Cognitive mapping the topic of new product development (NPD)

Cognitive mapping the topic of new product development (NPD)

Joseph Kim-keung Ho

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

Abstract: The topic of new product development (NPD) in the subject of Business Management is complex. By making use of the cognitive mapping technique to conduct a brief literature review on the new product development topic, the writer renders a systemic image on the topic of new product development. The result of the study, in the form of a cognitive map on new product development, should be useful to those who are interested in the topics of cognitive mapping, literature review and new product development.

Key words: New product development (NPD), cognitive mapping, literature review

Introduction

As a topic in Business Management, new product development (NPD) is complex. It is thus useful to employ some learning tool to conduct its study, notably for literature review purpose. For a teacher in research methods, systems thinking and management, the writer is specifically interested in finding out how the cognitive mapping technique can be employed to go through a literature review on  new product development. This literature review exercise is taken up and reported in this article.

On the cognitive mapping exercise for literature review

Literature review is an important intellectual learning exercise, and not just for doing final year dissertation projects for tertiary education students. On these two topics of intellectual learning and literature review, the writer has compiled some e-learning resources. They are the Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page and the Literature on literature review Facebook page. Conducting literature review with the cognitive mapping technique is not novel in the cognitive mapping literature, see Eden and Simpson (1989), Eden, Jones and Sims (1983), Open University (n.d) and the Literature on cognitive mapping Facebook page. In this article, the specific steps involved in the cognitive mapping exercise are as follows:

Step 1: gather some main points from a number of academic journal articles on New product development. This result in the production of a table (Table 1) with the main points and associated references.

Step 2: consolidate  the main points from Table 1 to come up with a table listing the cognitive map variables (re: Table 2).

Step 3: link up the cognitive  map variables in a plausible way to produce a cognitive map (re: Figure 1) on the topic under review.

The next section applies these three steps to produce a cognitive map on new product development.

Descriptions of cognitive map variables on the new product development topic

From the reading of some academic articles on New product development, a number of main points (e.g., viewpoints, concepts and empirical findings) were gathered by the  writer. They are shown in Table 1 with explicit referencing on the points.

Table 1: Main points from the new product development literature and referencing

Main points from the new product development literature	Referencing
Point 1: "Bringing new products to market is crucial in today’s competitive business environment as market leadership, healthy market share, and sustained growth are all enabled through the process of developing and launching successful new products and services. New product development (NPD) practitioners are therefore keen to benchmark NPD practices because identifying a practice–whether a technique, method, process, or activity—that is able to more efficiently and/or effectively deliver a new product could spell the difference between success and failure in terms of vitality for both the product and company".	Barczak, G. and K.B. Kahn. 2012. "Identifying new product development best practice" Business Horizons 55, Elsevier: 293-305.
Point 2: "... is there a general consensus as to what constitutes an NPD [new product development] best practice? This question addresses whether there is a general set of best practices or whether best practices are context- or industry-specific. ......  are NPD practitioners knowledgeable about the status of NPD research and what is says as far as what constitutes an NPD best practice? This question examines whether benchmarking results are properly disseminated to the NPD practitioner community. That is, are benchmarking results translating into actual NPD practice?".	Barczak, G. and K.B. Kahn. 2012. "Identifying new product development best practice" Business Horizons 55, Elsevier: 293-305.
Point 3: "Like many business processes, new product development has various facets and has been delineated across multiple dimensions into which numerous characteristics can be classified. While the number and labeling of these dimensions is dependent on the benchmarking study, a common purpose has been to identify best practices with the expectation that companies will manifest and sustain these".	Barczak, G. and K.B. Kahn. 2012. "Identifying new product development best practice" Business Horizons 55, Elsevier: 293-305.
Point 4: "A participative approach to new product development (NPD) has been advocated in the literature since the mid-1980s (e.g., Takeuchi and Nonaka 1986; Day 1994; Eppinger 2001; O’Marah 2002). Nonetheless, the integration of NPD remains one of the top challenges facing managers of U.S. manufacturing firms (Ettlie 1995, 1997; Repenning, Goncalves and Black 2001). A recent panel discussion among leading researchers and executives indicates many companies continue to lack internal integration across their functional areas and with the external members of their supply chains".	Tracey, M. 2004. "A Holistic Approach to New Product Development: New Insights" The Journal of Supply Chain Management Fall: 37-5.
Point 5: "Ongoing integrated NPD leads to long-term viable advantage in three ways: making products available before competitors, incorporating the latest technology into these products, and expending fewer resources in providing them than the competition (Suri 1998). This is particularly relevant under the conditions of uncertainty and fierce competition facing many manufacturers today".	Tracey, M. 2004. "A Holistic Approach to New Product Development: New Insights" The Journal of Supply Chain Management Fall: 37-5.
Point 6: "Bovet and Sheffi (1998) maintained that early consideration of all supply chain variables in business decision making is critical to meeting the needs of customers cost-efficiently. Ettlie (1997) contended that genuine integrated product design includes the various disciplines and functions that span a life cycle of new products and services, extending through recycling or disposal of the product’s remnants. Repenning et al. (2001) asserted that problems discovered late in the product development process often result in the need for extra resources and deviation from standard development procedure. This in turn leads to an inefficient firefighting mode of development across the organization that can significantly hurt its capacity to create valuable products".	Tracey, M. 2004. "A Holistic Approach to New Product Development: New Insights" The Journal of Supply Chain Management Fall: 37-5.
Point 7: "In its purest form, product creation is the art, craft, and science of shaping the future. It is accomplished by creating companies and other entities that are capable of profitably solving customer problems".	Tomkovick, C. and C, Miller. 2000. "Perspective - Ring the Wind: Managing New Product Development in an Age of Change"  J Prod Innov Manag 17, Elsevier: 413-423
Point 8: "Innovation success typically requires both process and product champions. Process champions aggressively promote R&D as a legitimate and necessary company investment and continually work toward upgrading NPD [new product development] process quality. Product champions, as the name suggests, enthusiastically shepherd particular projects through the various NPD stages, often from new product concept to commercialization".	Tomkovick, C. and C, Miller. 2000. "Perspective - Ring the Wind: Managing New Product Development in an Age of Change"  J Prod Innov Manag 17, Elsevier: 413-423.
Point 9: "Product deletion and product retention decisions have significant consequences for new product development. Retention of poorly selling products may constitute a barrier to successful development and commercialization of potentially profitable new products".	Tomkovick, C. and C, Miller. 2000. "Perspective - Ring the Wind: Managing New Product Development in an Age of Change"  J Prod Innov Manag 17, Elsevier: 413-423.
Point 10: "New products are emerging continuously at an accelerated rate because of dynamic forces such as accelerated technology, greater customer demands, total quality management, global competition, reengineering, shared information systems, and government regulations, but the processes for developing them are still a series of discrete, sometimes overlapping steps. New product development needs to be a continuous process as we move into an era of continuous innovation".	Huges, G.D. and D.C. Chafin. 1996. "Turning New Product Development into a Continuous Learning Porcess" J Prod Innov Manag, Elsevier: 89-104.
Point 11: "Existing product development processes served us well during the era of stable market conditions, but now we must reexamine them, build on their strengths, and move onward to more dynamic systems that can deliver the right product when the customer needs it and faster than the competition. The right product is defined as one that adds value to the entire chain that leads to the end user. For the final end user, value added may be perceived values, which are ultimately measured by customer satisfaction indices".	Huges, G.D. and D.C. Chafin. 1996. "Turning New Product Development into a Continuous Learning Porcess" J Prod Innov Manag, Elsevier: 89-104.
Point 12: "A majority of successful innovations is developed through the collective efforts of individuals in new product development teams (hereafter, NPD teams). NPD teams are organizational workgroups where individuals from diverse personal and organizational backgrounds come together for a limited (and usually, predetermined) time period and work in close collaboration towards creating, designing, developing, and marketing a new product (Pinto, 2002). The ultimate objective of all NPD teams is superior marketplace success of the new product".	Akgűn, A.E., G.S. Lynn and C. Vɪlmaz. 2006. "Learning process in new product development teams and effects on product success: A socio-cognitive perspective" Industrial Marketing Management 35, Elsevier: 210-224.
Point 13: "Understanding and explaining the processes and procedures through which knowledge is generated, shared, disseminated, and utilized (that is, learned) in NPD teams is ..... critical for understanding new product success. While considerable research has focused on the learning phenomenon in NPD teams (Meyers & Wilemon, 1989; Purser, Pasmore, & Tenkasi, 1992), particularly on the dynamics of team information-processing (Lynn, Reilly, & Akgu¨n, 2000; Moorman, 1995; Moorman & Miner, 1997, 1998), the current state of knowledge about the learning phenomenon in NPD teams needs to be expanded to include a greater understanding of the process of learning and its effects on project outcomes".	Akgűn, A.E., G.S. Lynn and C. Vɪlmaz. 2006. "Learning process in new product development teams and effects on product success: A socio-cognitive perspective" Industrial Marketing Management 35, Elsevier: 210-224.
Point 14: "In line with the paramount interest in knowledge creation, scholars are paying attention to new product development in high technology firms. Product innovation has been recognized as in essence for their renewal (Dougherty, 1992). These firms heavily rely on new product introduction and commercialization to survive in intensive competitive environment characterized by rapid product obsolesce and evolving customer needs. High technology firms pursue growth mainly through new product development, which in turn results in unprecedented levels of new product introductions".	Yang, J. and C.Y. Liu. 2006. "New product development: An innovation diffusion perspective" Journal of High Technology Management Research 17, Elsevier: 17-26.
Point 15: "Empirical studies by Nickell (1996) and Blundell, Griffith, and Reenen (1999) have suggested a positive relationship between product market competition and innovative output. Firms subject to increased product market competition exhibit a higher propensity to adopt technological innovations. Product market competition and prior adoptions are found to be important determinants of technology adoptions as well. In more concentrated industries, the adoption of technological innovations is maximized".	Yang, J. and C.Y. Liu. 2006. "New product development: An innovation diffusion perspective" Journal of High Technology Management Research 17, Elsevier: 17-26.
Point 16: "New product development (NPD) speed has become increasingly important for management of innovation in organizations due to continuous reduction in the product life cycle time and increase in competition from technological advancements and globalization. A variety of strategic perspectives, such as time based competition, first-mover advantage, fast-follower strategy, and fast product development cycle time, have emphasized the importance of innovation and NPD speed (Kessler and Chakrabarti, 1996; Menon et al., 2002; Stalk and Hout, 1990). These perspectives represent a shift in management focus from a more-traditional cost orientation to a time orientation suitable for a fast-changing business environment".	Chen, J., F. Damanpour and R.R. Reilly. 2010. "Understanding antecedents  of new product development speed: A meta-analysis" Journal of Operations Management 28, Elsevier: 17-33.
Point 17: "By developing products quickly, companies can achieve several important benefits. First, fast NPD [new product development] can increase product profitability, margins, and market share. Firms are able to translate time into profits by satisfying their ‘‘impatient’’ customers, who are willing to pay a premium if they can get goods and services very quickly (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1995). Second, companies with fast NPD have a greater chance to establish industry standards and may lock up distribution channels (Dumaine, 1989). Third, a firm with the capability of developing products rapidly can quickly respond to market demands, improving the timeliness of its product entry and customer satisfaction".	Chen, J., F. Damanpour and R.R. Reilly. 2010. "Understanding antecedents  of new product development speed: A meta-analysis" Journal of Operations Management 28, Elsevier: 17-33.
Point 18: "New product development (NPD) is a complex and challenging activity. The challenge of managing NPD can be illustrated by addressing a number of difficult – and yet most essential – questions: How to anticipate future events in markets? How to foresee competitors’ strategies and actions? How to understand the logic of potential customers in evaluating competing products and services? How to deal with the uncertainties of all the factors affecting the success of the new products being developed?".	Suomala, P. 2005. "Life cycle perspective in the measurement of new product development performance" Managing Product Innovation Advances  in Business Marketing  and Purchasing 13, Elsevier: 523-700.
Point 19: "Industrial R&D can be seen as a continuum that starts from basic or applied research and ends with the development and design of a commercial product. It is unlikely that a project will straightforwardly pass all the phases of the continuum; rather, a company is typically able to maintain a certain amount of applied research, concept development, and product development activities/projects.".	Suomala, P. 2005. "Life cycle perspective in the measurement of new product development performance" Managing Product Innovation Advances  in Business Marketing  and Purchasing 13, Elsevier: 523-700.

With a set of main points collected, the writer produces a set of cognitive map variables. These variables are informed by the set of main points from Table 1. These variables are presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Cognitive map variables based on Table 1

Cognitive map variables	Literature review points
Variable 1: Drivers of interest in new product development	Point 1: "Bringing new products to market is crucial in today’s competitive business environment as market leadership, healthy market share, and sustained growth are all enabled through the process of developing and launching successful new products and services. New product development (NPD) practitioners are therefore keen to benchmark NPD practices because identifying a practice–whether a technique, method, process, or activity—that is able to more efficiently and/or effectively deliver a new product could spell the difference between success and failure in terms of vitality for both the product and company". Point 3: "Like many business processes, new product development has various facets and has been delineated across multiple dimensions into which numerous characteristics can be classified. While the number and labeling of these dimensions is dependent on the benchmarking study, a common purpose has been to identify best practices with the expectation that companies will manifest and sustain these". Point 10: "New products are emerging continuously at an accelerated rate because of dynamic forces such as accelerated technology, greater customer demands, total quality management, global competition, reengineering, shared information systems, and government regulations, but the processes for developing them are still a series of discrete, sometimes overlapping steps. New product development needs to be a continuous process as we move into an era of continuous innovation".
Variable 2: Improve intellectual understanding of new product development	Point 7: "In its purest form, product creation is the art, craft, and science of shaping the future. It is accomplished by creating companies and other entities that are capable of profitably solving customer problems". Point 11: "Existing product development processes served us well during the era of stable market conditions, but now we must reexamine them, build on their strengths, and move onward to more dynamic systems that can deliver the right product when the customer needs it and faster than the competition. The right product is defined as one that adds value to the entire chain that leads to the end user. For the final end user, value added may be perceived values, which are ultimately measured by customer satisfaction indices". Point 16: "New product development (NPD) speed has become increasingly important for management of innovation in organizations due to continuous reduction in the product life cycle time and increase in competition from technological advancements and globalization. A variety of strategic perspectives, such as time based competition, first-mover advantage, fast-follower strategy, and fast product development cycle time, have emphasized the importance of innovation and NPD speed (Kessler and Chakrabarti, 1996; Menon et al., 2002; Stalk and Hout, 1990). These perspectives represent a shift in management focus from a more-traditional cost orientation to a time orientation suitable for a fast-changing business environment". Point 17: "By developing products quickly, companies can achieve several important benefits. First, fast NPD [new product development] can increase product profitability, margins, and market share. Firms are able to translate time into profits by satisfying their ‘‘impatient’’ customers, who are willing to pay a premium if they can get goods and services very quickly (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1995). Second, companies with fast NPD have a greater chance to establish industry standards and may lock up distribution channels (Dumaine, 1989). Third, a firm with the capability of developing products rapidly can quickly respond to market demands, improving the timeliness of its product entry and customer satisfaction". Point 18: "New product development (NPD) is a complex and challenging activity. The challenge of managing NPD can be illustrated by addressing a number of difficult – and yet most essential – questions: How to anticipate future events in markets? How to foresee competitors’ strategies and actions? How to understand the logic of potential customers in evaluating competing products and services? How to deal with the uncertainties of all the factors affecting the success of the new products being developed?". Point 19: "Industrial R&D can be seen as a continuum that starts from basic or applied research and ends with the development and design of a commercial product. It is unlikely that a project will straightforwardly pass all the phases of the continuum; rather, a company is typically able to maintain a certain amount of applied research, concept development, and product development activities/projects.".
Variable 3: Effective new product development practices	Point 4: "A participative approach to new product development (NPD) has been advocated in the literature since the mid-1980s (e.g., Takeuchi and Nonaka 1986; Day 1994; Eppinger 2001; O’Marah 2002). Nonetheless, the integration of NPD remains one of the top challenges facing managers of U.S. manufacturing firms (Ettlie 1995, 1997; Repenning, Goncalves and Black 2001). A recent panel discussion among leading researchers and executives indicates many companies continue to lack internal integration across their functional areas and with the external members of their supply chains". Point 5: "Ongoing integrated NPD leads to long-term viable advantage in three ways: making products available before competitors, incorporating the latest technology into these products, and expending fewer resources in providing them than the competition (Suri 1998). This is particularly relevant under the conditions of uncertainty and fierce competition facing many manufacturers today". Point 6: "Bovet and Sheffi (1998) maintained that early consideration of all supply chain variables in business decision making is critical to meeting the needs of customers cost-efficiently. Ettlie (1997) contended that genuine integrated product design includes the various disciplines and functions that span a life cycle of new products and services, extending through recycling or disposal of the product’s remnants. Repenning et al. (2001) asserted that problems discovered late in the product development process often result in the need for extra resources and deviation from standard development procedure. This in turn leads to an inefficient firefighting mode of development across the organization that can significantly hurt its capacity to create valuable products". Point 8: "Innovation success typically requires both process and product champions. Process champions aggressively promote R&D as a legitimate and necessary company investment and continually work toward upgrading NPD [new product development] process quality. Product champions, as the name suggests, enthusiastically shepherd particular projects through the various NPD stages, often from new product concept to commercialization". Point 9: "Product deletion and product retention decisions have significant consequences for new product development. Retention of poorly selling products may constitute a barrier to successful development and commercialization of potentially profitable new products". Point 12: "A majority of successful innovations is developed through the collective efforts of individuals in new product development teams (hereafter, NPD teams). NPD teams are organizational workgroups where individuals from diverse personal and organizational backgrounds come together for a limited (and usually, predetermined) time period and work in close collaboration towards creating, designing, developing, and marketing a new product (Pinto, 2002). The ultimate objective of all NPD teams is superior marketplace success of the new product". Point 14: "In line with the paramount interest in knowledge creation, scholars are paying attention to new product development in high technology firms. Product innovation has been recognized as in essence for their renewal (Dougherty, 1992). These firms heavily rely on new product introduction and commercialization to survive in intensive competitive environment characterized by rapid product obsolesce and evolving customer needs. High technology firms pursue growth mainly through new product development, which in turn results in unprecedented levels of new product introductions".
Variable 4: Learn from new product development practices	Point 2: "... is there a general consensus as to what constitutes an NPD [new product development] best practice? This question addresses whether there is a general set of best practices or whether best practices are context- or industry-specific. ......  are NPD practitioners knowledgeable about the status of NPD research and what is says as far as what constitutes an NPD best practice? This question examines whether benchmarking results are properly disseminated to the NPD practitioner community. That is, are benchmarking results translating into actual NPD practice?". Point 13: "Understanding and explaining the processes and procedures through which knowledge is generated, shared, disseminated, and utilized (that is, learned) in NPD teams is ..... critical for understanding new product success. While considerable research has focused on the learning phenomenon in NPD teams (Meyers & Wilemon, 1989; Purser, Pasmore, & Tenkasi, 1992), particularly on the dynamics of team information-processing (Lynn, Reilly, & Akgu¨n, 2000; Moorman, 1995; Moorman & Miner, 1997, 1998), the current state of knowledge about the learning phenomenon in NPD teams needs to be expanded to include a greater understanding of the process of learning and its effects on project outcomes". Point 15: "Empirical studies by Nickell (1996) and Blundell, Griffith, and Reenen (1999) have suggested a positive relationship between product market competition and innovative output. Firms subject to increased product market competition exhibit a higher propensity to adopt technological innovations. Product market competition and prior adoptions are found to be important determinants of technology adoptions as well. In more concentrated industries, the adoption of technological innovations is maximized".

The next step is to relate the cognitive map variables to make up a cognitive map on new product development. The cognitive map and its explanation are presented in the next section.

A cognitive map on new product development and its interpretation

By relating the four variables identified in Table 2, the writer comes up with a cognitive map on new product development, as shown in Figure 1.

These cognitive  map variables, four of them altogether, are related to constitute a systemic image of new product development. The links in the cognitive map (re: Figure 1) indicate direction of influences between variables. The + sign shows that an increase in one variable leads to an increase in another variable while a -ve sign tells us that in increase in one variable leads to a decrease in another variable.  If there no signs shown on the arrows, that means the influences can be positive or negative.  For further information on new product development, readers are referred to the Literature on new product development Facebook page.

Concluding remarks

The cognitive mapping exercise captures in one diagram some of the main variables involved in new product development. The resultant cognitive map promotes an exploratory way to study new product development in a holistic tone. The experience of the cognitive mapping exercise is that it can be a quick, efficient and entertaining way to explore a complex topic such as new product development in Business Management. Finally, readers who are interested in cognitive mapping should also find the article informative on this mapping topic.

Bibliography

1.      Akgűn, A.E., G.S. Lynn and C. Vɪlmaz. 2006. "Learning process in new product development teams and effects on product success: A socio-cognitive perspective" Industrial Marketing Management 35, Elsevier: 210-224.

2.      Barczak, G. and K.B. Kahn. 2012. "Identifying new product development best practice" Business Horizons 55, Elsevier: 293-305.

3.      Chen, J., F. Damanpour and R.R. Reilly. 2010. "Understanding antecedents  of new product development speed: A meta-analysis" Journal of Operations Management 28, Elsevier: 17-33.

4.      Eden, C. and P. Simpson. 1989. "SODA and cognitive mapping in practice", pp. 43-70, in Rosenhead, J. (editor) Rational Analysis for a Problematic World, Wiley, Chichester.

5.      Eden, C., C. Jones and D. Sims. 1983. Messing about in Problems: An informal structured approach to their identification and management, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

6.      Huges, G.D. and D.C. Chafin. 1996. "Turning New Product Development into a Continuous Learning Porcess" J Prod Innov Manag, Elsevier: 89-104.

7.      Literature on cognitive mapping Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/Literature-on-cognitive-mapping-800894476751355/).

8.      Literature on literature review Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/literature.literaturereview/).

9.      Literature on new product developmentt Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/Literature-on-new-product-development-1941744666106283/).

10. Managerial intellectual learning Facebook page, maintained by Joseph, K.K. Ho (url address: https://www.facebook.com/managerial.intellectual.learning/).

11. Open University. n.d. "Sign graph" Systems Thinking and Practice (T552): Diagramming, Open University, U.K. (url address: http://systems.open.ac.uk/materials/T552/) [visited at April 10, 2017].

12. Suomala, P. 2005. "Life cycle perspective in the measurement of new product development performance" Managing Product Innovation Advances  in Business Marketing  and Purchasing 13, Elsevier: 523-700.

13. Tomkovick, C. and C, Miller. 2000. "Perspective - Ring the Wind: Managing New Product Development in an Age of Change"  J Prod Innov Manag 17, Elsevier: 413-423

14. Tracey, M. 2004. "A Holistic Approach to New Product Development: New Insights" The Journal of Supply Chain Management Fall: 37-5.

15. Yang, J. and C.Y. Liu. 2006. "New product development: An innovation diffusion perspective" Journal of High Technology Management Research 17, Elsevier: 17-26.