مدلسازی پردازش اطلاعات بازار در توسعه محصول جدید : تجزیه و تحلیل تجربی

This research explores the antecedents and consequences of market information processing during the development process of new high-tech products. To this end, we develop and test a conceptual model for market information processing in three generic stages of the new product development (NPD) process (predevelopment, development and commercialization). In addition, we explore the relationships between market information processing, its antecedents, and product advantage and success. We test our model with responses from 166 NPD-managers in Dutch high-tech firms. The findings show that the market information processing variables are related differentially to new product outcomes, even when controlling for product advantage and product newness to the market. In addition, we found that companies can enhance market information processing for new high-tech products by influencing project priority and flexibility to new products, and by reducing interdepartmental conflict.

Market orientation has received much attention for its apparent positive effect on organizational performance (Narver and Slater, 1990 and Jaworski and Kohli, 1993). Market orientation leads to superior organizational performance, at least in part, by aiding in developing successful new products (Gatignon and Xuereb, 1997). A market orientation is inherently a learning orientation (Slater and Narver, 1995) as it consists of information processing activities that organizations use to learn (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990 and Kohli et al., 1993). These activities include market information acquisition, dissemination and use (Kohli and Jaworski, 1990 and Baker and Sinkula, 2002). Innovation is inherently an information processing activity (Leenders et al., 2003). An important element of information processing is the use of market information (Moorman, 1995 and Ottum and Moore, 1997). Market information use has been defined as taking information about current and future needs of customers and external factors such as competition into account when making decisions (Moorman et al., 1993). Several studies have shown that the use of market information has a positive effect on the successful development of new products (Atuahene-Gima, 1995 and Ottum and Moore, 1997). A market orientation is achieved, therefore, through market information processing. However, organizations often fail to use market information that is available to them (Maltz and Kohli, 1996). Effective market information processing has been identified as a problematic area (Cooper, 2003), and many firms do not actively incorporate market information into their new products (Ottum and Moore, 1997). Whereas market information is acknowledged for its important effect on both NPD and organizational performance for incrementally new products, the appropriate role for market information is less apparent for really new products (O’Connor, 1998 and Veryzer, 1998a). According to some authors, too much emphasis on market information may lead to incremental product improvements rather than truly innovative products (Tauber, 1974 and Bennett and Cooper, 1981). Two important questions, therefore, are why companies decide to process, or not to process, market information in their development projects, and how product newness to the market interacts with their level of market information processing, and ultimately the new product's success. The purpose of this research is to investigate the antecedents and consequences of market information processing during the development of new high-tech products. To this end, we develop a conceptual model of market information processing across three generic stages of the NPD process (predevelopment, development and commercialization). In addition, the relationships between market information processing, product advantage and new product success are explored. This study contributes to the existing literature in three ways. First, most market orientation studies have been conducted at the company level. The present study focuses on implementing a market orientation at the project level. Second, we investigate market information use across three different stages of the NPD process, and thereby show the consequences of market information use more granularly than previous studies. Finally, we investigate the effects of several antecedents of market information processing for new high-tech products, including the controversial issue of product newness to the market. While most studies in the past decade focused on the consequences of market information processing in NPD, few have investigated antecedents to market information processing. To our knowledge, no study has investigated several of the antecedents included here. We hope to fill a part of this gap in extant knowledge.

Although some authors have stated that market information use could be detrimental for developing new high-tech products, this research does not support those contentions. These results demonstrate important differential effects of market information processing variables, and that they should be considered separately. For new high-tech products using market information is related to financial success in the predevelopment stage. At Sony, executives were skeptical about using market information, but the success of the Vaio-W computer showed that they were wrong. Sony developed the Vaio-W after market research in the predevelopment stage showed that Japanese consumers bought laptops because they took up a small amount of space. The result was a small computer that sold in a single day the volume expected for the first month of sales (Williams, 2002). Using market information in commercialization is positively related to product advantage. This can be explained by the fact that market information during commercialization is used for positioning the product in the customers’ minds within the right market segment. When they launched the new Beetle, Volkswagen carefully used information about potential customers to differentially position the car based on a nostalgia factor in the commercialization stage. Acquiring customer information is associated directly with product advantage, without even having to disseminate or use the information in any of the NPD process stages. One potential explanation is that market information for new high-tech products may be used more intuitively than formally during decision-making. By acquiring market information and interacting directly with customers, developers obtain an understanding of what customers want and integrate this information into the new product intuitively. As Christensen et al. (2002) noted: ‘while the process that molds ideas into sustaining innovations can be deliberate, data-driven and analytical, the process for shaping disruptive businesses must be driven by intuitive understanding of the possibilities.’ The objectives for this study were to explore antecedents to and consequences of market information processing for new high-tech products. We found that project priority, interdepartmental conflict and flexibility to new products can enhance or reduce market information processing. Project priority is an important determinant of acquiring and disseminating market information. Portfolio management can be helpful for companies to prioritize the right projects (Cooper et al., 1999). If the right projects are selected, project priority stimulates the acquisition and dissemination of market information that may lead to product advantage. Interdepartmental conflict is negatively related to the acquisition of market information and time/cost efficiency. Companies should therefore focus on reducing interdepartmental conflict. Ottum and Moore (1997) suggest low-level conflict resolution methods for reducing interdepartmental conflict. Flexibility to new products is positively associated with the dissemination of market information, product newness and market/financial success, but negatively with the use of market information in the commercialization stage. Firms should therefore be flexible to new products, but at the same time be careful that this flexibility does not harm the commercialization of running projects. Finally, R&D dominance is negatively related to market/financial success but positively to product newness that has a direct impact on product advantage.