Title: Development needs and means of product innovation management in Finnish manufacturing companies

Authors: Petteri Piippo, Takaya Ichimura, Hannu Karkkainen, Markku Tuominen

Addresses: R&D Center, Valtra Inc., Tourulantie 12, 40100 Jyvaskyla, Finland. Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Box 20, 53851 Lappeenranta, Finland. Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Box 20, 53851 Lappeenranta, Finland. Department of Management, School of Commerce, Nihon University, 2-1, Kinuta 5-chome, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 157, Japan

Abstract: The management of the early phases of the product development process is critical for the success of the whole product development. This study clarifies the management problems and bottlenecks in the early phases of product development. The purpose of this study was to determine important development needs and means of product innovation management in five leading Finnish high-tech manufacturing companies. We developed a systematic analysis approach in order to form an extensive company level view of development needs and means. The developed analysis approach helped to collect different department representatives| partly divergent views of the causes and effects of product innovation management problems and form a common, comprehensive company level picture of the causes and effects. Causal analysis produced more understanding of effective means to remove problems and vicious loops of product innovation management.

Keywords: product innovation management; product development; earlyphase management; development needs; causal analysis; Finnish manufacturing companies; Finland.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2002.003023

International Journal of Technology Management, 2002 Vol.23 No.5, pp.489-510

Published online: 09 Jul 2003 *

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