INTRODUCTION

Thank you for purchasing this book. We are delighted and honored to bring you the 4th edition of the PDMA Handbook of Innovation and New Product Development. Our partners at the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) and John Wiley & Sons Publishing are as enthusiastic as we are to see this almost completely new edition of a very popular and useful book come to life.

The goal of this Handbook, as in prior editions, is to provide an introduction, a thought-provoking series of essays, and a practical guide for managers and thought leaders working in new product development (NPD) and innovation. Astute readers of our prior editions may notice that the title has slightly changed in this 4th edition. We now appropriately highlight innovation as a key focus of what we are to explore in addition to our continuing emphasis on new product development.

Our deepest thanks go to the wonderful collection of authors who have contributed to this book and to prior editions. In this collection, they share their thoughtful insights and broad experiences to bring you a compilation that represents the state-of-the-art in the field. One of the unique features of this book series has always been that our authors represent a balance of outstanding practitioners and consultants, and leading-edge academic researchers. Thus, you will find here both applied, first-hand insights from the field, and findings from academics who have been studying innovation and new product development using the latest techniques. These diverse perspectives combine to bring you knowledge that is powerful, practical, and thought-provoking.

This book is a collection of 32 chapters representing a host of different voices. The style of the chapters presented here also varies greatly. Some chapters are extremely hands-on and step-by-step, providing practical tools to apply in your organization. Other chapters may present new concepts, ideas, and approaches that are meant to stimulate your thinking and to help you find creative ways to study or apply these thoughts in your workplace or in your research.

The Handbook has been the most popular publication from the PDMA and has proved indispensable for many practicing in the field. The chapters we bring you in this edition revisit familiar topics with fresh approaches and insights and will likely introduce you to entirely new concepts that take you to the leading edge of this exciting world of new product development and innovation.

The Intended Audience for This Book

As with prior editions this Handbook is written for two very different groups of readers. First, we hope to appeal to managers who have a strong interest in increasing their knowledge of these important topics. This is not “NPD for Dummies,” and our goal is not to instruct the absolute novice on every detail of the day-to-day functioning of a new product development unit. We leave that to other authors and their instructional books. Our primary target for the work here is the manager who is moderately experienced in new product development and is looking for pockets of exceptional knowledge that can ultimately lead to superior performance in the workplace. Second, we also offer this book to academics researching NPD and innovation. These scholars should find the insights from both practitioners and other researchers to be thought provoking stimuli for future research efforts that, we hope, will lay the groundwork for the 5th edition of this Handbook!

How to Use This Book?

Our goal in organizing this book was to present something that provides the reader with as much flexibility as possible, understanding that different readers may look to this book with very different goals in mind. Some readers may choose to read this cover to cover, and we commend them for that journey! Others may choose to skim the contents, identifying those topics which pique their interest most, while perhaps relegating others to a later time. We have done several things to help the reader determine the best reading strategy. First, we have organized these chapters into sections that provide a flow and a general theme for the diverse writing that readers will find within. Also, if readers see certain topics or concepts highlighted in the Table of Contents that pique their interest, the Glossary in the back of this book provides a basic understanding of those ideas. The Glossary can also serve as an important reference for the active product manager working in this field.

The Book’s Organization

Section 1 of this handbook includes chapters that are both strategic and foundational. Beginning with Bob Cooper, who many know as the father of the stage gate concept, he brings fresh ideas that also lay the groundwork for what is to come. The chapters in the first section cover big issues and important concepts that any product manager needs to consider. Section 2 examines the new product development process and essential tools and concepts such as perspectives on portfolio management, managing the front end of innovation, gaining insights from consumers, and other important issues. Section 3 considers topics that have exploded since the last edition of this Handbook, focused on user participation and value creation in the new product development process. We’re excited to introduce work on open innovation, co-creation, crowdfunding, and related ideas. In Section 4 we cover what we call transformative forces in new product development and innovation. This section includes topics related to digital transformations, artificial intelligence, and design thinking, all of which are already shaping new product development and innovation in different ways. Section 5 is also a new offering in this edition of the Handbook with a clear focus on service innovation concepts, an area that any practicing manager knows has grown increasingly critical in recent years. Finally, Section 6 on applications in new product development includes key considerations, tools and techniques to help managers excel in the practice of NPD and innovation.

The Appendix in this book provides a description and contact information for the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA). This wonderful organization is an essential knowledge resource and networking opportunity for any professional trying to excel in this field. As mentioned earlier, the Glossary offered in this book should be quite helpful in understanding the many and changing terms associated with this field.

In summary, the key sections in this Handbook are:

Section 1. Getting started with innovation and new product development.

Section 2. New product development process.

Section 3. User participation and value creation in new product development.

Section 4. Transformative forces of new product development and innovation.

Section 5. Service innovation.

Section 6. Applications in new product development.

Appendix: About the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA)

PDMA Glossary of New Product Development Terms

Acknowledgments

As with all PDMA projects, this work is done for the good of the field and not for the individuals involved. This is an all-volunteer project from the writing to the editing, with many talented people donating numerous hours of effort to create the resource that you have before you. We are particularly grateful that our authors have found the time to make these contributions just as the business world is emerging from the incredible challenges of the COVID pandemic and the many time and resource drains associated with it. Responsibility for chapter content lies with the author(s). The editors played a key role in managing the review process plus shaping the overall direction of this collection. We encourage readers to consider the many resources that PDMA has to offer to help in their professional development. These can be found at www.pdma.org and include the award-winning Journal of Product Innovation Management and various other publications and online resources that the organization provides. Additional information on the PDMA is presented in the Appendix. In particular, we would like to thank the leadership of the PDMA including the former Chair, Mark Adkins, and Executive Director Eric Ewald, for all that they have done to support this project. Finally, we appreciate the support that our publisher, John Wiley & Sons has provided. Their editorial team has provided excellent guidance and suggestions throughout this process. We hope you find as much enjoyment in reading this book as we did in working with our outstanding author teams and curating this collection for you!

PDMA Handbook 4th Edition Editorial Team

Ludwig Bstieler (PhD, University of Innsbruck) is Professor and Chair of Marketing at the Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. Prior to joining the Peter T. Paul College, he was Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Innsbruck, and held visiting positions at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, the Michael DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, and the European School of Management (ESCP Europe). He has provided in-house trainings, trainings in manager programs, (international) marketing research and consulting services for various companies and institutions in Europe. He studies the design and marketing of new products with a particular emphasis on the influence of close buyer-supplier collaboration and how relational and contractual governance mechanisms facilitate or hinder successful collaborative new product development. His recent...