International Journal of Innovation Management

Many studies in new product development (NPD) single out the use of information (especially market information) as a key predictor of NPD performance, but knowledge is lacking about what type of information is needed in each phase of the NDP process to enable high NPD performance. Based on a literature review and a pilot case study, this article increases the understanding of managing information in NPD. It is argued that the capability of managing information consists of three components: acquiring, sharing, and using information. By focusing on three different phases of the NPD process, 11 propositions regarding which information, information sources and means of cross-functional integration patterns that are most important to high NPD performance have been derived in each respective phase. In addition, the article also discusses antecedents and consequences of managing information. The article concludes with implications for managers, identifies limitations and proposes an agenda for further research into this area.

The focus of this article is on exploring the business competitive consequences of firm patent strategies in the United States de jure technology standard development processes. An analytic framework ("Firm Patent Strategies Matrix") is created which formally identifies a set of firm patent strategies applicable in the de jure technology standard development process. This Firm Patent Strategies Matrix is predicated on two key variables relevant to the standard development process: first, firms are either active participants in standard-setting committees, or they are non-participants, and second, firms are either disclosing appropriate information on potentially relevant patented technology (or patent pending applications on such technology), or they are not disclosing such potentially relevant patented information on technology (or patent pending applications on such technology), in the standard development process. The Firm Patent Strategies Matrix identifies the following four generic strategic choices for a technology-driven firm to choose among concerning the disposition of its patents: (1) Disclosure/Participation, (2) Disclosure/Non-Participation, (3) Non-Disclosure/Participation, and (4) Non-Disclosure/Non-Participation. Public policy issues, relevant to these Firm Patent Strategies, are identified (e.g., RAND licencing terms, patent ambush and submarine patents) and recommended policy solutions are offered (e.g., instituting Ex Ante royalty discussions, vigorous federal antitrust enforcement against patent ambush and the wider use of firm patent liability insurance, respectively).

Risk is central to innovation, but in order to be theoretically interesting and of practical use, the relation between risk and innovation needs to be investigated in more specific situations. This paper explores the risk conceptions of innovators in two large corporations and identifies three themes that illuminate the relationship between risk and innovation in the corporate setting. The first relates risk to the issues of boundaries and control over parts of the innovation process; the second shows how risk is primarily related to innovation as process and not as output, and the third shows how a flexible view of business models can be used to manage risk in corporate innovation.

This paper explores the contribution of the purchasing function to ecological innovation in the upstream supply chains of manufacturing companies. In terms of innovation type, purchasing managers reported much more activity on ecological process innovation than on product or organisational innovation. Few purchasing managers initiate ecological innovation in supply themselves, although they can play a range of supporting roles, not least lobbying for internal acceptance of supplier innovations. Among the motives for undertaking such initiatives, cost advantages, corporate reputation, supply chain pressure and legal requirements dominate. While making a significant contribution, the role of purchasing managers in ecological innovation is thus, at the same time, somewhat limited. To an extent, these limitations can be explained by a lag between the technological innovations purchasing managers can induce in their supply chains and a lack in organisational innovation in the rules and practices that govern their own work.

This paper generates a new perspective on the growing literature in new product development (NPD): firm ownership and the determinants of success and failure of NPD firms operating in a Chinese region which has experienced unprecedented change. Cooper and Kleinschmidt's conceptual framework is utilised. 126 new product projects, from 84 firms were investigated using a structured survey. Results are compared with those from studies in Canada, Korea, Japan and Slovenia. Contrary to other studies' findings, a hostile market environment was found to be facilitative rather than a major de-facilitator. We then further examined NPD activities in three different types of manufacturing firms in Guangdong: state-owned, joint venture/foreign owned and private firms. A comparison with an earlier study conducted in China focusing mainly on state-owned firms is made and the paper concludes by drawing out implications for managers operating in China.

This paper studies and compares the actual historic solar photovoltaic (PV) installation data in Japan and the United States and proposes two deployment models to account for the differences. Deployment, along with research, development and demonstration, constitutes what is known as the RD3 (PCAST — President's Council of Advances in Science and Technology, United States) innovative chain of a new technology. Japan deploys PV focusing on the niche of utility grid-tied small-scale system (90 per cent of which is standardised roof-top residential PV system) using highly integrated value chain; this seems to draw upon her strong manufacturing culture and associated social technology and institutions for suppliers-dominated innovations.

The United States deploys PV as a broadly defined innovation emphasising user-oriented customisation in both on and off grid, residential and industrial applications using small independent and intermediary system integrators. Empirical analysis of the diffusion patterns in the grid-tied small system category in respective contexts suggests that Japan's institutions seem to match her mass deployment strategy while the United States' combination of fragmented industry structure and diversity deployment gives rise to a complex diffusion pattern calling for continual institutional innovation or co-evolution. Our research, therefore, highlights that commercialisation of new technology or technical change, in general, is not an autonomous process and has strong institutional underpinnings. We formalise and generalise this "match" (Perez, 1983) argument in accordance with Nelson and Sampat's (2001) framework of physical technology vs social technology and their interactions. Some potential future extensions regarding utilities for this model are then highlighted.