Bilal Gokpinar

The Impact of Misalignment of Organizational Structure and Product Architecture on Quality in Complex Product Development

Product architecture and organizational communication play significant roles in complex product development efforts. By using networks to characterize both product structure and communication patterns, we examine the impact of mismatches between these on new product development (NPD) performance. Specifically, we study the vehicle development process of a major auto company and use vehicle quality (warranty repairs) as our NPD performance metric. Our empirical results indicate that centrality in a product architecture network is related to quality according to an inverted-U relationship, which suggests that vehicle subsystems of intermediate complexity exhibit abnormally high levels of quality problems. To identify specific subsystems in danger of excessive quality problems, we characterize mismatches between product architecture and organizational structure by defining a new metric, called coordination deficit, and show that it is positively associated with quality problems. These results deepen our understanding of the impact of organizational structure and product architecture on the NPD process and provide tools with which managers can diagnose and improve their NPD systems.

Fixed vs. Flexible Pricing in a Competitive Market

We study the selection and dynamics of two popular pricing policies—fixed price and flexible price—in competitive markets. Our paper extends previous work in marketing, for example, Desai and Purohit (2004) by focusing on decentralized markets with a dynamic and fully competitive framework while also considering possible noneconomic aspects of bargaining. We construct and analyze a competitive search model, which allows us to endogenize the expected demand depending on pricing rules and posted prices. Our analysis reveals that fixed and flexible pricing policies generally coexist in the same marketplace, and each policy comes with its own list price and customer demographics. More specifically, if customers dislike haggling, then fixed pricing emerges as the unique equilibrium, but if customers get some additional satisfaction from the bargaining process, then both policies are offered, and the unique equilibrium exhibits full segmentation: haggler customers avoid fixed-price firms and exclusively shop at...

Time Allocation in Entrepreneurial Selling: Impact of Consumer Peer Learning and Incumbent Reaction

How should technology entrepreneurs allocate their time to potential customers? Considering two important dynamics that influence consumers’ purchase decisions regarding new technology products, consumer peer learning and incumbent reaction, we study the tactical-level time allocation decision with a simple game-theoretic model. We offer an economic rationale for the entrepreneurs optimal time allocation for different levels of consumer peer learning and incumbent reaction as well as different revenue distributions between the buyers, and we discuss theoretical and practical implications for technology entrepreneurship.

Workforce Mobility and Innovation Outcomes

Employee ideas are a valuable starting point to improve operational efficiency. Organizations therefore systematically tap into employee knowledge. In this paper we empirically investigate how move...