Technology novelty, project complexity, and product development project execution success: a deeper look at task uncertainty in product innovation

Author

Tatikonda, Mohan V. ; Rosenthal, Stephen R.

Author_Institution

Kenan-Flagler Bus. Sch., North Carolina Univ., Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Volume

47

Issue

1

fYear

2000

fDate

2/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

74

Lastpage

87

Abstract

This paper applies the construct of task uncertainty to study relationships between product development project characteristics and project outcomes. The authors characterize product development projects in terms of their technology novelty and project complexity levels. This characterization is based on product development literature and organizational information processing theory. They hypothesize that technology novelty and project complexity characteristics contribute to project task uncertainty and are in turn associated with project execution outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of 120 new product development projects for assembled goods was employed to test relationships between project characteristics and project success. Success measures include achievement of individual project goals, such as technical performance, unit-cost, time-to-market and overall achievement of project goals

Keywords

product development; project management; research and development management; R&D management; organizational information processing theory; product development project execution success; product innovation; project complexity; project goals achievement; survey; task uncertainty; technical performance; technology novelty; time-to-market; unit-cost; Aggregates; Assembly; Information processing; Product development; Project management; Technological innovation; Technology management; Testing; Time to market; Uncertainty;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Engineering Management, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9391

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/17.820727

Filename

820727