The effects of dissimilarities in cognitive style on project protocol and new product development outcomes.

The effects of dissimilarities in cognitive style on project protocol and new product development outcomes.

Vossen, L.E.

Hultink, H.J. (mentor)
Tabeau, K.E. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Product Innovation Management

Master of Science Strategic Product Design

2014-04-11

Organizations can distinguish themselves from others in the market by means of new products. The new product development (NPD) process is very important for organizations. Therefore organizations keep searching for new ways to be successful in NPD. Previous empirical research on new product performance has provided considerable evidence that a wide variety of antecedent factors can influence the outcomes of NPD. Product newness is a factor that is positively associated with new product performance, and therefore companies keep trying to increase the degree of newness of products. Recently there has also been tremendous interest in involving external designers to help companies develop successful new products. However, it seems that there is a need to better understand how the collaboration with external design agencies can be used in light of improved NPD outcomes. This study examines the effects of the collaboration with external design agencies during the NPD process. Furthermore, with entering new domains and involving external companies to increase the product newness uncertainties and risks come along. Project protocols can play an important role in NPD, by helping to achieve clarity and stability in order to reduce these uncertainties and risks during the process. This is particularly important when entering unfamiliar markets. Project protocols offer a common ground for all parties involved, describe the general parameters that a new product should exhibit (i.e. target segments, base technology, pricing communication and distribution channels) and set priorities for these parameters. However, there is little empirical evidence on the influence of project protocols on product newness. Therefore, this research also focuses on this gap in literature by studying the impact of project protocols on product newness. The goal of this study is to reveal factors related to the collaboration with external designers, that impact the outcomes of innovation projects in terms of product newness and new product performance by means of a quantitative study. This study presents a conceptual framework to clarify the relationships between all variables in the study. Furthermore, expanding on the research on dyadic relations within NPD, this study focuses on the dyadic collaboration between an external designer and internal NPD project manager. The unit of analysis in this study is the innovation project in which a design consultancy firm was hired to contribute to the innovation project. The empirical data incorporated in this study stem for Dutch NPD companies and design agencies that collaborated in an innovation project. The final sample consisted of 206 respondents, of which 103 respondents are designers and 103 are managers, together forming 103 dyadic collaboration. In a large survey, the dissimilarities between designers and managers is explored. This study examines how product performance is affected by product newness, and likewise how product newness is affected by project protocol. Thereby the moderating role of the dissimilarities in cognitive style in the NPD dyads on the relationship between project protocol and product newness is examined. However, no significant association is found between product newness and new product performance. Likewise, project protocol proved not to be related to improved product newness. This study also hypothesizes that high dissimilarities between the external designer and NPD manager positively influence the outcomes of the NPD project regarding the degree of product newness. Contrary to expectations, the dissimilarities between the managers and external designers proved to have little or no influence on the degree of product newness or on the relationship between project protocol and product newness. No hypotheses were supported. In addition to these findings, the study also explores how project protocol is associated with improved new product performance and the effect of the unique cognitive styles of the external designers and NPD managers. The individual unique cognitive styles do influence the product newness and new product performance. Finally, the results provide management insights in how to arrange effective NPD dyads in light of the desired outcomes of the innovation project, e.g. a higher degree of product newness or improved new product performance. One important managerial inference from this study is that new product development managers should consider hiring designers that are not only creative, but that also have proved to be conform to rules or to pay attention to details.

NPD dyad
Cognitive style
Project protocol

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:4c1f0710-d6a8-4e83-94ae-155f952912d4

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2014 Vossen, L.E.