Infusion effects of innovations on the technologically oriented new product development process

The primary objectives of this dissertation were two-fold: (1) to advance the practitioner's understanding of how adopted innovations can assist new product (NP) managers in driving the success of inventions, and (2) to advance the methodological framework of how the NP development process of technological firms can be studied as a dynamical system. A secondary question was to determine if ‘catalytic’ innovations significantly increase the success of an NP program. Two methodological approaches were used to study these objectives; a system dynamics model and a longitudinal study. The system dynamics model was prefaced by intensive case studies of two technologically oriented firms. The data collected in the longitudinal study were evaluated using bivariate linear growth curves using structural equation modelling.; It was found in both studies that the successful adoption of innovations into the firm has an indirect effect on the success of a NP program. Innovations successfully adopted into an organization have the effect of increasing a firm's competences in technology knowledge utilization (exploitation) and R&D proficiencies. These studies also reveal a positive relationship between technology knowledge exploitation and R&D proficiencies as explanatory variables to NP program success. Thus, indirectly the successful adoption of innovation can drive NP success by helping organizations to better utilize their technology knowledge competences.; Technologically oriented organizations that are interested in using the adoption of innovations as a strategy for driving greater success in their NP program should focus on making resources readily available to the NP process, encouraging failures in NP design, and actively involving marketing in the NP process. An important finding supported by both the system dynamics model and the linear growth curve model was that adopting innovations can increase technological knowledge competences. However, the quadratic trajectories observed in the longitudinal study suggest that peaks in performance are often reached. The continual renewal of knowledge is important in the NP development process. Firms that structure themselves to be open to new knowledge will benefit not only in their success of adopting innovations, but also in NP program performance.; ‘Catalytic’ innovations were identified in this study as innovations adopted into the organization that act as a catalyst to develop new inventions not previously planned prior the adoption of the innovation. Marginal support was found for the existence of ‘catalytic’ innovations in the sample population studied. Although catalytic innovations are not an essential prerequisite to ensure new product program success, when adopted in moderation they may substantially increase the firm's knowledge base for building new products. This increased knowledge can lead to increased new product program success.