An inquiry on managers use of decision-making tools in the core front end of the innovation process

Francesco Appio, Sofiane Achiche, Tim C. McAloone and Thomas J. Howard

International Journal of Product Development, 2013, vol. 18, issue 6, 461-491

Abstract: This paper focuses on the Core Front End (CFE) activities of the innovation process to say, Opportunity Identification and Opportunity Analysis. In the CFE of innovation, several tools are used to facilitate and optimise decisions. To select them, managers of the product development team have to use several premises to decide which tool is more appropriate to which activity. This paper provides an overview of these mechanisms by looking inside five companies from two different countries. Those mechanisms underline the dimensions influencing the decision process before a specific tool is chosen and how those tools impact specific performance metrics. From the analyses and hypotheses testing performed, it clearly emerges that there is no link between being aware of basic requirements (inputs/outputs) to appropriately use a certain tool and dimensions such as tools' effectiveness, difficulty in usage, frequency of usage and estimate investment for using them. Also, interesting cross-case patterns emerge.

Keywords: fuzzy front end; new product development; NPD tools; decision making; input; output; awareness; innovation process; opportunity identification; opportunity analysis; product innovation. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=58546 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijpdev:v:18:y:2013:i:6:p:461-491

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Product Development from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().