This thesis consists of five related essays which explore new approaches to help design successful and profitable new products. The primary focus is the front end of the process where the product development team is seeking improved input from customers and improved ideas for developing products...

This document investigates the possibilities of software entrepreneurship in developing economies, particularly Mexico, from an entrepreneur's perspective. It includes a broad analysis of the entrepreneurial environment in Mexico - venture capital, talent, regulation and market, in which it also...

Essay One: Explaining the Start and Fizzle of Organizational Change: Co-evolving Process and Content The theme that sustaining efforts to change is difficult appears in many guises throughout the organizations. The tendency for change processes to run out of energy and momentum is widely...

Essay One The Impact of Shortages on Push-Pull Production Systems This paper explores the impact of endogenous customer demand on supply chain instability. It investigates how a semiconductor manufacturer's hybrid push-pull production system responds to customer demand, when inventory...

The recent surge in the globalization of markets in various industries has brought global brands to the attention of consumers worldwide. Just as information connects consumers across geographical borders in seconds, globalization is a common stream among many industries, which leads consumers...

This dissertation raises two questions: How do customers come to understand and use a technology? What is the influence of customers using a technology on industry evolution and competition? I use two historical cases to answer these questions. The first considers how insurance firms came to...

Much of the innovation literature focuses exclusively on product-oriented companies. While scholars have begun researching innovation in service companies, the field of service innovation remains undeveloped and relatively immature. This paper begins with a summary of the various differences...

Technology transitions require the formation of a self-sustaining market through alignment of consumers' interests, producers' capabilities, infrastructure development, and regulations. In this research I develop a broad behavioral dynamic model of the prospective transition to alternative fuel...