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Product development is often seen as a main tool for competitiveness in organizations. In process industries, like steel and paper, process and product development are seen as an integrated part. Product development has often been the result of a process development. Heavy investments and costly production give process a priority role in product development. The role of customers and suppliers in development work has increased for process-based companies. This change will have implication on how to organize and manage development in the traditional upstream companies. Therefore, this article presents results that show some of the implications of the changed situation for Swedish process-based companies. The article also emphasizes that there are indications of a shift of traditional upstream companies' centre of gravity due to the changed perspective in development work, towards customer focus.

This paper builds upon Berkhout et al.'s (2010) cyclic innovation model (CIM). This model was shown to provide an effective framework for understanding and managing the innovation process and to address many of the shortcomings of previous models. Building on that article we have applied CIM to an in-depth case study featuring a formable paperboard technology within the packaging industry. Using data gathered from 28 interviews conducted over a three year period, CIM, for the first time, is applied to a low technology industry. In so doing, this paper contributes to a growing body of literature exploring low technology industries and, in turn, demonstrates the wider applicability of CIM beyond technology intensive industries.

Traditionally, the innovation literature has viewed product innovation as the key competitive driver for firms in the market. But as demands for sustainability increase and technology is advancing sustainability-oriented innovation across industries, there is an opportunity to reconsider the role of process innovations. This study follows the market development process of a start-up founded on the principle of sustainability-oriented innovation and explores how the process innovation itself is used to shape the external market. This paper considers the relationship between process innovations and external market development through a longitudinal case study of a vertical farm start-up in Stockholm, Sweden. Findings show that through a number of representational practices, process innovation can also serve external objectives and play a role in external market development for firms incorporating the principles of sustainability-oriented innovation.

Previous empirical research on the industrial use and usability of methodologies and tools for product innovation is often based on national samples, and generally focuses on a few select industry sectors and typically lacks a perspective on methodologies as supportive instruments for the product innovation work process. Moreover, even if some studies recognise the problems with low company methodology awareness and use, the underlying causes remain unexplained. In a survey mode of inquiry involving informants in 19 global manufacturing companies in six sectors of the process industries, this study explores use and usability of methodologies in the development of non-assembled products in the process industries. While the findings demonstrate a rather scarce use of innovation methodologies, when they are used case-company informants not only report a high degree of usability but also recommend that all introduced methodologies should be included in an enhanced product innovation work process. The discussion advocates that an overarching strategy for methodology use should be institutionalised by company R&D management, including a “methodology tool-box” of select methodologies, and further facilitated by trained methodology experts as “ambassadors”.

Using a survey mode of inquiry, involving informants from 19global manufacturing companies in six sectors of the process industries, this study explores the intrinsic nature of product innovation of non-assembled products. Results show that the characteristics of the “transformation-based” production system in the process industries should not only govern the design of the total product innovation work process and the selection and use of related experimental environment but will also influence the design of the forthcoming production system. It is noted that pilot-planting and full-scale production trials are important instruments not only during the product development phase, but also afterward in solving B2B customers’ post-launch production problems. It is concluded that the experimental output from the product development phase of the product innovation work process for non-assembled products is both a new product design and a new foundation for the production process design.