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During the new product development (NPD) process, exploitation and exploration are important, especially for small manufacturing firms (SMFs). However, limited resources and a lack of internal knowledge capacity have forced SMFs to work with knowledge-intensive professional service firms (KIPSFs). This article investigates the impact of SMFs’ networks with KIPSFs on the performance of NPD. Using data from 164 SMFs in the northwest of England, this article reveals a linear relationship between firm's product innovativeness and its network with KIPSFs for exploitation, and a curvilinear relationship between firm's speed to market and its network with KIPSFs for exploration. A curvilinear relationship was also found between networks with KIPSFs for ambidexterity and firm's product innovativeness and speed to market. These results lead to several practical implications for networking strategy as each network supports different innovation activities and produces different outcomes. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Autonomous Vehicle (AV) research has focused on public acceptance of and intention to use AVs, with trust emerging as important to these variables. Research on AV trust has centered on trust in vehicle performance. However, trust evaluation may include AV manufacturers and developers, and regulation pertaining to AVs; thus, we expand our measurement of trust to include beliefs based on manufacturers and regulation. In this experiment, we manipulate information regarding manufacturer focus (i.e., an emphasis on standards, regulations, and research (SRR) versus speed to market) to determine its effect on trust. When information focused on SRR, we found higher levels of trust in AV performance and in manufacturers, compared to when it focused on speed to market. In addition, information regarding passenger control (i.e., the ability to take over for the vehicle and to determine privacy settings) was manipulated to yield either high or low passenger control conditions. Behavioral Intention (BI) to use AVs was lowest when speed to market was emphasized and when passenger control was low. Furthermore, trust was tested as a mediator between perceived risk and BI. Trust in AV performance partially mediated the relationship between perceived AV performance risk and BI. In addition, trust in AV regulation partially mediated the relationship between AV privacy/security risk and BI. Researchers should continue to examine trust beyond the AV itself to encompass trust in manufacturers and regulations. Those designing and marketing AVs should carefully consider decisions that influence manufacturer/developer reputation and passenger control due to their effect on intention to use AVs.

Crowdfunding has proliferated over the past decade, creating various platforms on which new entrepreneurs signal their value to potential backers in order to attract funding. The boons of crowdfunding have blinded both practitioners and scholars alike, leaving potential negative unintended consequences underexplored. Copycats, for example, are a potential problem for crowdfunding ventures. In this article, we examine the consequences of signaling to these ill-intentioned, opportunistic audiences on crowdfunding platforms and propose a solution to aid novice entrepreneurs in making a more informed decision on platform selection. Specifically, we provide guidance on when to select an open, semi-open, or closed crowdfunding platform to reduce the impact of copycats. We conclude with prescriptive advice to novice entrepreneurs.

The role of suppliers in firms’ innovation processes is well established. Yet understanding of the effect of supplier clusters and their characteristics on firms’ innovation outcomes is lacking. This paper focuses on two important characteristics of supplier clusters—supplier cluster proximity and supplier cluster heterogeneity—and examines their impact on the speed to market of innovations and the type of innovations produced. Using a multi-country dataset, the study shows that supplier proximity improves speed to market of innovations and that greater heterogeneity among supplier clusters decreases the rate of radical innovations of firms. Through a nuanced view of supplier clusters, this research contributes to the literature on clusters and innovations by highlighting the role of supplier clusters.

International audience; This paper analyzes the influence of small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) entrepreneurial orientation (EO) on its capacity to quickly introduce new products to the market (namely, speed to market). Specifically, we suggest that firms will exhibit greater speed to market when displaying either low or high levels of EO. We also suggest that the EO – speed to market relationship will be contingent on firms' ambidexterity, or its capacity to simultaneously embrace exploratory and exploitative strategies. To test our hypotheses, we collected survey data from 384 SMEs belonging to four sectors in Spain: biotechnology, ceramic tiles, toys and footwear. Our findings confirm the existence of a U-shaped connection between EO and speed to market, and evidence that this curvilinear relationship is accentuated when SMEs exhibit greater ambidexterity.

Faster delivery of sewn and textile-based products, leaner inventory levels, and made-to-order goods shipped directly to the end consumer are becoming mainstream. Companies across the globe are dipping a toe into, and in some cases becoming completely submerged in, the ideas and ideals behind demand-based manufacturing. Enabling this is creative application of technology and manufacturing partnerships to create speed-to-market ecosystems.

Purpose – The major aim of this article is to advance understanding of the relationship between market orientation and speed-to-market....

Cell line development (CLD) represents a critical, yet time-consuming, step in the biomanufacturing process as significant resources are devoted to the scale-up and screening of several hundreds to thousands of single-cell clones. Typically, transfected pools are fully recovered from selection and characterized for growth, productivity, and product quality to identify the best pools suitable for single-cell cloning (SCC) using limiting dilution or fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Here we report the application of the Berkeley Lights Beacon Instrument (BLI) in an early SCC process to accelerate the CLD timeline. Transfected pools were single-cell cloned when viabilities reached greater than 85% or during selection when viabilities were less than 30%. Clones isolated from these accelerated processes exhibited comparable growth, productivity, and product quality to those derived from a standard CLD process and fit into an existing manufacturing platform. With these approaches, up to a 30% reduction in the overall CLD timeline was achieved. Furthermore, early process-derived clones demonstrated equivalent long-term stability compared with standard process-derived clones over 50 population doubling levels (PDLs). Taken together, the data supported early SCC on the BLI as an attractive approach to reducing the standard CLD timeline while still identifying clones with acceptable manufacturability.

Today’s hyper-competitive worldwide markets, turbulent environment, demanding customers, and diverse technological advancements force any companies developing new products to look into all the possible areas of improvement in the entire new product development (NPD) process. As a key determinant of firm’s competitiveness, efficient NPD is hard to imagine out of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) strategy. In fact, PLM provides a dynamic and integrated information management platform that enables firms to effectively manage the creation, modification, and exchange with product information on the collaborative NPD. Moreover, by adopting PLM systems, firms can derive numerous benefits such as increasing the speed to market of new products, improving the response to market demands, delivering more new products in a shorter time, reducing product development project costs, and reducing material and energy consumption costs. Hence, this paper presents an overview that mediates the effect of PLM system on NPD performance. Therefore, it is expected that the results will contribute to the literature and practice by increasing the understanding of how PLM system influences NPD performance.

The importance of the information technology/information technology enabled services (IT/ITES) sector in modern Iran is indubitable. As IT has started to penetrate deeper into the country in recent years, IT and telecommunications infrastructure continue to be developed and enhanced throughout Iran. This expansion is creating many job prospects for employees in Iran, as well as providing greater availability of e-business, e-commerce, e-learning, and e-government in the country. Improving the quality of education and healthcare is also influenced by the growing importance of IT in the country. As demonstrated in this chapter, the three top IT-related organizational issues in Iran are: revenue-generating IT innovations, business agility and speed to market, and alignment between IT and business. The top three technology issues are: enterprise application integration, networks and telecommunications, and ERP systems. The IT employees indicate they are moderately happy with their work despite facing significant work pressure.

The trade-off between speed to market and product quality is a well-studied phenomenon in the new product development literature. However, there is little evidence of how supply chain stakeholders ...

This study explores new product development in a strict regulatory and historically secretive environment. Adopting a systems perspective and a mixed methods approach in our research, we examine medical device development in Ireland. Findings indicate that the possession of a regulatory strategy expedites the rate of commercialization, so too does the generation of clear product definitions and marketing claims in the earliest developmental phases. Moreover, results suggest that if the regulated industry strengthens its culture for regulation by prioritizing regulation over speed to market, by encouraging cross-functional team collaborations, and by taking a more proactive approach in post-marketing surveillance activities, it has the potential to improve customer satisfaction and enhance product innovation. This study provides unique empirical data enriched by the homogeneity of its sample. It also contributes guidance to practitioners of new product development within a regulatory context.

Background & Aim The number of ATMP therapeutic-based medicines for inherited genetic disorders is in constant growth, with a global 32% increase in new clinical trials in the last 4 years. ATMPs have demonstrated their success with already more than ten approved for commercialization. The success of AAV as the most promising viral vector for gene therapy is due to low immunogenicity, broad tropism and non-integrating properties. One major challenge for translation of promising research to clinical development is the manufacture of sufficient quantities of AAV. Methods, Results & Conclusion Transient transfection of suspension cells is the most commonly used production platform, as it offers significant flexibility for cell and gene therapy development. However, this method shows some limitations in large scale bioreactors: inadequate transfection protocol, reduced transfection efficiency and lower productivity. To address this concern, we present data on the novel transfection reagent showing: i) increased AAV titers, ii) improved transfection protocol for large scale bioreactors and iii) reproducibility of viral titers at different production scale. The aforementioned optimized parameters make this novel transfection reagent ideal for cell and gene therapy developers by combining the flexibility of transient transfection with scalability and speed to market.

This study intends to investigate retailers’ product assortment and pricing practices for “Made in the USA” apparel in the U.S. retail market. The findings concur with the view that “Made in the USA” apparel are still relevant today. The findings also reveal the close interconnection between retailers’ sourcing and merchandising strategies. Particularly, with apparel sourcing increasingly requiring speed to market and flexibility other than low cost, it is hopeful that “Made in the USA” apparel will continue to have its unique role to play in U.S. fashion brands and retailers’ sourcing portfolios.

Medical products are experiencing increasing challenges in terms of price and margin pressure, speed to market, increased manufacturing complexity, and more stringent regulatory compliance. In this framework, microfluidic-based technologies and processes are revolutionizing the way we obtain products today. They meet the demand for increasingly sophisticated, higher quality, and rigorously regulated medical products, and beyond allows highly personalized custom devices. Indeed, they set out the concepts for how companies can achieve faster innovation and increase efficiencies across the value chain and, in comparison with the well-established technologies and processes, lab-on-a-chip route can be mobile and connected addressing solutions in innovative areas such as patient-specific devices and diagnostic testing, driving directly to the world of the Industry 4.0. This chapter introduces the most representative and promising microfluidic-based strategies for the production of nanoparticles as drug delivery system: hydrodynamic flow focusing for nanoprecipitation and self-assembly of block copolymers. It starts by presenting the nanoprecipitation mediated by the hydrodynamic flow focusing in microfluidic as the most promising alternative to the batch nanoprecipitation always failing in polydispersity and long and expensive postpurification processes. It then focuses on the new field of assembly of the block copolymer system and on the potential application that this kind of system could generate.

The purpose of this research is to determine market sensing capability, product innovation success, speed to market, and entrepreneurial orientation on SME's performance. The sample of this research are 168 SME's owner or manager in Java, Indonesia. This research uses Structural Equation Model to hypothesis test and uses AMOS 21 in analysis data. Results of the research find that Entrepreneurial orientation and product innovativeness success have positive and significant effect on SME's performance but market sensing capability and speed to market have no significant effect. Another result of this study finds that market sensing capability has significant effect on speed to market and product innovativeness success but entrepreneurial orientation has no significant effect on product innovativeness effect.

This paper examines modular product structures in alliances. Results from a survey of 225 alliances show that modular product structures within alliances affect alliance firms' competitive performance. Product innovation performance, assessed as both speed to market and radical innovations and contingent on the employed innovation strategy, partially mediates this effect. Modular product structures exert curvilinear effects on product innovation performance and linear effects on competitive performance. Although the interaction of modular product structures with an innovation strategy increases product innovation performance, this contingency also reduces the positive effect of the innovation strategy on competitive performance.

Cloud computing emerged in its current form in the last decade and quickly became popular as it offers a different way to develop, implement, and maintain and pay for IT services in compare with the traditional on-premise approach [42]. The fast-growing adoption of cloud computing is attributed to the benefits it offers to firms over the on-premise environment, like sharply reduced capital expenditure and upfront investment, increased speed to market, more flexible costs and capacity: use it and pay for it when you need it only, cheaper disaster recovery solutions, access to the latest technologies, and more efficient collaboration of global teams [5, 41].

In a turbulent market economy, the role of suppliers in manufacturer's new product development has received great attention from both practitioners and researchers. Substantial empirical evidence on the contribution of suppliers in addressing challenges in terms of shorter product life, more immediate response, and faster information flows has been presented. This study aims to investigate which of the supplier collaboration (SC) practices are directly or indirectly related to the speed-to-market (STM) of new products across different firm sizes. The results confirm the direct and positive effect of information sharing on STM. Furthermore, information sharing may partially mediate the effect of strategic purchasing on STM, and completely mediate the effect of supplier involvement on STM. It is also shown that firm size significantly affects the relationship between strategic purchasing and information sharing and that between information sharing and STM. The implications on improving STM via SC for future research and managerial practices are also discussed.

This chapter examines the oil and gas industry and the efficacy of vertical integration strategies. Using multiple theoretical lenses ranging from the resource-based view, transactions costs, and parenting perspective, the chapter considers different arguments associated with vertical integration. The 2011 breakup of ConocoPhillips and its global value chain helps address the question of which strategy is best – integrated or nonintegrated. We provide several conclusions about the structure of integration and value chains within the oil and gas industry. First, vertical integration based on the physical transfer of products between value chain activities will generate little firm advantage in the form of classical integration benefits, such as control over input quality or speed to market. Second, competing across the industry value chain as a hedge or strategy against industry cyclicality is not theoretically defensible. Third, pure play industry specialists can create value through management focus, agility, and, transparency for investors. Fourth, firms that compete across a wide range of industry value chain activities can create value-adding corporate strategies if they are able to leverage knowledge and assets across different industry sectors.

The degree of overlap (i.e., fit) between product development organizations' resources and the product development projects pursued has powerful performance implications. Drawing on organizational learning theory and the resource-based view, this research conceptualizes and empirically tests the interrelationships between the levels of fit, innovativeness, speed to market, and financial new product performance. After reviewing the research literature relevant to resource fit and new product performance, the level of innovativeness is posited to be an important moderating and mediating factor, which is validated by analysis of data gathered from 279 product developing firms. Technological fit has a negative direct effect on both technological and market innovativeness, while the use of existing marketing resources (i.e., a high degree of marketing fit) positively impacts technological innovativeness. This suggests, consistent with findings from market orientation research, that a deep, long-held customer understanding can promote technological innovativeness. The moderating hypotheses proposed are also well supported: First, a high degree of marketing fit has a more positive impact on performance for market innovative products (e.g., products which address a new target market or use a nontraditional channel for the firm). Drawing on a deep customer understanding is more critical to performance for market innovative products. Conversely, the benefits of marketing fit are limited where market innovativeness is lacking. Interestingly, the counterpart moderating role of technological innovativeness on technological fit's performance effect is not significant; the level of technological innovativeness does not significantly impact the performance impact of technological fit. There are also significant moderating effects across dimensions. Our results show that the financial benefit of using existing marketing resources is lessened for technologically innovative products. Technological innovations necessitate drastic adaptation of marketing resources (i.e., channel and brand); firms drawing only on existing marketing resources for a technologically innovative new product will incur reduced profit. Similarly, the positive implications of using existing technological resources are limited for products which are highly market innovative. Generally, resource fit is seen to have an (oft-overlooked) dark side in product development, though several of our findings suggest that marketing resources are more flexible than are technological resources.

New product development (NPD) has long been regarded as an important issue for the success of business operations. One of the key determinants of NPD is innovation, which is highly related to innovation implementation. Both innovation implementation and NPD success require team sensemaking and trust. The purpose of this study is to examine the antecedents of innovation implementation and its mediating role through which it influences NPD success. A causal model was developed to examine relevant variables for innovation implementation on NPD success. A survey was conducted using the responses from 286 NPD team leaders in the Taiwanese high-tech industry. The results indicated that team sensemaking and trust can influence innovation implementation, which further promotes NPD success. The influences of team sensemaking capability and trust on NPD success can be mediated through the mediating role that innovation implementation plays. This report sheds light on the relevance of innovation implementation in a NPD context.

A survey of new product development (NPD) managers finds both a linear, positive relationship between managerial guanxi and new product speed to market and an inverted U-shaped relationship between managerial guanxi and new product innovativeness. In addition, both transaction-specific investments (TSIs) and relationship commitment have a positive moderating impact on the relationship between managerial guanxi and new product speed to market. However, TSIs increase the damaging effect of managerial guanxi on new product innovativeness, whereas relationship commitment reduces such an effect. The results from this study can help business practitioners use guanxi to improve NPD performance under different contexts of inter-firm relationships.

Purpose Whether an organization’s political behaviour is positively related to its performance has been a long-standing question. Most studies elaborating on this issue, although rich in detail, primarily have been limited to case studies, apart from a niche set of studies in international business. This study aims to explore this question through a survey study of managers and executives from around the world, across a range of industries. Design/methodology/approach The study explores the link between politics, the ability of a firm to speedily reach the market and its growth rate through a study of 382 executives from across the world. It also investigates alternative explanations of slow speed to market due to power centralization, decision-making layers and conflict. Findings The results show that politics – the observable but often covert actions through which executives influence internal decisions – has a direct negative effect on a firm’s ability to reach the market first and on its growth rate. That is, not only is politics time-consuming but it may also have a detrimental impact on the selection of the best growth opportunities. Originality/value Politics does have a negative impact on growth; it slows down a firm’s growth and its ability to reach the market. This study eliminates possible alternative explanations of a slow pace to market: slower companies are not so because they have too many decision-making layers but because they use consultative processes in resource-allocation decisions, or because of conflict.

Incubators and incubator firms work to promote the development and commercialization of technology and products. This study shows that entrepreneurial orientation can help achieve this aim. Using survey data from incubator firms, we show that entrepreneurial orientation has a statistically significant positive effect on ability to bring technology and products quickly to the market. This finding is important for managers of incubator firms and managers of incubators alike as they have a common interest in speed to the market. An implication of our study is that managers of incubators should try to enhance the entrepreneurial orientation of the incubator firms.

To compete effectively in the e-business world, an organization must structurally transform its internal foundation. This structural change requires an organization to develop an innovative e-business strategy, focusing on speed to market and breakthrough execution. Despite the recognition and care that in recent years has been dedicated to e-business, there remains a need for continuing research efforts that seek to better understand constraints on the evolution of an organization to a state that can take advantage of e-business possibilities. There is a special need for this when considering small and medium enterprises, or businesses in developing countries. To minimize risk exposure from e-business initiatives, it is imperative for an organization to identify potential constraints on e-business evolution. In this setting,we develop a research model that involves e-business constraints and e-business maturity. We classify the constraints into the categories of environment constraints, organizational constraints, and technological constraints. Our results indicate that there are constraints that can be more or less problematic, depending on the stage of maturity. The results are also quite different in large organizations versus Small and Medium Enterprises.

The relationships among speed to market, quality, and costs are important to managers as they attempt to best establish incentives and set goals for new product development teams, allocate resources for new product development, or create positional advantage in the market. The existing literature suggests that the economic consequences of being late to the market are significant, including higher development and manufacturing costs, lower profit margins, and lessening of the firm's market value. Therefore, traditional logic has held that new product development managers need to manage the trade-offs among speed to market, quality, and costs. While both scholars and managers have often acquiesced to performance trade-offs among “faster, better, and cheaper,” this research attempts to improve understanding of the interrelationships between these objectives, and ultimately profit. Based on a survey of 197 managers, faster speed to market is shown to be related to better quality and lower costs; it is not necessary to sacrifice one of these outcomes. Further, the moderating roles of two dimensions of innovativeness (innovativeness to the firm and to the market) are examined on the relationships between speed and quality, as well as speed and profit. Both dimensions of innovativeness positively moderate the relationship between speed to market and quality. For more innovative products (both to the firm and the market), there is a stronger positive relationship between speed and quality than for less innovative products. Further, innovativeness to the firm negatively moderates the relationship between speed and profit. Thus, speed has a less positive impact on profit for highly innovative-to-the-firm products compared with less innovative-to-the-firm products. By being conscious of the projects’ levels of innovativeness (along with prioritizing various performance measures), managers can more rationally decide when to emphasize speed to market based on this study's findings.

New product development (NPD) practitioners increasingly rely on information and communication technology (ICT), aiming to achieve lower costs, higher quality and greater speed to market. Only a little is known about the effect of various ICT tools on NPD performance, and exploring this would ease effective deployment of technological resources in innovation programmes. This study uses data collected in the Product Development Management Association's 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study, from 450 firms across different countries and industries. The direct and indirect effects of thirteen ICT tools on overall NPD performance are examined using hierarchical regression analysis. Results suggest that six ICT tools indirectly improve NPD performance by increasing collaboration, while the direct effects of PDM systems and project management systems are significant. The study implies that extensive use of ICT significantly contributes to improve collaboration, which is vital for achieving the NPD programmes' objectives, increasing competitiveness, and improving overall NPD performance.

The business value of information technology is an enduring research question. This research provides new insights to better understand the mechanisms supporting this relation by analyzing the impact of knowledge management tools (KMTs) on the performances of business units involved in inter-firm collaborative innovation projects. We extend current literature by developing and empirically testing a model where: (1) the use of KMTs is affected by critical organizational variables, (2) KMTs can impact the innovation and financial performances of business units. We find that mutual trust and culture for change do not affect the extent of the use of KMTs, while collaborative experience and naturalness in using ICTs as substitutive of face-to-face contacts have a significant impact. Moreover, we show that a more intense use of KMTs has a direct positive effect on new product performance and speed to market, as well as on financial performance. Yet, only new product performance acts as an indirect conduit linking KMT use and financial performances. This article provides a discussion and perspectives of further research concerning the impact of KMTs on innovation practices in inter-firm collaborative environments.

Many entrepreneurial ventures today pursue an internationalization strategy aimed at achieving growth and gaining a competitive edge. However, most of these ventures face severe resource constraint...