Step 1.3

Propose plausible solution (goal) to problem in the form of a new/improved device. Then ask and answer this key question: Why does the envisioned solution to the validated problem not yet exist?

Primary findings

Secondary findings

Primary findings

Barriers

Financing criteria structured to meet donor priorities do so at the expense of beneficiary priorities.
From comparison of two case studies. 
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Questioning ideas is a part of the development process heavily reliant on communication. 
Non-experimental study
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People invest time and effort appraising negative workplace situations, which disrupts work and diminishes creative capacity. 
Non-experimental study
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Adopting new technologies is presumed to be a logical decision; however individual users determine for themselves the costs and benefits of investing in new tech, including their own natural resistance to change. If the return on investment doesn’t support the change, not adopting new tech is the rational choice for the user.
Case study findings
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Inadequate problem (need), solution (goal) and project scope (role) definition at the front end, leads to confusion and changing priorities downstream. This generates conflicts between the internal departments of R&D, marketing and production, which may arise at any point and persist throughout the project.
Three case studies supported by 18 interviews.
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Knowledge translation literacy — Policy gaps — Many researchers do not have the skills to identify gaps in existing policies and how to reframe those gaps as viable research questions.
Literature review and experience.
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One of the factors that can impede knowledge translation is knowledge asymmetry. As one example, the knowledge user (in need) may know more about a particular issue, while the researcher (with interest) may know more about potential solutions. The knowledge user’s limited awareness of potential solutions may make them skeptical about the researcher’s confidence in the proposed solution. The researcher may feel undervalued. One approach the knowledge user and researcher could take to bridge the gap is to invest time in building a professional relationship and establishing mutual trust.
Literature review and conceptual framework development.
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Organizational executives often favor incremental implementation of new ideas (research findings). Researchers need to demonstrate sensitivity in these situations and offer complementary strategies, tools and techniques.
Lessons from a health research network evaluation.
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Organizational executives often state that they are exposed to more new ideas (research findings) than they have resources to explore. Researchers need to devise ways of getting their attention, communicating value and sourcing resources.
Lessons from a health research network evaluation.
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Organizational executives often state they do not have the time to consider the applicability of new research findings. Researchers need to devise ways of getting their attention and communicating value.
Lessons from a health research network evaluation.
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When executives deliberate about the value of applying research in their organization, one of the factors they often consider is the “replicability” of the research findings, especially in their setting. Researchers should clearly communicate “replicability.”
Lessons from a health research network evaluation.
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When organizational executives deliberate about the value of applying research in their organization, one of the factors they often consider is the “scalability” of the research findings. Researchers should clearly communicate “scalability.”
Lessons from a health research network evaluation.
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Carriers

Elaboration is an aspect of the creative process where new ideas are related to preexisting information.
Non-experimental study
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Knowledge sharing networks can attract participants for reasons other than the explicit mission of the project:

  • In response to being personally invited
  • To seek funding opportunities
  • For access to other facilities and equipment
  • To support graduate students
  • To recruit more researchers
  • To disseminate best practices
  • To support the projects’ cause for ideological reasons
  • To gain individual knowledge and experience

Survey findings
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In a hub model stakeholders can share insights and receive feedback. 
Author experience and as applied to a case study.
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A research project steering committee with equal representation from the research organization and key stakeholders can help with the creation of a project vision, deliberation strategies, and promotional activities. Together, members commit to a goal established by the committee and coordinate action in the direction of that goal.
Project-based learnings.
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Independent research project advisory boards, with equal representation from community and academic institutions, can help to draw out relevant policy and practice implications of research findings.
Project-based learnings.
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The design of solution to a problem in the form of a devices or service must meet the following six conditions to achieve the intended impact: 1. It must correctly embody the essential principle or arrangement articulated as the proposed solution; 2. The components must be geometrically related in extent and position, to each other and to the target person/object, in whatever way suits the intended effect. 3. The components must be strong enough to transmit and resist forces as the intended result requires. 4. Access must be provide to ensure ease of use, maintenance and consequence disassembly. 5. The cost of the result must be acceptable, with upfront cost reductions contributing to downstream profit margins. 6. The appearance of the device or service must be acceptable.
Author experience and as applied to a case study.
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To overcome researchers’ difficulty in identifying gaps in existing policy to get policy-aware brokers to coach researchers in policy issues and related research opportunities.
Literature review and experience.
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When external researchers are embedded in an organization (especially in a team-based setting), it can be extremely helpful to have an internal champion that has sufficiently senior standing and operational knowledge and is able to make commitments regarding forms of collaboration and data/resource sharing.
Lessons from a health research network evaluation.
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Models

Knowledge sharing in university-business collaboration (UBC) occurs under both transactional and relational governance. Knowledge sharing in a UBC includes knowledge combination, learning, and copoiesis (co-creation). This process contributes to achievement of joint goals.
Survey findings
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Literature review of existing models shows that knowledge is produced from negotiations among people as they go about their everyday practice. It is produced over time as groups solve the problems they encounter in their practice.
Literature review, synthesis and author expertise.
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Methods

Comparing patents after a partnership is a means of retroactively measuring cognitive dissonance or proximity among partners. 
Case study analysis
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Distribution of collaboration during Product Ideation was manufacturer involvement (47%), user involvement (59%) and third-party involvement (41%).
Case study of seventeen medical equipment innovations marketed by 13 Dutch firms.
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Failure Knowledge Network (FKN) — captures and inter-relates mechanical product quality knowledge from five areas: (i) the connection between failures and product functions, (ii) the relationship between failures and product components, (iii) the correlation between failures and organizations, (iv) the association between failures and product processes, and (v) the conjunction among different failures. FKN information is represented in a four-dimensional matrix that includes components, functions, processes and organization. Each element in the matrix is a failure scenario and represents the related failures within the corresponding dimensions. Conventional factors of failures are embodied in the FKN representation. They include event, detection, effect, severity, solution weight, cause, monitor, reappearance, operation, efficiency and precaution. The indexes of each factor are provided by subject matter experts and are set in accordance with the correlation between corresponding characteristics and failures
Failure knowledge based decision-making in product quality.
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Ideally, the presentation of a concept should offer a realistic description of the proposed product(s), in order to facilitate specific responses from customers. Stimulus materials, such as paper-and-pencil sketches, models, mock-ups and prototypes of the product-to-be, are recommended, in addition to verbal communication when conducting concept testing.
Literature review.
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Knowledge brokering — supplementing in-person brokering services with an electronic network can enhance stakeholder interaction and knowledge sharing. Networks can be used to optimize project time and resources. Useful network features include, tailored literature retrieval; collaborative evidence appraisal, interpretation and application; and other facilitated group-oriented interactions (e.g., teleconferencing, webinars).
Description of knowledge broker roles.
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Manufacturers involved various external groups to varying degrees in the early Ideation stage as follows: customers (55%), suppliers (35%), competitors (36%), universities/research institutes (12%).
Analysis of survey data from 557 firms across five industries in Europe.
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Must be aware that examining product effectiveness as compared to productivity outcomes or marketplace performance will correlate higher with NPD success and cross functional integration
Meta-analysis. β = .185, p < .01
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NPD may be characterized as representing incremental changes to existing products, or radical changes. The radical changes are called New to Market products, which then contain three levels depending on the novelty of the technology: Type 1 — Same technology as currently used by the firm; Type 2 — New technology to the Firm but not to the World; Type 3 — New technology to the World. The Type has implications for the company's ability to accomplish the project. Type 2 offers SME's a middle ground where technologies that are not new to the world or even superior to other technologies, but that meet the needs of a neglected consumer group, but transferred in from other fields of application.
Case studies of five firms.
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New products must engage consumer interest, so being unique in the sense of new or novel is insufficient. Beyond that, companies must strive for uniqueness in a form that is relevant to the target audience, that has utility in the context of their needs. Doing so generates interest among the target audience. It provides four related benefits: 1) Increased interest in the offering from the related field or industry; 2) Easier to create effective and focused advertising; 3) Usually lower cannibalization — that is the company is less likely to introduce internally competing products since this one is focused on the target audience; 4) The product offering is more believable to the target audience because it is presented in terms and a context they understand.
Experience as head of new product development and innovation in a corporation.
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One way to transfer knowledge (and best practices) is to blend knowledge (and best practices) from multiple sources into one new source (e.g., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which also transfers executive knowledge by employing a ‘copy executive’ approach that leverages the executive onsite). Lessons learned are captured in an electronic knowledge management system (knowledge repository), that optimizes knowledge reporting through standardization and knowledge accessibility through codification and indexing. User-friendly coding systems and content submission screening techniques can maximize efficiency and minimize information overload.Culture and incentive systems should encourage sharing.
Literature review.
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One way to transfer knowledge (and best practices) is to facilitate expert interaction through a community of practice (e.g., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) or a knowledge community (e.g., United Microelectronics Corporation) — charging the experts with a specific knowledge challenge and releasing them to explore solutions. It is a dynamic process involving exploration and exploitation. This approach is typically used to transfer knowledge laterally across business units.
Literature review.
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Performance Drivers: One is the Quality of Execution. Eight activities distinguish best from worse performers: 1) Conducting a post-launch review (8.2); 2) Assessment of product's value to business (2.1); 3) Test market or trial sell to a limited set of customers (7.13); 4) Concept testing to determine customer reaction to product and gauging purchase intent before Development begins (4.11); 5) Idea Generation (1.3); 6) Customer tests of products under real-life conditions (6.3); 7) Detailed market study/research or Voice of the Customer (4.3, 4.13); 8) Pre-launch business analysis (7.7, 7.8, 7.9).
A quantitative survey of 105 business units, supported by team's experience in NPD modeling, consultation, application and analysis.
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Product quality-related decision-making using the Failure Knowledge Network (FKN) — The first step of the decision-making process is the identification of related failures and characteristics. The second step is determination of the important characteristics of the clusters. Next, there is a comparison between the characteristics of each target. Finally, the interdependent priorities of the characteristics are determined by analyzing dependencies among the targets and characteristics.
Failure knowledge based decision-making in product quality.
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The aim is not, primarily, to establish requirements, but to elicit specific 'solution data' from lead users. The method passes through a four-step process: (1) specifying lead user indicators; (2) identifying lead user groups; (3) generating concepts (products) with lead users; (4) testing lead user concepts on ordinary users.
Literature review.
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The firm involved in NPD should consider its ability to conduct the necessary work from three perspectives: 1) Paths — the future options still open given the constraints introduced by previous choices such as mergers and or acquisitions of resources; 2) Positions — the assets of the organization in terms of ownership, technology, industrial systems, finance, organizational structure, market position and organizational boundaries. 3) Processes — management and organizational mechanisms which enable co-ordination and integration, learning and reconfiguration.
Case studies of five firms.
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The user-oriented product development approach is characterized by: a problem analysis of user/use requirements with a starting point in the use situation, leading to the formulation of 'user requirements'; a transformation of these user requirements into measurable engineering requirements;an iterative design where prototypes are tested by users and modified by designers.
Literature review
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Voice of the Customer Information as a Best Practice for the NPD process: 1) Market and buyer behavior studies are a valuable source of information for planning the market launch. 2) Market research as a tool to help define the product. 3) The customer or user ought to be an integral part of the Development process. 4) Identification of customers or users real or un-articulated needs and their problems, is considered fundamental to voice-of-the-customer research, and should be a key input to product design. 5) Working with highly innovative users or customers.
A quantitative survey of 105 business units, supported by team's experience in NPD modeling, consultation, application and analysis.
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When measuring the success of NPD, use objective measures, such as sales or profits, instead of subjective measures
Meta-analysis. β = -.381, p < .01 (see Table 2 –H9)
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Tips

Using distant, not obvious analogies works better to model and simulate novel ideas or new applications of existing knowledge.
Case study analysis
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Consider that service products benefit more strongly from CFI than goods.
Meta-analysis. Significant moderating effect on CFI-product success relationship when Services are produced (vs. for goods)
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Do not always assume that embedding external researchers in an operational environment will immediately lead to the adoption of research findings. As one example, the complexities of the environment and/or research findings may require substantial time and resource commitments to achieve organizational buy-in.
Lessons from a health research network evaluation.
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During the planning stage of a research project, it is important to give equal consideration to the time and resource demands that will be placed on stakeholders. Explicit recognition can build respect, trust and encourage sustained stakeholder involvement.
Project evaluation findings.
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During the research planning stage, it can be very challenging to accurately estimate the amount of time that will be required for building trust and evolving shared understanding and goals, especially if there has been no prior interaction with stakeholders. There is a tendency to under-estimate time requirements, so it may be better to err on the side on overestimating requirements.
Project evaluation findings.
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Examples of idea generation; wildest idea — brainstorming without limitations, morphological analysis — combining different features from different products, metaphor use — use an adjective that describes an unmet consumer need and then apply that adjective to an existing product solution to come up with a new product for the unmet need.
Experiential. Common techniques used by students of this MBA course.
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Membership in a research network may facilitate unique access to the expertise and research data of other network members. Also keep in mind that you may be expected to reciprocate.
Lessons from a health research network evaluation.
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New products must provide significant value to the customer. Superior technical performance, lower cost design, unique features or superior product quality and reliability can all be used to achieve this end.
Survey of 172 electronics products
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Participate in a Research Center within a University to help find new ideas, gain access to scientists and to recruit new graduate students.
The longitudinal evaluation of the National Science Foundation's Industry / University Cooperative Research Centers Programs found both Universities and Industries to be satisfied with the Centers and felt their expectations were being met.
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Research execution: Establish a stakeholder-representative Advisory Committee to act as project champions and to receive timely project updates and provide authoritative advice regarding project productivity, risk and budget.
Applying integrated KT in Mental Health research.
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Research execution: Setup a study management team to oversee logistics, track progress and make decisions.
Applying integrated KT in Mental Health research.
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Researchers should not assume that practitioners will see any direct connection between academic research and the practices of their organization. Researchers should take the time to help practitioners make the connection.
Case study.
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Stakeholder engagement strategies must be tailored to each stakeholder group. Strategies to engage strategic direction-setters will be different from strategies required to engage perception-influencers and/or adopters.
Literature review and case example.
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The outlined dimensions of user competence need to be differentiated according to the different stages of NPD in which the consumers are involved, such as Idea Generation activity, versus Design activity, versus Prototype testing activity.
Literature review and case study.
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Secondary findings

Barriers

One of the reasons that product quality failures reoccur is that the knowledge of past failures is not well represented or readily-available to respective parties. One way to represent and share past failures is to construct a knowledge network of failure scenarios.
Source: Hatamura (2003). In: Dai,W., Maropoulos, P.G. &Tang, X.Q. (2010)

Carriers

Participation of research project-based policy entrepreneurs in public policy networks can strengthen the linkages and exchanges between researchers and policy makers.They provide awareness of research and initiatives and facilitate social learning.
Source: Reinicke (1999, 2000); Kingdon (1984). In: Williams, A., Holden, B., Krebs, P., Muhajarine, N., Waygood, K.,Randall, J. & Spence, C. (2008)

When planning, implementing or evaluating a knowledge translation (innovation) process, diffusion theory suggests that one of the factors that can influence the appeal of new knowledge to a potential knowledge user is how the new knowledge is communicated to the potential knowledge user — the effectiveness of communication channels used. As one example, early awareness-raising through interpersonal networks can enhance the speed of circulation and the social mechanisms that promote receptivity to the new knowledge.
Source: Brown, (1968); Van de Ven, Polley, Garud & Venkatarum, (1999); Wejnert, (2002); Valente, (1995); Brink et. al, (1995). In: Ashley, S.R. (2009)

When planning, implementing or evaluating a knowledge translation (innovation) process, diffusion theory suggests that one of the factors that can influence the appeal of new knowledge to a potential knowledge user is its clarity (absence of perceived or unnecessary complexity). Generally, adoption strength increases with the understandability and implementability of the new knowledge.
Source: (Rogers, 2003). In: Ashley, S.R. (2009)

When planning, implementing or evaluating a knowledge translation (innovation) process, diffusion theory suggests that one of the factors that can influence the appeal of new knowledge to a potential knowledge user is the compatibility of the new knowledge with respect to past practices, current values, and existing needs. Generally, adoption strength increases as the fit with the current context increases.
Source: (Rogers, 2003). In: Ashley, S.R. (2009)

Methods

Knowledge Utilization defined as including research, scholarly, and programmatic intervention activities aimed at increasing the use of knowledge to solve human problems.
Source: Backer, T (1991, p. 226). In: Estabrooks, C.; Thompson, D.S., Lovely, J.J.E., & Hofmeyer, A. (2006)

One way to transfer knowledge (and best practices) is to make a clone of the original – copying all physical/functional inputs, processes and equipment and outputs (products/services). Examples include developing a template that captures the knowledge and practices and re-applying them (e.g., 7-11 store, McDonalds restaurants, etc.) or making an exact copy (e.g., Intel chip fabrication). This approach is often used to transfer knowledge vertically (e.g., from R&D to manufacturing). Critics raise concerns that the ‘copying’ approach removes (and erodes) employee judgment and problem-solving skills. There are also concerns about the amount of time that may be required to develop a complete template.
Source: Matson (2003). In: Lu, I.Y., Moa, C.J. & Wang, C.H. (2010)

Participatory Action Research (PAR) has been found to integrate KT with the innovation development and adoption process. Specifically, the PAR process enables participants to take an innovation and adapt it to their context, to engage in critical reflection to achieve this adaptation, and to work behind the scenes to encourage involvement and commitment.
Source: Waterman, et al. (2007). In: McWilliam, C. L., Kothari, A., Ward-Griffin, C., Forbes, D., Leipert, B. & South West Community Care Access Centre Home Care (2009)

Tips

New to Market products can be defined as offering unprecedented functionality, or a five to ten-fold performance improvement when compared to existing products within the marketplace.
Source: Collarelli & O'Connor, 1998. In: Mosey, S. (2005)

Use online idea-generation sessions with target consumers by setting up a private online research site. Ideas produced this way are found to be more unique and of higher quality.
Source: Aiken, M. & Vanjani, M. (1997). In: Ozer, M. (2003)