Abdul Ali

Product Innovativeness and Entry Strategy: Impact on Cycle Time and Break-even Time

New product development time, or cycle time, has become a critical competitive variable, particularly for small high-tech manufacturing firms. The business press is filled with examples about large firms that have successfully reduced cycle time. This article investigates the relative impact of product innovation and entry strategy on cycle time and initial market performance of small firms. Using a sample of seventy-three small manufacturing firms, Abdul Ali, Robert Krapfel, Jr., and Douglas LaBahn find that faster product development is associated with shorter break-even time. Their results also indicate that these firms are achieving shorter cycle time not by sacrificing product quality, but by keeping the technical content of the product simple. Past research has not taken into account this relationship, and this may be one of the reasons why researchers have often suggested conflicting impact of entry strategy on market performance.

Pioneering versus incremental innovation: Review and research propositions

Marketings role in supporting a companys efforts to develop pioneering and incremental products can be quite different. Abdul Ali examines published articles and offers a set of propositions to show how several factors influence the product development decision. He cites examples from the business world to illustrate these propositions. This article suggests that a firm should take into account several factors relating to its capabilities, along with various project and market characteristics, in order to decide what products it should develop.

The Impact of Innovativeness and Development Time on New Product Performance for Small Firms

Timing is becoming a new source of competitive advantage. The business press extols the benefits of faster product development. This paper examines whether competitive advantage can be gained by reducing development time across all types of new products or whether this advantage is restricted to certain types of new products. It proposes that product innovativeness moderates the relationship between development time and initial market performance. A survey of 110 small manufacturing firms in computer related industries supports the hypothesis. The survey findings indicate that a firm must guard against over- or under-development of the new product since product innovativeness was found to influence the impact of development time on market performance. The implications for managers are: beware of bringing a new product that is “too much, too early” or “too little, too late.”

New product development cycle time: The influence of project and process factors in small manufacturing companies

Abstract Rapidly changing technologies and changing customer requirements are producing shorter product life cycles, which in turn compel organizations to shorten product development cycle times. Several researchers have considered environmental influences on cycle times. This article extends their work by examining the influence of outcome-based performance assessment and nontechnical outside assistance on new product development cycle time. Literatures relating to product development cycle times are reviewed, and a model identifying the factors influencing cycle time is presented and tested. Results from a study of 188 new product development projects indicate that use of nontechnical outside assistance lengthens product development cycle time, whereas output control can shorten or lengthen product development cycle time dependent upon the markets growth rate and products innovativeness.

A model for optimizing the refund value in rebate promotions

Abstract We derive a simple model for finding the optimal refund to be offered to final consumers by manufacturing firms during rebate promotions. The key features of our work are the explicit representations of the redemption function, purchase acceleration, and rebuys by brand-switchers. Depending upon a firms objectives and given some generally accepted assumptions about the firms demand function, an optimal refund rate exists that should be different than the short-term rebate rate.

Mediating roles of capabilities between R&D-marketing integration and business performance

Purpose Following the resource-based view, this paper aims to investigate the business performance impact of R&D–marketing integration and marketing and technical capabilities at the organization level in a non-Western context. Specifically, this work explores the mediating role of the two capabilities, while accounting for potential moderating effects and under the contingency of technological turbulence. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from the paired marketing and R&D executives of 207 Japanese manufacturing companies. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings The results show that marketing capability – by itself and also coupled with technical capability – mediates the relationship between R&D–marketing integration and business performance, while technical capability alone does not. Research limitations/implications This study’s subjective performance measures and cross-sectional design have inherent limitations. The exploration of antecedents and other contingency variables would provide ample scope for future research. Practical implications The findings suggest that managers need to build these two capabilities, especially marketing capability, because R&D–marketing integration by itself will not be sufficient to improve business performance. Originality/value This study provides empirical evidence for a new theoretical link through which R&D–marketing integration impacts business performance at the program level. The findings may also partially explain the mixed and conflicting results often found in past studies.