The impact of the frequency of usage of IT artifacts on predevelopment performance in the NPD process
Introduction
The new product development (NPD) process and its management have become increasingly complex and time critical [1]. Nambisan [56], [61] argues that the rapid infusion of information technology (IT) artifacts will have a significant influence on the management and outcomes of NPD. Specifically, he suggests that IT-enabled innovation processes are active rather than passive, and they will foster an improved analysis of data, enable more efficient communication and efficient problem solving, and achieve higher levels of integration than previously possible [56], [61]. Further, IT-enabled innovation will make an organization more flexible and responsive [46], [61], [77].
There are two perspectives for approaching IT artifacts: attributes and functions. While the attributes of IT perspective focus on the components of the artifact, including hardware and software, the functional perspective focuses on what the artifact does, such as enabling communication, collaboration, coordination, and networking. This paper studies the functional perspective and focuses on the predevelopment stage of NPD.1
The predevelopment stage, also known as the “front end of innovation”, has been acknowledged as critical in the NPD process and linked strongly to the overall project and market success of new products [8], [24]. This stage is often complicated and iterative [18], with project team members requiring constant communication and feedback on ideas and concepts, and often requiring collaboration of functions in order to shape these ideas and concepts for development [24]. Diverse functional areas such as marketing and sales, manufacturing, design, and engineering work cooperatively, share information, and jointly determine the requirements for product development [6], [15]. Moreover, the predevelopment stage may also involve communication and collaboration with external partners such as suppliers, distributors, and customers [15]. Thus, varied types of IT resources and capabilities that facilitate information sharing and problem solving among core and extended team members are likely to be useful.
In this study, we focus on the functions of two categories of IT artifacts used in the predevelopment stage: general purpose and collaborative. General-purpose artifacts include e-mail, desktop tools, and shared files and drives. Collaborative artifacts consist of social networking sites, blogs and micro-blogs, virtual simulation applications, wikis, requirements management (RM) software, dedicated intranet sites, product lifecycle management (PLM) applications, cloud-based file sharing, video conferencing, and dedicated open innovation applications. General-purpose artifacts have been used for years for NPD and other activities, while collaborative artifacts are being increasingly used for NPD activities currently [7]. However, few studies have examined the frequency of usage of collaborative IT artifacts in the NPD process [36], [37], [45], and none that we could find focuses on the predevelopment stage of the NPD process. Further, it is important to shed light on those factors that influence the frequency of usage of these IT artifacts, and their impact on NPD outcomes.
The Resource-Based View (RBV) of the firm provides guidance for examining antecedents to the frequency of IT artifact use in the form of IT and complementary resources. Complementary resources are non-IT resources that, combined with IT resources, create value for the firm [11], [34], [54], [55], [77]. Complementary resources can be organizational resources, which include culture [63], [54], [55] and competitive scope [67]. The present study examines the influence of four resources – IT infrastructure and IT embeddedness (IT resources), and firm outward focus and competitive intensity (non-IT resources) – on IT capabilities, manifested by the frequency of usage of general-purpose and collaborative IT artifacts. In concordance with the RBV, our study posits that these resources and capabilities have a significant effect on the predevelopment stage outcomes, such as the number of concepts/prototypes generated, efficient team collaboration, and management evaluation.
Thus, our study makes four contributions to both theory and managerial practice. First, by examining IT resources and capabilities in the NPD context, this study adds to the emerging literature on this topic [9], [10] and calls for further research integrating IT and innovation [56], [77]. Second, investigating the effect of IT capabilities (i.e., the frequency of usage of general-purpose and collaborative IT artifacts) on various predevelopment outcomes provides a deeper understanding of IT value and insights into the category of artifacts that act as levers and can be managed to promote predevelopment performance [9], [11], [12]. Third, from the perspective of the RBV of the firm [3], [4], [13], this study provides greater understanding of the role of IT resources, complementary resources, and IT capabilities in a particular stage of the NPD process. Prior research has noted the need to examine the role of IT in different stages of the NPD process [23]. Finally, this study highlights the need for NPD management to work closely with organizational IT specialists to ensure that appropriate IT resources and capabilities are implemented for NPD management, and that these resources and capabilities are used effectively to improve cross-functional and interorganizational information and knowledge exchange.
The present paper is organized as follows. The next section discusses the rationale for focusing on the predevelopment stage of the NPD process and reviews the specific artifacts examined in this study. We also discuss the RBV of the firm. Next, we present our conceptual model and hypotheses. Our paper concludes with a discussion of the results, including their implications for both theory and managerial practice.
Section snippets
Focus on the predevelopment stage
The predevelopment stage marks the point at which initial product ideas are conceived, product concept definitions formulated and evaluated, and projects tentatively planned [17], [18], [19], [20]. In general, the predevelopment stage is characterized by the generation of a large number of ideas and evaluation of those ideas before large amounts of resources are committed [22]. This stage is often called the “fuzzy front end” because market and technological uncertainty, risk, and the need for
Resource-based theory
The RBV of the firm posits that firms have different resources (i.e., assets) [80] and that firm performance depends on these resources and how they are used [14], [16]. Moreover, performance is enhanced when resources are relatively scarce and cannot be imitated or substituted [16].
In the IT literature, IT infrastructure is considered a resource [14]. Further, the implementation of IT applications necessitates a redesign of the process for which the application is being used [63]. Thus, we
Sample and data
Data collection for this research was carried out using an online business management panel administered by Latitude Insights Ltd., an Australian market research field firm. Each of the panelists on the database was e-mailed an invitation to participate in the survey. In total, a sample of 152 managers was obtained in order to derive data for hypothesis testing. The sample is purposive and cross-functional in design, and it is focused on those participants who can provide appropriate insights
Findings
In order to test the hypotheses underlying the conceptual model presented in Fig. 1, the proposed direct effects were estimated using path analysis. The results of the AMOS v20 estimation and the associated hypotheses are reported in the following sections.
Discussion
The present research addressed a pertinent and timely issue associated with the role of IT in improving the predevelopment stage of the NPD process. Product innovation is at the heart of the business growth strategies, and the need to communicate and collaborate with multiple internal and external stakeholders is central to a successful NPD project. Drawing on the RBV of the firm, the approach developed in this study highlighted several resource-related antecedents to the frequency of IT
Managerial implications
The findings of this research have several important implications for IT and NPD managers. In particular, the research indicates an increasing role for IT departments and specialists to be more fully integrated into a firm's NPD program, and to provide increased support for the NPD projects. First, if firms want their NPD teams to utilize collaborative IT artifacts frequently, including social networking, project wikis, weblogs and micro-blogs, they need to set up an IT infrastructure that
Mike Reid is an associate professor of marketing at the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University. He has published papers on product innovation management with an emphasis on success factors in the Journal of Marketing Management, the Journal of Advertising, and the Journal of Strategic Marketing, among others.
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Mike Reid is an associate professor of marketing at the School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University. He has published papers on product innovation management with an emphasis on success factors in the Journal of Marketing Management, the Journal of Advertising, and the Journal of Strategic Marketing, among others.
Erik-Jan Hultink is a professor of new product marketing at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He has published papers on product innovation management in journals such as the Journal of the Academy in Marketing Science and the Journal of Product Innovation Management, among others. He is the cofounder and board member of the Dutch chapter of the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA).
Tucker Marion is the Sam and Nancy Altschuler Faculty Fellow, Bornstein Endowed Faculty Fellow, and is a associate professor of technological entrepreneurship at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University. He has published papers on product development processes and tools that foster improved metrics such as time to market and commercialization success rates in the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Business Venturing, and Sloan Management Review, among others.
Gloria Barczak is a professor of marketing at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University. She has researched and published extensively in the area of product innovation management with particular emphasis on the NPD process and the management of NPD teams. She has published papers in Industrial Marketing Management, Business Horizons, and the Journal of Product Innovation Management, among others.