Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
1.3 The Role of IT in Product and Service Development
As mentioned previously, in the past 10 years or so, IT has come to play a criti-
cal role in several aspects of product and service development (Nambisan, 2003;
Ozer, 2000). For example, most of the challenges involved in the shift toward
network-centric or distributed innovation - wherein the product or service innova-
tion activities are distributed in both space and time across a wide range of external
partners - cannot be addressed without the coordination and collaboration facili-
tated by IT (Dahan & Hauser, 2001; McGrath & Iansiti, 1998; Ozer, 2000; Sawhney
& Prandelli, 2000). Moreover, the managerial issues associated with the selec-
tion, deployment, and the use of IT have become central to the success of product
development efforts in most industries.
The aggressive implementation of information technology in the product development arena
will reshape innovation as we know it. Unlike existing innovation processes, which are
passive, the IT-enabled innovation processes ... are active, directly supporting innovation
activities. They will help in the analysis of data, enable more efficient communication and
efficient problem solving, and achieve much higher levels of integration than possible ear-
lier. They will make the organization more flexible and responsive, optimizing the process
to fit the context of the project. (McGrath and Iansiti, 1998, p. 2)
Recent publications in major product development journals and conferences indi-
cate the critical importance that both practitioners and researchers in this area
have started placing on IT. The number of articles on IT applications in prod-
uct development has increased significantly in most product development-focused
journals (e.g., Research-Technology Management , Journal of Product Innovation
Management, Engineering Management Journal ). The number of vendors offering
IT-based solutions for managing product development has also increased consider-
ably in the last several years. Seminars and workshops exploring IT-enabled product
development issues abound, while several large firms including Intel, Cisco, and
Sun have issued white papers on how they have started redesigning their product
development using IT.
Within the academic domain too, the focus on IT and product development has
increased significantly in the past few years leading to important insights on the
selection and use of new IT applications to support innovation activities. Early
efforts focused on identifying the wide range of organizational and management
issues that lie at the intersection of information systems and product development
(e.g., Nambisan, 2003; Ozer, 2000). More recent studies have considered a number
of issues ranging from the competitive advantage that could be gained from using
IT applications in product development to the role of IT in virtual product devel-
opment and in collaborative product development (e.g., Ali, Ki-Chan, Thomas, &
MatthiasAli, 2004; Banker, Bardhan, & Asdemir, 2006; Bardhan, 2007; Dahan &
Hauser, 2002; Denno & Thurman, 2005; Durmusglu, Calantone, & Sambamurthy,
2006; Ettlie & Pavlou, 2006; Joglekar & Yassine, 2002; Li & Qiu, 2006; Pavlou &
Sawy, 2006; Sethi, Pant, & Sethi, 2003; Su, Chen, & Yung-Jye, 2007; Xu, Li, Li, &
Tang, 2007).
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