New Product Development in Virtual Environment

Nader Ale Ebrahim, Shamsuddin Ahmed and Zahari Taha

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Purpose - The literature on the topic has evolved exponentially since eight years ago. Relaying on a review of studies published in recent years, this article proposes and discusses a framework which incorporates a set of virtual teams involved in a new product development initiative. Design/methodology/approach – A range of academic and practitioner literature related to virtual teams and virtual new product development is reviewed. What is Virtual New Product Development and what determines its development in manufacturing firms? These two questions are answered. Findings - The decision to use a virtual team is often a necessity and not a choice; being ‘virtual’ is in most cases not an alternative but a requirement. Enterprise may benefit from building and maintain the virtual teams in a number of ways such as achieving higher quality, accessing and capturing dispersed knowledge and skills regarding the multifunctional and multi-use components and modules, electronically unite experts in highly specialized fields, collaborating more productivity at a distance, achieving tight schedules and start quickly, reducing travel time and cost, enabling the recruitment of talented employees, builds diverse teams, promoting proactive employment and finally reducing discrimination in enterprises. Originality/value - The results of an academic literature review were employed to the literature so far has not paid adequate attention to the virtual team activities in NPD. The results highlight several avenues which would help managers and policy makers to better foster cyber new product development and designers to better channel of their efforts in the design and manufacturing domain.

Keywords: Keywords - New product Development; Virtual teams; Concurrent Collaboration; Review paper (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L15 L6 M11 M12 M5 O1 O3 O32 P4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-03, Revised 2008-08
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
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Published in International Conference on Technology Management and Innovation in China: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century, CAMOT 2008, UIBE, Beijing, China, (2008): pp. 203-218

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