Year: 2011
Type: report
Abstract: The ability to develop successful new products is critical for many organizations.Business experts note that the contribution which new products will make to sales growth is expected to increase by one- third during the 1980s.During this time, the portion of total coopany profits generated by new products is expected to increase by 50 percent (Booz, Allen & Hamilton, 1982).This need for new product development is particularly irnportant in high technology industries, where the introduction of new products and technologies may be necessary for organizational survival.For companies in highly conqjetitive industries, the issue is not solely the introduction of new products, but also how to quicken the product development process (David, 1984).The growing inportance of the developnent of new products can pose difficult challenges for management.As many have noted (c.f.Drucker , 1985) current employment policies and management practices may not be adequate to ensure that the orgsmizat ion has the appropriate htxnan resources and management skills necessary to guarantee that new product ideas can be most quickly developed.A variety of concerns have been raised about the effectiveness of organizational structure (Kanter, 1983), huraaji resource policies (Fcufcrxm, et.al., 1984), and managenKnt techniques (Frohman, 1978) in enhancing product development.Recently, a nmber of strategies have been proposed to identify and enhance factors contributing to innovation and product develojinent in organizations (Burgelman & Sayles, 1986; Drucker, 1985).Since many authors have described how the product development process can be influenced by organizational variables (e.g.Baldridge & Burnham, 1976; Cohen & Mowery, 1984; Damanpour & Evan, 1984), it is not our intent to review or sunxnarize these findings.Rather, it is our intent to describe a set of management issues facing the specific groups responsible for product development within an organization.Within many industries, the primary mechanism for product developnent is the new product team- Although known by a variety of names, this is the group of individuals who oust cooperate to develop, design, test market, and prepare the new product for production.These new product teams differ from many other organizational groups in that they are cross functional, face a variety of tasks, and change in ccnposition across time.Successful new product teams nust be able to effectively obtain information and resources frczn others, both inside and outside the organization, process the infontiation and resources internally, and use those inputs to create and gain acceptance of a viable product (Burgelman, 1983).Understanding the operation and management of such groups caji be of more than practical usefulness.The conplex interactions within such groups and between the product team and other groups within the orgimizat ion can provide a powerful test of general izabi 1 i ty of traditional research on group processes.The basic premise of this paper is that group processes, particularly those dealing with boundary management, can influence the success of new product teams.Following a discussion of the methods we used to collect data, we wi 1 1 first describe the task the new product team nust conplete.Second, we will discuss previous research on boundary spanning, relate this research to the new product team's task, and propose seme relationships between boundary management and team performance.
Authors: Deborah Ancona, David F. Caldwell
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1554755782