Product Development Drivers: An Explorative Study in Finland and China

Jukka Majava, Kris M. Y. Law, Harri Haapasalo, Y. C. Chau and Osmo Kauppila
Additional contact information
Kris M. Y. Law: Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Harri Haapasalo: University of Oulu, Finland
Y. C. Chau: City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Osmo Kauppila: University of Oulu, Finland

International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning, 2018, vol. 7, issue 1, 35-53

Abstract: New Product Development (NPD) is vital for companies that operate in international markets. Yet, NPD has become increasingly challenging to manage; products are becoming ever more complex and various customers and multiple stakeholders’ needs must be satisfied. Additionally, NPD is often conducted in multiple locations around the world. Product development drivers can be defined as reasons for a company to initiate a product development project. These drivers affect decision-making, project outcome, and product strategy implementation. This study explores how product development drivers are perceived at the managerial level in technology companies based in Finland and China. The results indicate that managers’ views on these drivers differ in short-, medium-, and long-term development projects. Marketing and customers related drivers are considered the most important in the short term; financial goals related drivers in the medium term, and strategy and business environment related drivers in the long term. Furthermore, differences are found between Finnish and Chinese managers’ views. Finnish practitioners tend to be more focused on financial goals related drivers, whereas Chinese managers consider various factors important.

Keywords: new product development (NPD); driver; innovation; technology; Finland; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.issbs.si/press/ISSN/2232-5697/7_35-53.pdf full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: Product Development Drivers – an Explorative Study in Finland and China (2018)
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:isv:jouijm:v:7:y:2018:i:1:p:35-53

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning is currently edited by Kristijan Breznik

More articles in International Journal of Management, Knowledge and Learning from International School for Social and Business Studies, Celje, Slovenia
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alen Ježovnik ().