Gary S. Lynn

Knowledge networks in new product development projects: a transactive memory perspective

Even though an individuals knowledge network is known to contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of his or her work in groups, the way that network building occurs has not been carefully investigated. In our study, activities of new product development teams were analyzed to determine the antecedents and consequences on the transactive memory systems, the moderating affect of task complexity was also considered. We examined 69 new product development projects and found that team stability, team member familiarity, and interpersonal trust had a positive impact on the transactive memory system and also had a positive influence on team learning, speed-to-market, and new product success. Further, we found that the impact of the transactive memory system on team learning, speed-to-market, and new product success was higher when there was a higher task complexity. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study findings are discussed.

Practices that Support Team Learning and Their Impact on Speed to Market and New Product Success

Competition is fierce today. Businesses are feeling extreme pressure to innovate and do so quickly. If they take too long in bringing a product to market or make a mistake along the way, they can be preempted by a faster moving competitor. One technique gaining popularity to help companies compete is establishing learning teams—teams that create and use knowledge rapidly and effectively. But how do teams learn? By studying the learning practices of 95 new product teams, we have uncovered several factors that improve a new product team’s ability to learn, innovate faster, and be more successful. These factors include thoroughly reviewing project information, having stable project goals, and following a rigorous new product development process.

Organizational unlearning as changes in beliefs and routines in organizations

Purpose – Organizational learning and unlearning is a popular and important topic in business as well as academia. Even though there is a plethora of studies on organizational learning, surprisingly little is known about the conceptualization and operationalization of organizational unlearning. The purpose of this paper is to discuss organizational unlearning based on the organizational change and memory literature enhancing the organizational learning and change scholarship.Design/methodology/approach – It is argued that unlearning is conceptualized as organizational memory eliminating, and is operationalized as changing beliefs and routines covariates in organizations. This is followed with a discussion of unlearning types, specifically, reinventive, formative, operative and adjustive, which are contingent on the environmental conditions. Finally, future research suggestions are proposed to leverage understanding on unlearning in the literature.Findings – Shows that organizations first need to unlearn e...

The impacts of speed-to-market on new product success: the moderating effects of uncertainty

Time-based strategy is becoming an important weapon to achieve competitive advantage in the current environment of fast-changing technology and customer requirements. Speed-to-market has become the mantra of both researchers and practitioners in new product development (NPD), but there are limited and conflicting findings on the relationship between speed-to-market and product success. A more important question is whether faster is always better. In a study of 692 NPD projects, we examined the relationship between speed-to-market and new product success (NPS) under different conditions of uncertainty. Our results indicate that speed-to-market is generally positively associated with overall NPS, but market uncertainty moderates the direct effect. Speed-to-market is less important to NPS under conditions of low market uncertainty. Our results also suggest that technological uncertainty does not affect the speed-success relationship. The implication is that it is more important to execute a time-based strategy in an unfamiliar, emerging, or fast-changing market than in a familiar, existing, and stable market. The limitations and future research related to these results are discussed.

Knowledge management in new product teams: practices and outcomes

This paper explores the critical practices impacting a new product teams ability to learn and succeed. By investigating the practices of 281 new product teams from around the world, several factors emerged that impact a teams ability to acquire and use knowledge to reduce cycle time and improve their probability of success. The significant factors include: (1) documentation of project information, (2) storage and retrieval systems for project information, (3) information reviewing practices, (4) vision clarity, (5) vision stability, and (6) management support of the project.

Organizational Learning: A Socio-Cognitive Framework

Organizational learning is a popular topic in business and academia and attracts many researchers and practitioners from different fields. Even though organizational learning scholarship is still growing, there are few studies that cross-fertilize social cognition and organizational learning. This investigation examines organizational learning from the perspective of social cognition. It is argued that social cognition explains the organizational learning process better by integrating fragmented studies on the processes of learning, and the study proposes that organizational learning is an outcome of reciprocal interactions of the processes of information/knowledge acquisition, information/knowledge dissemination, information/knowledge implementation, sensemaking, memory, thinking, unlearning, intelligence, improvisation, and emotions - connected by organizational culture. In addition, the implications of social cognition on organizational learning are discussed.

Innovation Strategies Under Uncertainty: A Contingency Approach for New Product Development

AbstractInnovation is especially critical, yet risky, in dynamic, uncertain markets where the product or service employs new and uncertain technologies. Under these conditions, the new product professional should rely on a variety of tools and techniques to assist him or her to innovate more effectively with a greater probability of succeeding. The new product development literature offers several tools to help. These tools are based on one of six innovation strategies: process, speed, learning, market, technology, and quantitative. However, it is not clear which strategy should be used and when. This article examines these dominant innovation strategies and evaluates their applicability in the environment of emerging markets with emerging technologies. We have found that for the more extreme forms of innovation, a learning-based strategy will improve the chances of success.

Key Factors in Increasing Speed to Market and Improving New Product Success Rates

Abstract Competition is fierce today. Businesses are under extreme pressure to innovate and to do so quickly. If they are too slow bringing a new product to market, or they make a mistake along the way, they could be overtaken by faster moving competitors. But what factors improve new product development success? In a previous study, the authors interviewed 15 senior technical professionals involved in new product development. They used a benchcasing approach by sending each manager three in-depth cases and then asking each to identify the critical success factors. They identified 10 factors. The purpose of this study is to test their model in a larger sample of managers from a wider cross section of technology-based companies. By studying the practices of 95 successful and unsuccessful new product projects, we validated only some of the past findings, not all of them. We found several factors, not only speed development, can improve new product success rates. These factors include having a long-term view of product development, having a stable project vision, and following a rigorous new product development (NPD) process.

Antecedents and Consequences of Team Stability on New Product Development Performance

Group member change or team stability is a popular and important topic in the group and organizational behavior literature. Team member stability is viewed as a critical factor for an effectively functioning and performing group. Even though there is a plethora of studies on group member change and stability, research on member stability in cross-functional new product development teams is still lacking. This study explores the antecedent factors that impact new product development team stability as well as its consequences. By studying 211 new product teams, we found: (1) the most direct antecedents of team stability are goal stability and goal support; and (2) team stability has a significantly positive effect on outcome variables including team learning and cycle time. This study also shows that team stability may not be universally good; under some circumstances, such as when there is a high degree of market and technical turbulence, team instability can be advantageous.

The Role of Personality in New Product Development Team Performance

Although the role of personality in team performance is not well understood, research suggests that personality plays a critical role in the effective performance of teams. Personality variables should be especially important for new product development (NPD) teams which typically include highly coordinated activities among multidisciplinary members. The five-factor model provides a consistent structure for understanding how personality relates to different kinds of behavior and is used as a framework for reviewing literature related to team performance. The same model is then used to form a set of research propositions that can serve to guide future research on the role of personality in NPD teams. Because the literature suggests that the role of personality is dependent upon the type of task involved, we differentiate our research propositions for two specific types of new product development: incremental innovation and radical innovation. We offer research propositions for the average level of each of the five-factor model variables and performance in the two types of teams. Finally, we suggest a set of research propositions for the effect of heterogeneity of personality on performance in radical and incremental innovation teams.