New product development types and their relationships with performance: organizational learning and forgetting

This dissertation investigates different types of a firm’s product-development experience to explain how it affects firm performance and product performance. In particular, this dissertation examines a firm’s new product introduction and its product redesign experience, as well as how they affect firm performance. In addition, this dissertation investigates how the time-lapse between a firm’s new product introductions and the time-lapse between its product redesigns affect its product performance. By examining two different types of a firm’s new product-development experience, my dissertation shows that these types of experience have differential effects on firm performance and product performance due to their relatedness with previous experiences. In my first study, I examine the effects of a firm’s new product introduction experience as well as its product redesign experience on its performance, which is measured by the two dimensions of the firm’s average owner-satisfaction rating and its average product-reliability rating. The research setting includes major (U.S. domestic and international) automobile firms competing in the U.S. market from 2006 to 2017. My analyses show empirically that increases in an automobile firm’s new product introduction experience and its product redesign experience both result in lower firm’s average owner-satisfaction rating. In addition, increases in an automobile firm’s product redesign experience shows a decrease in the firm’s average product-reliability rating. An automobile firm’s new product introduction experience, when combined with its product redesign experience, positively affects the firm’s average owner-satisfaction rating. These findings highlight the differential effects of a firm’s product-development experience (i.e., new product introduction and product redesign) on its performance and the differential effects of a firm’s product-development experience on performance depending on which dimension of performance (i.e., owner-satisfaction rating and product-reliability rating) is of concern. In my second study, I examine the effects of time-lapse between a firm’s new product introduction experiences on its product performance and the effects of time-lapse between product redesigns on its product performance. The study posits that the differences in the learning process of a firm’s new product introduction and its product redesign experience will lead to different effects of the time-lapse on product performance. The empirical results weakly corroborate the suggestion that when a new product introduction occurs, the performance in terms of owner satisfaction of the focal product is lower when there is a longer time-lapse since its previous new product introduction. The time-lapse between product redesigns does not show any statistically significant relationship with product performance. This dissertation concludes by providing its contributions to the organizational learning and product development literatures. An agenda for future research is then provided.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Yoo, Jae Kyun

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mahoney, Joseph T
• Schijven, Mario
• Somaya, Deepak
• Michael, Steven C
• Sakhartov, Arkadiy T

• new product development
• organizational learning
• new product introduction
• product redesign
• experiential learning
• innovation
• automobile

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Jae Kyun Yoo

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113180

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/113180