Evaluating and selecting new ideas are central activities in project portfolio management (PPM). PPM dominant approach assumes that both ideas and decision criteria are clearly defined at their evaluation. It does not take into consideration ambiguous situations in which ideas are not fully...

A better understanding of Open Source Innovation in Physical Product (OSIP) might allow project managers to mitigate risks associated with this innovation model and process, while developing the right strategies to maximise OSIP outputs. In the software industry, firms have been highly...

This paper describes how firms’ propensity to carry out component (or architectural) innovation is influenced by the degree of task uncertainty during inter-firm product development. Using successfully applied patents in automobile emission control technologies from 1970 to 1998; this research...

Operations strategies, whether prompted by competitive or regulatory forces, can greatly impact firm performance. While operations strategies cover a wide spectrum of issues - supply chain management, technology choice, capacity allocation, etc. - this dissertation focuses on two such issues,...

Based mainly on surveys of 40 manufacturing enterprises in Mauritius and 41 enterprises in Kenya, examines the relationship between competitiveness, manufacturing capabilities and employment. Proposes a manufacturing capability index and examines the factors affecting it in each country....

ILO pub-WEP pub. Working paper on energy economics relating to fuelwood-based fuel saving stoves and the diffusion of related appropriate choice of technology in developing countries - discusses current manufacturing methods, technical aspects, maintenance issues, need for low-cost product...

This paper proposes an intertemporal model of venture capital investment with screening and advising where the venture capitalists time endowment is the scarce input factor. Screening improves the selection of firms receiving finance, advising allows firms to develop a marketable product, both...

During development of an innovative product there is often considerable uncertainty about component production cost, and it is of interest for both the manufacturer and the supplier to engage in a collaborative effort to reduce this uncertainty and lower the expected cost. Despite the obvious...

We gather detailed data on organizational practices and information technology (IT) use at 253 firms to examine the hypothesis that external focus--the ability of a firm to detect and therefore respond to changes in its external operating environment--increases returns to IT, especially when...

Product development teams sustain the level of ambiguity in product development projects through product configuration and project planning decisions. In this paper, we represent these decisions in terms of earliness, specificity and contingency of front-end activities and test their impact on...