Setting the right approach for new product development (NPD) in the presence of uncertainty remains an ongoing debate in innovation management. Stage‐gate systems (SGS) and agile methodology (AM) are the dominant approaches. Recently, hybrid approaches (combining SGS and AM) have been proposed. Although these hybrid approaches represent a significant development in NPD, combining them without considering their design principles might lead to contradictory and competing conceptual formulations, thus increasing the difficulty of comparison among studies. Moreover, scholars and practitioners may struggle to understand when, why and how a certain configuration of the NPD process provides the right response to different manifestations of uncertainty. The current literature faces problems regarding the clarity of design principles (e.g. flexibility and adaptability), and this has led to research gaps concerning the uncertainty contingency and outcomes of hybrid approaches. This study combines bibliometric and content analyses to identify four design parameters and principles of NPD hybrid approaches: flexibility, adaptability, velocity and integration. Our findings might help advance the development and comparison of different hybrid approaches.
Managers of exploratory projects might face uncertainties over long timeframes at different levels (e.g., project, portfolio, organization, and network). Although literature offers some guidance on how to deal with uncertainties (mainly at the project level), there is a need for more empirical ground and theoretical development of a systemic approach to the management of uncertainties. To fill this gap, this article employs a multiple case approach in two established firms, investigating six exploratory projects. As main contributions, we identified new categories of uncertainties (primitive, structural, and elementary) and aspects related to managing these uncertainties.
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