化，並以正式文件描述之，可以加速新產品開發的速度且成功地完成商品化與上市。 　　2. 完善的前置作業，作好初步市場調查與技術評估，可以提前完成新產品的定義，如此可以有助於新產品開發的成功。 　　3. 行銷人員提早介入、接觸市場，深入了解顧客之需求，將客戶的需求充分反映給專案小組，如此有助於新產品的開發成功。 　　4. 行銷人員與研發團隊應該更接近市場，以便能快速因應客戶的需求，迅速作回應，也可以提昇新產品開發的績效。 　　團隊領導溝通面： 　　1. 在高度不確定性、產品生命週期短的高科技產業裡，行銷與研發團隊的有效整合，對於新產品開發扮演重要的成功關鍵因素。 　　2. 跨功能團隊組織的建立及良好運作模式，可以快速因應市場與客戶需求，進而提高新產品與服務的品質。 　　3. 透過完善的溝通協調機制，可以有效解決團隊成員間的衝突。定期的會議，面對面會談，視訊會議，電話討論等都是很好的溝通機制。 　　4. 充份信任，授權的組織文化能夠讓新產品開發團隊成員發揮其最大潛能，也能提昇新產品開發績效。 　　5. 專案領導人的有效領導，激勵團隊成員充份發揮其潛能，產品成功率可以提昇。 　　6. 領導者彈性因應市場之需求，做好資源的有效分配與運用，並作好橫向溝通與協調，可以適時有效的發揮組織的功用，持續開發出新產品。 　　7. 領導者在團隊中，應該扮演教練的角色，也扮演守門員(Gate Keeper)之角色，協助團隊成員專注在重要的專案計劃，率先成功開發新產品。 　　8. 提供激發創意的環境與團隊氣氛，有助於新產品開發成功。 　　工具面： 　　1. 良好的績效評估制度與獎勵措施有助於行銷與研發的整合。 　　2. 明確而客觀的績效評估指標，例如，市場佔有率、產品獲利率、業績成長率，可以激勵團隊士氣，也有助於新產品開發成功。 　　3. 以網路系統、電子郵件作為知識分享、雙向溝通的工具。 / Under the trend of globalization, product’s life cycle turns shorter with severe level of competition. Thereby, the development in new product and technology as well as product commercialization are more important than ever for enterprises today. Only the ones with the capability to efficiently integrate resources in dynamic market are able to harvest remarkable profits and strengthen market competitiveness. Especially under the dynamic changing environments, enterprises should utilize the global market needs and standard as its foundation to execute new product developments and organization structure. 　　This thesis is to study the key success factors of new product development under the integration between marketing and research & development (R&D) teams. For example, what is the most effective process for new product development and commercialization? How to acquire business opportunity from accurate analysis of market demand? What kind of organizational platform enables R&D team to develop new product in timely manner? The thesis will focus on the following four questions of new product development, and is aimed to provide practical advices for enterprises in general. 　　1. What is the most effective strategy for new product development and commercialization? 　　2. How to establish distinct workstation for new product development? 　　3. How to effectively integrate marketing and R&D teams? What role should the leader play? 　　4. What kind of evaluation and reference enhance the performance of new product development? 　　With relevant documents and four case studies, the thesis concludes the research in four aspects, namely Strategy, Process, Leadership & Communication and Techniques. 　　Strategy Aspect: 　　1. New product development and reformation of existing product line should be undertaken simultaneously. 　　2. To expedite new product development, enterprise is recommended to form the strategic alliance between its own team and other R&D force externally. 　　Process Aspect: 　　1. Clear job description and standardized process accelerate new product development and leads to successful product launch and commercialization. 　　2. Impeccable marketing research and analysis allows enterprise to define new product’s market position at the initial stage. 　　3. Early study and approach of market demand and customer requirements enables the project team to penetrate the market precisely. 　　4. Both marketing and R&D teams should be familiar with market situation, providing timely services to meet customer’s needs. 　　Leadership & Communication Aspect: 　　1. Effective integration between marketing and R&D teams plays an important role for industries with dynamic environment, short product life cycle such as high-tech industry. 　　2. The development of cross functional teams and nice operation model at product development stage can proactively response to customer’s requirements and is able to improve the product and service quality 　　3. Periodical meetings and communication can effectively break conflicts among the teams. 　　4. Adequate trust and authorization allows team members to educe their potential for better performance. 　　5. Efficient leadership to inspire team members for the maximum potential and results is the key to the success of the new product development. 　　6. With good resource managements and horizontal communication & coordination, a flexible project leader could optimize its organizational function to continuously develop new products according to market demand. 　　7. A good leader acts as Coach as well as Gate Keeper to support team members to focus on the priority of new product development efficiently. 　　8. Providing innovative and harmonious working environments could expedite the success of the new product development. 　　Technique Aspect: 　　1. Fair performance appraisal and incentive policy enhance the integration of marketing and R&D teams. 　　2. The clear defined performance indicators such as market share, number of new projects, profit rate, sales growth rate are important to motivate the team members to dedicate on the project. 　　3. The web site, intranet, e- mail, e- learning are good tools for knowledge management and experience sharing that helps to a better communication and integration between marketing and R&D teams.

由於資訊科技的發達，使全球資訊的分享加速，一方面使得企業創新的刺激源源不絕，另一方面也使得消費者的需求慾望越來越廣，造成產品生命週期不斷縮短，在現今的環境下，企業若要長久經營甚至維持成長，就必需積極從事創新之新產品開發。雖說新產品或技術的創新對企業的貢獻相當大，但研發專案往往存在高度不確定性且耗時耗力，一旦專案失敗，亦會對企業造成相當程度的傷害，導致許多企業望之卻步。因此，1960年代初期，Mansfield(1968)等學者開始從事研發支出費用與產業或公司生產力相關性的研究。其後，由於財報資料取得的方便性與客觀性，加上個別研發專案的效益較難追蹤、亦難以評估，大多數研發投入與研發績效相關的研究，首先，在變數上都是以財報上的財務數字為基礎，如研發費用、研發密度、公司獲利、營收等；其次，在研究個體上則是以企業整體為主。然而，過去許多研發投入與績效相關之研究，不論在投入面或效益面皆提出了許多非財務性的項目，此外，在現今即將邁入第四代研發管理的環境下，組織企業的研究發展工作多以「專案」的方式來進行，而非以年度企業整體預算進行管理。綜合上述兩點過去此類研究與實務上之落差，本研究採用經濟部工業局「主導性新產品開發計劃」之計劃成效追蹤問卷資料，以個別研發專案為研究對象，並將投入面擴大區分為成本、人力、時間三個構面，探討研發專案投入對非財務面之技術產出及財務績效之影響，期能彌補過去此類研究與實務上之落差。 本研究依照研發專案投入所產生之非財務與財務績效構面，分成兩大研究主題，研究結果顯示： 一、研發專案投入對技術產出之影響：專案投資金額對專利權與創新技術數有顯著正向的影響，專案研發人員之教育程度只對創新技術數有顯著正向之影響，研發時間與專案技術產出皆無顯著相關。 二、研發專案投入對財務產出之影響及其遞延效果：專案投資金額與專案研發人員之教育程度對開發產品銷售額具有顯著之正向影響，且從產品銷售第一年起，沒有時間上的落差，且專案投資金額之影響可延續三年，專案研發人員之教育程度之影響可延續兩年，研發時間與開發產品銷售額無顯著相關。 此外，吾人並針對實證結果與實務界人士進行訪談，瞭解與假說不符者之原因，結果發現：專案研發時間較長，不完全是因為企業願意投入較多的心力，有很大的可能是研發瓶頸的發生與研發人員的不效率，這些部份不但對專案產出沒有顯著貢獻，還可能危害專案的成功。 / As a result of the progression of information technology, the speed of information sharing is getting higher and higher. On one hand it makes companies get the stimulation of innovation more easily than before, on the other it also makes the desire of customers becomes wider and wider. Thus, the life cycles of all products in the world then become shorter and shorter. In this environment, companies who want to survive or even get growth have to do their development and research activities more aggressively than before. Although the benefits of R&D is great, lots of companies still shrink back at the sight. That’s because of the high uncertainty of R&D and the needs of huge amount of time and money, and companies always get incredible harm once they fail. Therefore, many researchers have tried to clarify the relationship between R&D inputs and R&D performance. Due to the accessibility and objectivity of financial report, the past researches in this field always used the information from financial reports, and set their research objects as the whole companies. But many researchers have pointed out that there are not only financial inputs and outputs of R&D activities but also non-financial ones. In the global trend to 4th generation of R&D management, R&D organizations have changed their management way form total budgeting to project management. To eliminate these two gaps between theory and practice, in this research we use the questionnaire data of Leading Product Development Programs from Industrial Development Bureau Ministry of Economic Affairs to make our research stand on a project view point and get other non-financial inputs and outputs data that we can’t get from financial reports. Hope we can earn more practical results to help companies making their decisions of R&D activities. According to the two perspectives of R&D project performances, non-financial and financial, we separated this research into two subjects, the results showed that: 1. The effects of R&D project inputs on technical outputs: we found that the project dollar investment has significant effect on the number of patents and innovative techniques, and the education degree of the project’s R&D engineers only has significant effect on innovative techniques but on patents. On the other hand, R&D time of the project has no significant effect on both patents and innovative techniques. 2. The effects of R&D project inputs on financial performance, their time-lag effect and their continuity: we found that project dollar investment has significant effect on sales of the product that developed from the project since the first year it was sold, which means the time-lag doesn’t exist in this situation, and this effect can last for three years or even more. The education degree of the project’s R&D engineers has significant effect on sales of the product that developed from the project, from the first year it was sold. So, there is no time-lag, but this effect can only last two years. Besides, R&D time of the project has no significant effect on any year’s sales of the product that developed from the project. Finally, we have interviewed some practitioners discussing about our results that were not consistent with our hypotheses. According to their opinions, the reason why some projects spend longer R&D time is not just because those companies intend to pay more effort on those projects. It also includes the inefficiency of R&D engineer and the bottleneck of that project. These inefficiency and bottlenecks are not only non-value-added but also sometimes harmful to a R&D project. That’s why we found in this research that there is no significant relationship between R&D time of a project and its performances, neither financial performances nor non-financial ones.

從1G、2G到3G，行動通訊技術快速發展，以往單純的語音通訊服務，逐漸演變至資料傳輸、多媒體應用，行動服務日趨多元，「內容」在行動通訊服務中所扮演的角色愈加重要。是故，電信業者無不積極發展內容相關商品。然而，這類產品的開發往往牽涉到不同領域的專業（如美工、音樂、文化創意、科技、社會、政治等），因此，吾人可以預期這些廠商勢必需要藉用大量的外部資源才能適時地推出內容商品。 在目前的行動內容服務當中，由於手機鈴聲能彰顯與眾不同的個人特色，且越來越多手機支援播放數位音樂的功能，因此，行動音樂一直以來都是最受消費者歡迎的行動加值服務，也是各家電信業者除了語音通訊之外最大的營收來源之一。然而，過去的研究重點往往著重在電信產業相關業者發展策略、關鍵成功因素等策略層面的探討，對於行動加值服務新產品開發實務歷程的研究則較少著墨。故本研究針對我國電信業者行動加值服務的「新產品發展」進行研究，以行動音樂商品為例，試圖以較為整體性的架構，探討其新產品發展之相關議題，期能對於「外部導向的產品創新管理」方面，提供一些實務上與學理上的貢獻。 本研究之研究問題有四：1.我國電信業者發展行動加值服務的策略性資源為何？2.我國電信業者在行動加值服務發展過程當中的價值網絡為何？3.我國電信業者開發行動加值服務過程中，運用內外部資源的機制為何？4.我國電信業者行動加值服務的新產品策略與開發流程為何？ 透過深度訪談電信業者，並配合相關次級資料蒐集與整理，進行彙整及分析之後，本研究獲得以下之主要結論：1.就策略性資源而言，電信業者掌握行動音樂服務之通路。2.電信業者建構之策略性資源與原有資源具有相關性。3.就新產品發展策略而言，行動音樂發展重點仍在於「強化現有行動用戶忠誠度」。4.電信業者委外動機與型態會影響其新產品發展。 / From 1G, 2G to 3G, the technology of telecommunication developed rapidly. The voice communication service gradually evolved towards the data transmission and the multimedia application and the mobile content services become much more important and diversified than before. Accordingly, tele-operators develop content products actively. However, the development of these products involves with many kinds of knowledge, such as fine art, music, programming, etc. Thus, we would expect that the enterprises have to utilize external resources to develop products timely. Because many cell phones provide functions of digital music and ring tones can show forth users’ characteristics, therefore, the mobile music becomes one of the most popular service product. However, most of the past studies focused on strategy rather than new product development. Thus, we focus on the new product development of mobile value-added services in the research. The study aims to investigate the questions: 1. What are the strategic resources for developing mobile value-added services? 2. What is the value network to develop mobile value-added services? 3. What is the mechanism of utilizing external resources in the process of new product development? 4. What are the new product strategy and process of developing mobile value-added services? The study takes mobile music as an example to explore how tele-operators can accumulate enterprise resources and better utilize external resources for developing value-added services. This study applies the deep interview method of qualitative research and secondary data analysis to study tele-operators in Taiwan. The preliminary research findings include: 1.The major marketing purpose of tele-operators’ developing mobile music is to reinforce the loyalty of existing customers. 2. What tele-operators dominate in the mobile music business is the channel. 3. The new strategic resources which the tele-operators build in the mobile music business is highly related to those existed before. 4. What motivates tele-operators to outsource will affect their ways of new product development.

在全球化經濟趨勢下，企業不只可以更廣泛的應用全世界的資源，相對的也必須迎接來自全世界的挑戰。統一企業是台灣傳統企業的代表，在台灣扎根、茁壯並成長，至今已超過40年歷史，其發展也由最初的創業草創期，歷經茁壯期、集團化與國際化時期，發展到今日的全球化時期。在成長的歷程中，面對外部經濟結構以及市場環境的變遷，不只在技術構面上逐漸由技術導向轉變為市場導向，其內部組織架構的整合，也因應著外部環境同步的在調整。 本研究首先將由企業的階段性發展，分析在不同時期下研發單位與事業單位組織架構的演進。再進一步以新產品開發流程及品類管理，探討在食品業這一個快速消費品產業中，面對外部環境變動，消費者需求千奇百怪、日新月異的市場條件下，新產品開發自第三階段－集團化時期，至現今第五階段－全球化時期的階段性轉變。最後以同步工程的概念，討論在新產品開發流程中，最重要的兩個階段－事業單位主導的企劃流程，以及研發單位負責的開發流程之間的互動方式和頻率。 透過本研究討論分析後，可以清楚台灣食品產業隨著外部經濟發展與市場環境變化下的階段性發展歷程，透析在新產品開發流程上的演進、轉變與調整，同時了解研發單位和事業單位之間的互動溝通方式。提供成長中的快速消費品產業中企業，或是同樣面臨市場飽和與消費者需求變化迅速之產業，一個如何因應外部快速變遷的管理方式，以及如何學習並加以改善的新產品開發流程與組織內互動機制。 / Under global economic conditions, corporations could make use of the resources all around the world, but they also have to face the challenges from competitors worldwide. Uni-President is the largest food industry corporation of Taiwan, and it has developed over 40 years, from foundation period, growing period, bloc period, international period to global network period. In the developing process, the technology dimension changes from the technology-oriented approach to the market-oriented approach because of the transformation of external economic structure and marketing environment. of the R&D unit and business unit in different period. And then discuss the periodic transformation from bloc period to global network period with NPD（new product development）process and category management. At the end, discuss the interaction way of planning which the business unit is responsible for and development which the R&D unit is responsible for, the most important stages of NPD process, with concurrent engineering concept. The periodic development of Taiwanese food industry with the external transformations can be clearly understood through this research analysis. The reader could not only realize the evolution, shift and adjustment of NPD process but also the communication way of R&D department and business department, providing a management mode for developing fast moving consumer goods industry that faces pressures from marketing and customer.

新產品開發是一個資源組合的過程。創新產品的設計與推出，不僅攸關廠商參與市場競爭的機會，更影響其未來生存發展的空間。在過去相關研究中，較側重於探討市場面的商品效果，強調功能、介面設計，以及樣式美觀等因素，也因此忽略了開發過程中資源取用的「成本」問題。雖有部分研究試圖以資源基礎觀點探討廠商能耐與產品開發績效之間的關係，卻僅圍繞在檢視資源的「組合效率」與「組合效果」，如加速開發流程、提升生產速度，以及提高產品的品質與績效。 然而，創新產品具有「推陳出新」的特質，即強調資源的重組與新組合的實現(Schumpeter, 1912)。不過，關於資源的組合論述，卻過於籠統，並未觸及組合的建構內涵，也甚少探討投入組合的單一素材，其多重應用的可能性，亦即「資源發明」的議題。因此，本研究以人類學家Lévi-Strauss(1966)提出的拼湊(bricolage)概念，探討開發創新商品的資源拼湊與價值實現，以填補資源基礎觀點的不足。 本研究採取質性與量化並行的研究策略。針對創新產品的發展歷程實施以敘述生命故事、回溯創作史為核心的敘事研究，透過先導個案澄清分析架構，爾後進行驗證式個案研究及量化研究，使變數的衡量與關係的驗證，得以在第二階段實施。 研究發現，資源在創新商品的開發活動中扮演關鍵角色，廠商若取用成本較低的一般性資源，不僅有助於降低「資源組合成本」，也較能快速啟動資源重組活動。此外，較為豐厚的資源初始狀態，也可在開發創新商品時，增加重複進行多次實驗的機會，透過不斷地資源重組、摸索元素之間的連結關係，以促進學習效果，並累積「工多藝熟」的能耐，進而堅實組合的結構與秩序。 另一方面，一般性資源通常被視為無用或毫無價值，因此必須能賦予資源新生命，進而與其他元素重新組合，才能創造「無中生有」、超越資源既有價值水準的創新商品。而發現資源多重應用的基礎，即為拼湊能力的建立，代表對資源特質的觀察力、區辨性、重新連結能力、實作以及學習能力。 從理論上而言，本研究探討萌芽階段的創意團隊，藉由拼湊一般性資源而點燃創新能量並實現價值的關鍵因素，不僅擴展資源基礎觀點的適用性，亦開啟「新資源基礎觀點」之理論面向。在實務上，本研究透過系統性地觀察及分析小型創新商品的開發活動，彰顯拼湊能力的重要性。而對於有意願投入或開發創新商品的團隊，本研究亦提供一個資源取用的整體性架構與創意思考的空間。

Product markets have been found to be socially constructed as industry logics, product ontologies and organising visions. Information intermediaries play an important field-level role in determining the categories and ontologies of emerging products. Within shared cognitive structures, sellers and buyers come together in mutual understandings on how products are used, what features are important and what counts as value. Although market information is often legitimated through objective scientific methodologies, it can also appear as uncertain knowledge, or rumour. Contrary to the often seen conception of rumour as crowd-like behavioural contagion, it is presented here as an informal message lacking a reliable sponsor that is developed in an uncertain situation, but still may be subject to critical reasoning. This thesis investigates the ambiguity around the fuzzy front-end of product markets, as social media and blogs that trade in rumour and proposition before any official announcement by firms. Through a process of improvised news, these online collectivities, as product publics, deliberate and collectively generate expectations as meaning structures. By tracking discourse from tech blogs, I trace the emergence of meaning in the tablet device product ontology. This occurred well before product introductions by firms who eventually came to form the market.

The thesis work aimed at developing a framework for portfolio management and business case development that can be used as decision support for a company for new product development. The assignment was to study relevant literature resulting in an aggregated view on this topic and the parameters that impact successful product development. The literature involves project initiation, different levels of product innovation development and information about important research criteria to include when forming new product projects ideas. This information helps to support how to objectively evaluate and compare product projects. The literature also involves different relevant tools to use for providing information and manage product portfolio management along with their benefits. Out of this aggregated view, a template and suggested decision model specific for the company has been established. The resulting template has for purpose to be used for preparation of providing a solid information base when a new product project idea is to be presented. The decision base has the purpose to help the members and managers in the product council to form a decision on what product idea to proceed with, which hopefully will result into launch and success. The framework aims to assess individual product development initiatives as well as managing the product portfolio aspect. Except the study of a considerable amount of literature, qualitative research has been made as well. The qualitative research has been performed in the form of semi-structured interviews together with people within the company that has been used as case study in this report. The interviews contributes with information about the current state of the company’s product offering process together with attention paid for what is missing and what improvements that is sought. In such way, the qualitative research contribute to the result of the framework in the sense that it is attributed towards the company in the case study and thus slightly towards technological network industries, although the framework is made for a generic use. As by this thesis, the framework focus on one company, but it has for purpose to be adaptable and inspiring for any company with respect for the individual company’s restrictions.