Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT (NPD) AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
In the NPD context, information clearly is a necessary resource (Zahay et al. 2004). Indeed, the use of 
business information and market intelligence in identifying and developing new product ideas in the very early 
phase of NPR is widely acknowledged (e.g. Flint, 2002; Kohn, 2005). Reducing uncertainty and risk is a central 
element in NPD (Carlile, 2001). Reduction of uncertainty is made through information collection and its 
incorporation and utilization into the NPD process. The fundamental role of business information is to reduce 
uncertainties regarding the market conditions, including customer expectations and needs, and other competitive 
issues. When being at the idea generation stage, the focus in information collection shifts on reducing uncertainty 
moves towards the identification of opportunities. Sources of external organisational knowledge for organisations or 
firms’ clusters include friends, customers, suppliers, other business partners, government agencies, industry and 
trade associations, universities, competitors and in the case of multinational firms, subsidiaries and parent companies 
(Sigala and Chalkiti, 2007; Hawkins, 2006) . 
However, in reviewing the literature, Sigala and Chalkiti (2007) found that although most authors argue for 
the importance of the amount of information collected, others argue that more critical is the sharing and use of this 
collected information. On the other hand, their research findings demonstrated a very low capability of Greek hotel 
firms to internalize and absorb the collected information for exploiting it in NPD processes. In this vein, it was 
concluded that tourism firms would need to shift their focus from data collection and analysis towards more on trend 
identification and interpretation. This conclusion is also consistent with the resource-based theory of the firm which 
also suggests that management capabilities relating to information adoption and use will be important in NPD 
success (Mata at al. 1995). Nevertheless, although the importance and role of information and knowledge for NPD is 
well known, what is not known and it is very limited researched are the specifics of how to firms and particularly 
clusters can: a) identify and search appropriate information sources and b) embed and internalize knowledge during 
the NPD processes in order to achieve their organizational goals.

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