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This study examines the interplay of product development strategy, knowledge utilization, and product innovation performance in the context of Chinese subsidiaries of multinational companies. When firms strive to develop highly innovative products (breakthrough focus), the amount of resources allocated has a U-shaped relationship to subsequent product innovation performance (i.e., market rewards of new products). When the aim of product development activity is to reinforce and maintain moderately innovative products (platform focus), increased resource allocation shows a positive relationship to product innovation performance. The amount of resources allocated to minor revisions (incremental focus) shows no significant relationship to product innovation performance. Knowledge utilization is an important predictor of the benefits of developing highly and moderately innovative products. Moreover, it helps to mitigate the drawbacks of a breakthrough focus and strengthens the positive impact of a platform focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new venture launching its first product faces substantial risks and is typically resource-poor. Moreover, failure with the first product is closely related to failure of the new venture itself, as investors seek alternate investments with better track records. While much guidance appears in the literature for large, established firms developing and launching new products, little research has examined the specific challenges faced by entrepreneurial startups launching first products. We develop a model of competitive advantage for studying the development of the new venture's first product. We identify and investigate the skills, resources, and knowledge needed for achieving positional advantage and, ultimately, developing a successful first product. We collect data from 694 first products launched by new ventures in China to test our model. While most of our hypotheses are supported,we obtain some interesting findings regarding the stage in the development process when technology resources and skills, and marketing resources and skills have the greatest effects on product performance. Our research makes several contributions to engineering management, innovation, and entrepreneurship literatures. Finally, we provide managerial insights on how the entrepreneur should acquire resources and knowledge in order to improve the performance of the first product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examine the significance of formal processes for market information acquisition and use as antecedents to success of Chinese new ventures. Building on insights from the entrepreneurial planning literature, the authors construct a theoretical model in which formal processes for market information and market utilization have direct, positive main effects on new venture financial performance, and in which the existence of an established technology standard has a direct effect on performance and also affects the relationship between market information processes and performance. The authors test hypotheses derived from the model using a dataset comprising 222 Chinese new ventures. Consistent with expectations, the authors find that new venture financial performance was positively associated with the use of formal processes for the generation of market information. However, the impact on performance of formal processes for market information utilization depended on the firm's technological environment. In particular, for firms facing an established technology standard, the use of formal processes for market information utilization did not significantly affect performance. In contrast, the use of formal processes for market information utilization had a significant impact on performance among ventures that faced an emerging technology standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines strategic capabilities as drivers of the development and launch of radical innovations. We construct a theoretical framework relating five strategic capabilities (mar- keting, market linking, technology, information technology, and management-related capabilities) to radical innovation. From this framework, we derive hypotheses concerning a division's propensity to engage in radical innovation. Using empirical data derived from a research study of 376 firms in the United States, Japan, and China, we apply analysis of variance and negative binomial distribution (NBD) regression techniques to test our hypotheses. We find evidence that, overall, technology and information technology capabilities are significantly and positively related to radical product innovation. We also find some significant differences among the three country samples concerning drivers of radical innovation. Marketing capability is more significantly and positively related to radical innovation in the United States than in Japan; and, in China, the only capability that is significantly and positively related to radical innovation is technology. All of the findings completely or partially support our research hypotheses. We conclude with a discussion of the managerial implications of our findings, and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supplier involvement is essential to a new venture seeking to develop a radical innovation. Despite this, prior literature has not adequately addressed supplier involvement in radical innovation, nor what the antecedents to increased supplier involvement are. We build and test a conceptual model of the antecedents and new product performance outcomes of supplier involvement in the development of radical innovation by new ventures. Antecedent variables (supplier''s specific investments and the new venture''s qualification of the supplier''s abilities) are drawn from the transaction cost analysis literature. We include new venture''s relative power and new venture''s level of commitment to the supplier as contingency conditions. We develop a set of hypotheses relating supplier involvement to radical innovation performance, relating the antecedent variables to supplier involvement, and also testing the interaction effects of the two contingency conditions. We gather data from both new ventures and their major suppliers for 173 recent radical innovation projects, and use hierarchical regression analysis to test our hypotheses. We find that the contingency conditions moderate achieved levels of supplier involvement, and also find a direct relationship between achieved level of involvement and performance. We conclude with theoretical contributions and managerial implications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article presents several abstracts of articles related to product innovation appearing in other journals of management, marketing, engineering, design, psychology, law and related disciplines. Some of them are as follows: "Brand Imitation and Its Effects on Innovation, Competition, and Brand Equity," by Ricky Wilke and Judith Lynne Zaichowsky. This article takes an objective view of brand imitation: intentionally using a leading brand's color, symbol, or look and feel. Unlike counterfeiting or piracy, the perceived legality of brand imitation is not necessarily clearcut. Complicating the matter is that the laws on brand imitation change through time, vary from country to country, and are often interpreted differently. The authors note that there are three important issues to discuss here. First, according to the Schumpeterian economic view, innovation is necessary for the welfare of society. Imitation may make innovation less desirable, and thus inhibit innovation. "Survey of New Product Forecasting Techniques in Industrial High Technology and Low Technology Businesses," by Gary S. Lynn, Steven P. Schnaars, and Richard B. Skov. Forecasting sales of new products, especially radical new products employing unfamiliar technology, is important but highly difficult. Many different forecasting techniques have been used for this task.

This article provides abstracts of articles published in the May 1998 issue of the journal "The Journal of Product Innovation Management" on product innovation and product management. In many industries such as chemicals and steel, market share drives profitability. If this were true in all industries, however, then why Procter & Gmpble's pursuit of market share in the coffee business with its Folgar's brand not result in substantial profit increases? The authors of this article suggest that brand profitability is driven by relative market share and also by the nature of the brand's category. The authors note that a brand's strategy should be chosen with these two dimensions in mind. Another article examines the effects of extending master brands that do so dominate a product category that they almost become synonymous with it in the consumer's mind. Prior research found that brand extensions might not be desirable for master brands as they are more limited in their ability to be extended relative to brands less dominant in their product categories.

This article provides an overview of several articles published in the January 2004 issue of the 'Journal of Product Innovation Management.' The first article experimentally compared the number and quality of new product ideas for new mobile phone services that are obtained from three different groups: product development professionals working in the domain of interest, advanced users with domain knowledge but who are not working in the domain, and ordinary users. The next article considers how one Fortune 500 company went about drastically reducing the tensions between marketing and research and development. The article describes how the firm formalized the roles for both marketing and research and development and how that in turn increased the productive interaction of the firm. This change is credited with enabling the firm to enter a new market arena successfully. The final article investigates antecedents to reputational effectiveness in cross-functional relationships. Their model investigates relationship competence capabilities, such as role-taking, interpersonal control, and openness, as well as social variables such as informal network position and departmental members as antecedents to reputational effectiveness.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Gina Colarelli O'Connor on innovation dynamics and another by Glen M. Schmidt and Cheryl T. Druehl on disruptive innovation.

This article presents an editorial regarding the May 2007 issue of the "Journal of Product Innovation Management." The author previews the issue, noting that the May 2007 issue marks the journal's twentieth anniversary. The May 2007 issue features articles regarding such topics as social capital in innovation management, the outsourcing of technological innovations, and the use of information in new product development. The issue also features an article discussing the first twenty years of the "Journal of Product Innovation Management."

This editorial discusses product innovation management. The author discusses his experience at the 2006 European Marketing Academy Conference is discussed, and the author notes that the European Marketing Academy has grown significantly during the 21st century. The author also previews the November 2006 issue of the "Journal of Product Innovation Management," and highlights specific articles appearing in the issue. Among the authors submitting articles to the issue are Gina Colarelli O'Connor, Richard Martino, Shaista Khilji, and Tomacz Mroczkowski.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including product innovation, global new product development, and two book reviews.

The author looks back at his tenure as editor in chief of the publication, which ends with the present issue, and introduces the incoming editor in chief, business scholar Gloria Barczak. He discusses his aims for the publication, including presenting a range of research methodologies and addressing novel topics including product design.

The article offers information on the research papers presented at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM) product management conference held in Twente, The Netherlands. It notes that the papers published in the journal are selected by a committee of the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA). It mentions that the papers present updates in product innovation research which include technology alliance portfolios, and strategic innovation decisions.

The article introduces a special issue on technology commercialization and entrepreneurship.

Introduces various articles published in the September 2004 issue of "The Journal of Product Innovation Management."