Anandasivakumar Ekambaram

“The Fast and the Fantastic” Time-Cost Trade-Offs in New Product Development vs. Construction Projects

Today, in new product development projects, “NPDs”, time is the cutting edge. The time to market in new product development projects is a key factor in the competition between innovative companies. Research has shown that time can be managed, and speed too. Our concern in this paper is to study the time factor in the case of new product development projects based on a time-cost trade-off curve, which is important for the project success by delivering the product as fast as possible. We will explain the motivation behind delivering fast in NPD projects. In construction projects, a customer initially contracts for a project from a contractor based on specifications, budget and delay. Time to market is a key success factor in new product development projects. Does time to delivery have high importance in construction projects? We conclude by showing the significance of NPD projects’ speed with respect to management in construction projects.

Overcoming Barriers Against Interaction on Innovation Capabilities Within and Between SMEs

Handling metadata and module-based capabilities are enablers for radical new ways of interaction within and between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in terms of innovation. A challenge in this often complex actor and interaction picture is that there can be organizational, process-related, financial and practical barriers which tend to reduce innovativeness. There is thus a need for methods which can provide dynamic and company-based innovation networks. This study investigates the main barriers for effective interaction and sharing of innovation capabilities within SMEs. The factors identified are individual, technological and organizational factors. The success of SMEs lies in overcoming all these barriers in order to ensure effective interaction and sharing of innovation capabilities through their networks. This study suggests the main conditions and elements which can contribute to overcoming the barriers against effective interaction on innovative capabilities among SMEs.

Evaluation and Learning – Experiences from a Construction Project in Norway

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to study the relation between evaluation and learning. This paper will look at a construction project in Norway – considering evaluation of the project in connection with learning and knowledge sharing. In this regard, the paper describes different approaches to evaluation and learning, and proposes a model. The model distinguishes between an internal and external perspective when it comes to evaluation of projects, and between a structured and an informal perspective when it comes to learning. With the focus on this model, the paper also presents enablers and barriers of learning and knowledge sharing. The model provides a structured illustration of the connection between project evaluation and learning. And thus, the model would be useful for, for instance, determining and applying learning mechanisms for both internal and external evaluation of projects. Based on our model, traditional project evaluations can be categorized as external-structured. This type of evaluations appears to not necessarily be an important tool for learning. Internal structured approaches, such as an experience report, have been in high demand. We found that external informal learning was of importance. One example was when consultants shared experiences in their home organization. This paper is based on qualitative case study approach.