Journal of Product Innovation Management最新文献

A review of research on innovation and new product development points to certain foundational issues of concern such as the use of (1) different definitions of constructs germane to the field (e.g., definitions of innovation, innovativeness, and specific types of innovations), (2) different construct labels to refer to specific innovation types, and (3) the same construct label to refer to different innovation types. Over the years, scholars have cautioned that a body of research in a field of study that is based on different definitions of constructs germane to the field would slow the advancement of knowledge. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this Catalyst paper is to initiate a conversation on the prospects for mitigating the definitional quagmire in research on innovation and new product development by developing an inclusive definition of innovation that can be used as a template for defining various types of innovations uniformly. Toward this end, the paper proposes an inclusive definition of innovation based on idea, outcome, and value creation as the defining or essential characteristics of all innovations. Definitions of 10 specific types of innovations defined in a consistent manner, employing the proposed inclusive definition of innovation as a template are also presented. All else being equal, consistency across research studies in the definitions of constructs employed can be conducive to the advancement of knowledge in a field of study in several ways such as streamlining the curation of the research-based knowledge, facilitating the grounding of new research in prior research (i.e., curated knowledge), and eliminating differences across studies in the definitions of key constructs employed as a potential confound on the research findings.

Innovation is a key driver of firm success. To encourage innovation, firms often offer equity-based compensation, such as stock options, to better align CEOs' personal interests with shareholder value. Drawing on agency theory, we argue that stock options may not always benefit a firm by encouraging innovation. Instead, we demonstrate that CEOs intending to exercise their stock options have the incentive to be myopic in R&D management so that they can temporarily boost the stock price and, thus, increase their personal wealth. Using a unique multi-source dataset of 335 Standard & Poor 500 companies from 2007 to 2015, we find evidence supporting this argument. Moreover, the findings suggest that factors that can affect the perceived pressure to promote innovation by CEOs might reshape the association between stock option exercise and myopic R&D management. For example, power resulting from CEO duality decreases the perceived pressure to promote innovation, which increases the likelihood of CEOs engaging in myopic R&D management when exercising their stock options. However, when shareholders present a long investment horizon or when firms have high innovativeness, CEOs perceive more pressure to promote innovation and thus are less likely to opt for myopic R&D management while exercising stock options. The findings provide important insights for better understanding and controlling managerial myopia in innovation management.

This study delves into the intricate relationship between customers' willingness to co-create (WCC) and the required level of co-creation (LCC) for effective service innovation adoption. In response to recent findings suggesting a “co-creation sweet spot,” beyond which additional co-creation activities have detrimental effects, this research aims to provide both theoretical and empirical insights into this phenomenon. Unlike previous investigations focusing on either the willingness to co-create or the level of co-creation at a particular point in time and overlooking potential interactions, our study considers their interactions over time, acknowledging that revenue for most digital services is generated through ongoing customer usage. Utilizing longitudinal data from 352 participants across four waves and employing structural equation modeling, our analysis reveals a nuanced pattern. Customers' willingness to co-create predominantly shapes usage intention in the pre-adoption stage, while the level of co-creation becomes a critical driver for continuous usage in the post-adoption stages. Further analysis using response surface analysis with polynomial regression confirms a specific matching logic: customers with low (high) willingness to co-create expect a low (high) level of co-creation from a service innovation. From a theoretical perspective, our findings contribute to bridging the research gap concerning an optimal co-creation level, offering insights into psychological processes underlying the co-creation sweet spot. Furthermore, we also shed light on temporal aspects of the interplay between willingness to co-create and the level of co-creation, offering a more holistic perspective on their joint influence on adoption behavior. From a managerial perspective, our study challenges the traditional assumption that more co-creation naturally leads to better outcomes. It emphasizes the significance of tailoring the level of co-creation in digital service innovations based on customers' intrinsic willingness. This strategic customization aligns with the evolving landscape of digital service innovation, offering practical insights for managers striving to optimize their co-creation strategies.

The increasing introduction of intelligent, interactive robots in the service industry raises concerns about the potential dehumanization of service provision and its influences on corporate brand perceptions. To avoid adverse effects, new service development (NSD) managers seemingly favor service robots that feature anthropomorphic design metaphors, so they appear more human-like. The current research investigates explicitly how customers' perception of a robot's anthropomorphic design metaphors might spill over to affect corporate brand perceptions. Study 1, a picture-based scenario study with 109 participants, reveals the impact of anthropomorphic design metaphors on untested corporate brand outcomes, such as brand trust and brand experience. Then Study 2, a video-based scenario study with 530 participants, addresses whether these effects depend on the service context. In Study 3, a field study of 393 participants, the authors examine how anthropomorphic design metaphors influence other firm-related outcomes (e.g., shopping enjoyment, sales). The combined results confirm that anthropomorphic design metaphors strongly affect brand trust and brand experience, as well as other critical firm-related outcomes; they also reveal notable context effects, such that customers of people-processing (e.g., care services) and mental-stimulus-processing (e.g., shopping assistance) services appear more likely to use anthropomorphic design metaphors as corporate brand cues. Our research encourages NSD managers and scholars to consider the effects of introducing anthropomorphic service robots on corporate brands.

Innovation is essential for sustaining the global competitive viability of multinational enterprises (MNEs), yet the internationalization–innovation relationship remains theoretically debatable and empirically inconsistent. To resolve the puzzle and identify the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the mixed findings, this study integrates existing empirical evidence from 298 independent samples and presents a multilevel meta-analysis. Taking an organizational learning perspective, this study explores two critical yet underexplored national sentiments that can moderate the MNEs' innovation propensity in internationalization, including technologism and nationalism. Our results show that while technologism strengthens MNEs' innovation in internationalization, nationalism weakens it. In addition, the interaction between the national sentiments exerts significant moderating effects on the relationship. Through exploring the novel drivers and barriers at country level, this study generates new and nuanced insights into innovation management in an international context. It also provides important managerial implications and discusses opportunities for future investigations into the complexity of innovation management in an interconnected and competitive world.

In today's dynamic business environment, business model innovation (BMI) has become a strategic lever that businesses can harness to unlock new revenue opportunities and fortify their long-term competitive edge. BMI often hinges on the exchange relationships between chief executive officers (CEOs) and their top management team (TMT) members. However, in practice, CEOs and TMT members often have incongruent perceptions of these relationships, which may impede them from making joint efforts to achieve BMI. When such incongruence arises, relying solely on either the CEO's or the TMT members' perceptions of exchange quality might provide an incomplete understanding of the effect of CEO–TMT exchange quality on BMI. In this study, we investigate how CEO–TMT exchange quality incongruence influences BMI under various levels of environmental dynamism. Using archival industry data and matched survey data from 618 CEOs and 1854 TMT members in China, the polynomial regression and response surface analyses indicate that CEO–TMT exchange quality incongruence negatively affects BMI. This finding suggests that while high perceptions of exchange quality by both CEOs and TMTs independently contribute to BMI, an incongruent perception of exchange quality between CEOs and TMT members can undermine the success of BMI. Moreover, high levels of environmental dynamism aggravate the negative effect of CEO–TMT exchange quality incongruence on BMI. These findings enable us to offer new theoretical insights regarding the influence of the CEO–TMT exchange quality on BMI, thus complementing existing studies on antecedents of BMI and enriching literature on the outcomes of the CEO–TMT interface. Additionally, this study offers practical guidance for enhancing BMI through effective management of incongruent perceptions of CEO–TMT exchanges.

This study identifies the political behavior marketers use to ensure the market fit of a new product platform. Drawing on two political NPD literature streams and configuration theory, the authors explain how (i) soft and hard influence tactics, (ii) reason, (iii) marketers' experience (with product and portfolio decisions), and (iv) the type of product platform (smart vs. conventional), together determine marketers' political effectiveness in gaining support for design modifications from the development team. The framework and hypotheses are tested using data from a sample of 100 influence attempts by marketers. A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis reveals no single, optimal solution but three “influence recipes.” First, we find a generic solution for both smart and conventional product platforms that combines marketer experience with reason and coalition building. Second, we note two additional solutions for smart product platforms: one consisting of marketer experience with coalition building and another one combining marketer experience with reason and assertiveness. Regression results reveal a positive relationship between marketers' influence behavior and platform performance in the marketplace, in support of a complementary and functional role of marketers' political behaviors in innovation management.

The development of innovations aimed at tackling grand challenges requires the support of an appropriate innovation ecosystem. However, there is a limited understanding of how such innovation ecosystems emerge in contexts of absolute uncertainty. We addressed this gap by examining the boundary work carried out by key actors in the creation of the biomedical innovation ecosystem in India that supported the development of a successful low-cost heart valve over the 1976–1995 period. We developed a process model demonstrating how the ecosystem leader co-created the innovation ecosystem that led to the development of a low-cost heart valve by engaging in three types of configuration boundary work: establishing ecosystem configuration, modeling ecosystem configuration, and expanding ecosystem configuration. Our study contributes to the literature on innovations for grand challenges, innovation ecosystems, and boundary work.

Innovation management research demonstrates that political behavior is necessary for project leaders to conduct breakthrough innovation (BI) projects successfully. Although it is known that project leaders' political behavior contributes to BI project success by maintaining continued support for the projects, this study focuses on another function of organizational politics: the uncertainty-handling function. Project leaders encounter uncertainties during their BI projects and are tormented by unintended project stagnation. While scholars and practitioners have developed several logic-based responsive approaches to address uncertainty problems, project leaders also employ political behavior. The realization provokes questions such as, what type of uncertainty in particular triggers a project manager's political behavior in the context of BI development? Is there any specific linkage between a particular type of uncertainty and particular political behavior? What mechanisms underpin those relationships? To answer these questions, we investigate six BI projects in five mature Japanese companies through the lens of the meaning management perspective. The analysis reveals that (1) project leaders use political behavior to address a specific situation in which two uncertainties are intertwined; (2) project leaders use different political behavior depending on the type of intertwined uncertainties; and (3) project leaders resolve intertwined uncertainties with political behavior and then address each uncertainty in their BI projects. This study contributes to the innovation politics literature and innovation management practices by identifying specific conditions under which BI project leaders use political behavior and suggesting the fit between particular political behaviors and uncertainty conditions.