THE VALUE OF DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: SOME ECONOMETRIC EVIDENCE

Stephen Roper, James H Love and Priit Vahter

No 85, University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series from Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia)

Abstract: Investments in design play a potentially significant role in new product development (NPD) although there is little unanimity on the most appropriate or effective design strategy. Previous case-study based studies have identified three alternative design strategies for NPD: design used as a functional specialism, design used as part of a multi-functional team and designer-led NPD. Using data on a sample of Irish manufacturing plants over three periods we are able to examine the effectiveness of each of these three design strategies for NPD novelty and success. Our analysis suggests that design is closely associated with success in NPD performance regardless of the type of strategy pursued. Adopting designer-led NPD, however, is associated with a much greater NPD performance than more functionally-oriented strategies. The effects of design on NPD outcomes are also strongly moderated by other plant characteristics. For example, the beneficial role of design on NPD outputs is only evident for plants which also engage in R&D. Also, while both small and larger plants do gain from using design as a functional specialism and as part of multi-functional teams, the additional benefits of design-leadership in the NPD process are only evident in larger plants.

Keywords: design; new product development; design-led manufacturing; Ireland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: The value of design strategies for new product development: Some econometric evidence (2012)
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