Towards a Theory of Managing Information in New Product Development

4 DOCTORAL THESIS Towards a Theory of Managing Information in New Product Development Johan Frishammar 402-544|: - -- 05⁄54 -- To Åsa and Filippa, who walk the sunny side of the street THESIS FOR THE DOCTORAL DEGREE This thesis consists of two main parts: An introductory text of about 40 pages, and the fol- lowing six papers appended in full: Paper I Frishammar, J. (2005). Managing Information in New Product Development: A Literature Review. International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management, 2(3): 259-275. Paper II Frishammar, J. and Hörte, S.Å. (2005). The Role of Market- and Entrepreneurial Orienta- tion for NPD Performance in Manufacturing Firms1. Short version presented at the 12th In- ternational product development management conference in Copenhagen, June 12-14, 2005. Full paper submitted to Research Policy. Paper III Frishammar, J. and Hörte, S.Å. (2005). Managing External Information in Manufacturing Firms: The Impact on Innovation Performance2. Journal of Product Innovation Manage- ment, 22(3): 251-266. Paper IV Frishammar, J. (2002). Characteristics in Information Processing Approaches. International Journal of Information Management, 22(2): 143-156. Paper V Frishammar, J. (2005). Organizational Environment Revisited: A Conceptual Review and Integration. Forthcoming in International Studies of Management & Organization. Paper VI Frishammar, J. (2003). Information Use in Strategic Decision-making3. Management Deci- sion, 41(4): 318-326. 1 English version of research instrument within the paper; Swedish version of research instrument appended separately. 2 English version of research instrument within the paper; Swedish version of research instrument appended separately. 3 English and Swedish version of research instrument appended separately. I II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & PREFACE Finally, here it is. My thesis in print. The ambiguous, chaotic and disruptive process of research nicely packaged between coversheets. When writing this preface, a quotation by the famous Scottish physicist James Clark Maxwell comes to mind. Maxwell once stated, What is done by what is called myself is, I feel, done by something greater than myself in me. The question is justifiable. Did I really do this? Did I really manage to get it all together? It feels so awkward – almost 5 years of work – and this is it?!? It almost feels like a product by somebody else. Written by someone other than myself in me. The preface provides, however, a welcomed opportunity to acknowledge the help and assistance of others – sometimes in the form of intellectual insights or constructive criti- cism, other times in the form of friendship. First on my list of acknowledgments must be my supervisor Sven Åke Hörte at Halmstad University. When I was admitted to the PhD pro- gram, you told me that “Johan 1” was about to transform into “Johan 2”. The visible signs are a few pounds gained and some grey hair, so I truly hope that there is more to it on the inside (and I think the taxpayers should have the same concerns). Thank you Sven Åke for guiding me through this exciting exercise. And thanks to Halmstad University for funding my research. Other scholars at Halmstad University have also provided significant input to my research process, especially the members of the Center for Product Development Research (CPDR). Specifically, I acknowledge the inputs from and discussions with Henrik Florén who shared the pains of completing a thesis; the time spent with you have benefited me both professionally and personally. Input in various forms from Joakim Tell, Jenny Andersson, Fawzi Halila, Henrik Barth, Jonas Rundquist, Svante Andersson, EvaStina Björk and Aron Chibba are also acknowledged. I have also received inputs from other persons at Halmstad University in various forms over the years – no one named, no one forgotten. At Luleå University of Technology, Håkan Ylinenpää and Torbjörn Nilsson both en- couraged me to start postgraduate studies and both have assisted with advice and encouragement throughout the process. Mats Westerberg has always given of his time for discussions, and Marcus Bergfors taught me the noble art of always reading the author notes first. I also appreciate the help, assistance, input and friendship from other members of the staff at the Department of Industrial Management at LTU. Again – no one named, no one forgotten. I further acknowledge the input from Lars Strannegård and Anders Richtnér at the Stockholm School of Economics. Lars provided feedback and encouragement by serving as a discussant at my licentiate seminar, and Anders has been one of those invaluable people to talk research (and everything but research) with. Ulrich Lichtenthaler at the Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management (WHU) is not only a good friend, but has broadened my perspective on quantitative issues in research design. Many thanks also go to editors Abbie Griffin at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, John Peters at Emerald, H.K. Tang at Nanyang Technological University, Peter McKiernan at the University of St. Andrews, Jean Boddewyn at New York University, Philip Hills at Cambridge and anonymous reviewers at their respective journals for critique, com- ments and assistance in the publication processes. In most of the appended papers as well as III the introductory text, Gunnar Persson has saved me from making an even wider array of language flaws. Acknowledged are also the efforts of a large number of managers in completing the two appended surveys (papers II and III) as well as a number of managers and other organizational participants who gave generously of their time and knowledge in the completion of paper VI and the introductory text. Outside of academia, I would like to thank Charlie and Maria Wedell for letting me use your extra room so many times. Friends like you are indeed hard to find. My parents Ola and Carina Frishammar have always helped me with great as well as little things – thank you! Last but not least, my deepest appreciation goes to my fiancé Åsa Sandström. Thanks for teaching me to get the priorities straight. From you I have learned to avoid boring meetings, to rise up and walk away from really boring meetings, and to focus on the whole instead of getting lost in the details. I am firmly convinced that your advice contributed strongly to that fact that this thesis is finished on schedule. Needless to say, the usual disclaimer applies. Halmstad/Luleå in November 2005 Johan Frishammar IV ABSTRACT This thesis deals with various information aspects of new product development (NPD). In total, the thesis consists of 6 research articles appended in full, and an introductory text that integrates and theorizes with and from these papers. The first paper is a review article examining the literature on and role of information in NPD. The main argument put forward here is that information processing can be understood in terms of three steps: acquiring, sharing, and using information. The second paper is a large-scale survey that examines the relationship between market and entrepreneurial orientation and performance in NPD. A market orientation is to a large extent about acquiring, disseminating and using market information, while an entrepreneurial orientation partly is about ignoring such information, and instead trying to be innovative, proactive, and take risks. The results show that a market orientation and innovativeness are positively related to NPD performance, and that neither product nor environmental characteristics moderate these relationships. The third paper is also a survey, and investigates the extent to which management of external information is associated with innovation performance. The main findings are that scanning the technological sector of the environment was positively associated with innovation performance, while scanning customers, suppliers, and competitors proved to be negatively correlated with innovation performance. Cross-functional integration in the form of collaboration as well as using information from the industry environment also proved to be positively related to innovation performance. The last three papers have a centre of gravity in “management of information & environment”, and not so much in new product development per se. Paper four describes and com- pares different information processing approaches (e.g. environmental scanning, marketing research) in order to identify their similarities and differences, but also their underlying con- cepts and the course of events they represent. The main conclusion is that differences exist primarily in terms of focus and scope. Paper five is a review and tentative integration of different perspectives in organization – environment research: the adaptive, the resource- dependence, the cognitive and the population-ecology perspective. The review identifies differences and similarities among these perspectives, suggests tentative conclusions on why the adaptive perspective is so frequently utilized at the expense of the other three, and suggests constructivism as a feasible avenue for combining and integrating these perspectives. Finally, the sixth and final paper deals with information use in the context of strategic decision-making. With a case-study approach, the questions of why information is used, what kind of information is used, where it is obtained, and how it is obtained were ad- dressed, and the results from this paper are mainly descriptive. The purpose of the introductory text is two-fold. In addition to providing integration of the appended papers, the main purpose is theory construction (i.e. elicitation of constructs and propositions). In the introduction, all six appended papers together with a new literature search and a new pilot case study are used to generate propositions about management of information, information sources, and the need for cross-functional integration in three different phases of the NPD process. In addition, suggestions regarding theoretical connections are made. The introduction text concludes with reflections, managerial implications, limita- tions, and future research. V TABLE OF CONTENTS THESIS FOR THE DOCTORAL DEGREE I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & PREFACE III ABSTRACT V 1.

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