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This paper investigates internal and external barriers influencing the different dimensions of firm service innovativeness and the moderating effect of transformational leadership on these relationships in an emerging economy, namely, Turkey.

The hypotheses were tested using cross-sectional survey data from 148 hotels. The authors use regressions to analyze the data set.

The results demonstrate that barriers to innovation need not necessarily impede firm service innovativeness at all times; some of these so-called “barriers” may even act as catalysts that improve firm’s likelihood of adopting innovations. More importantly, the findings suggest that a transformational leadership style alleviates the negative influence of internal barriers on internal service innovativeness dimensions of process, strategic and behavioral innovativeness.

The positive effect of transformational leadership lessening the detrimental impact of barriers to innovation is a topic in need of research. In addition to examining this phenomenon in a developing country, the authors choose a service retailing industry as a study context: hospitality/tourism. The main reason for choosing this industry is that there is little empirical evidence of service innovation activity in this industry despite the fact that it contributes to a large extent to employment and gross domestic product in most emerging economies, and it is, in fact, a fairly innovative industry. Furthermore, this study presents a unique perspective by investigating small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The purpose of this study is to conduct a meta-analytic review based on a theoretical framework developed for investigating new product development (NPD) teams in the first two decades of the research stream.

This study contributes to literature by investigating the presence of publication bias and synthesizing correlation effect sizes of 27 factors influencing three NPD team performance dimensions: overall, market-based (e.g. sales, profitability), process-based (e.g. budget adherence, schedule adherence) outcomes. Further, this study presents a path analytical model that uses the aggregate study effects to identify significant drivers of NPD team performance.

First, examination of extant literature shows no publication bias. Next, analyses show that three internal team dynamic variables have the most significant positive effect on overall NPD team performance: team member job satisfaction, cross-functional integration and superordinate identity. For market-based performance, three goal-related contextual factors exert the most positive influence, namely, goal stability, goal clarity and goal support, in respective order. Further, for process-based performance, cross-functional integration’s strong positive effect is followed by team and goal stability. Moreover, physical distance, interpersonal and task conflict have significant negative effects on NPD team performance. Finally, both market- and process-based NPD team performance are significantly influenced by NPD team’s cohesion, which acts a mediator between two contextual factors: physical distance and team tenure.

This meta-analysis contributes to literature by providing a comprehensive model of NPD team performance predictors, their definitions, along with their corresponding effects in predicting performance. While team cohesion is found to be a strong predictor of both market- and process-based performance, future research can examine if too much cohesion has a detrimental effect, especially on market-based performance.

The results assist managers in shifting their priorities to ensure optimal support of NPD teams. For example, team leadership competence externally has a larger effect on overall performance compared to team leadership for internal team dynamics. Hence, team leaders should make sure that they manage the team’s relationships with external parties (e.g. other functional units) with more caution.

This study provides a guiding framework for analyzing NPD team performance as well as identifies and then addresses many knowledge gaps on NPD team performance.

This study examines how technical drivers as well as social drivers influence organic communication and top management involvement (TMI) in new product development (NPD) projects. Technical drivers are of strategic importance and product innovativeness and social drivers are of intrinsic and extrinsic relevance. Organic communication is defined as continuous, bidirectional and informal communication between top management and the NPD teams. Further, arguing that TMI must be studied as a multifaceted construct, it is conceptualized to occur as guidance, active motivation and providing resources and creating a tolerant climate. Subsequently, the effect of TMI and organic communication on NPD performance is investigated.

The data set, collected via surveys from top managers and project managers involved in 86 NPD projects in 85 firms, is analyzed using PLS structural equation modeling.

The authors show that the strategic importance of the project has a positive influence on TMI through active motivation, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate for innovation, but does not have an effect on guidance. Results also show that active motivation and organic communication improve budget and schedule adherence, whereas providing guidance and stimulating a tolerant climate have detrimental effects. In summary, the results show that only active motivation enhances all types of performance while stimulating a tolerant climate appears to have the opposite effect. The results revealed that organic communication between top management and the NPD team has a strong positive effect on all elements of TMI (providing guidance, actively motivating the NPD team, providing resources and creating a tolerant climate). In other words, when top management communicates with the NPD team throughout the project in an informal way and listens to them in addition to engaging in a one-way communication, they are more likely to be seen by the team as being deeply involved in the project.

Executives must walk a managerial tightrope to actively motivate and to assist in providing resources, yet they must not be overbearing with direct guidance and must limit their tolerance for failures.

Involvement of key organizational actors such as top management and the link to project performance has attracted significant attention in research. However, nuanced empirical insights into the dyad of top management and project teams has so far been absent. The study’s findings detail the effect of technical and social drivers of top management involvement in new product development projects. Most notably, (1) the effect of motivation and stimulating a tolerant climate on performance, and (2) the effect of organic communication on top management involvement. Moreover, this study is unique in that it empirically examines TMI from both top management and team perspectives.

Advertisements facilitate certain emotions, subsequently influencing purchase intentions. Humor, as an influential way of information expression, is frequently used in ads to elicit emotions. Drawing upon literature on advertisement humor and new product purchase intention and the theory of planned behavior, the study proposes that humor stimulation in advertisements can affect consumers' new product purchase intentions, in which two process mechanisms, namely, emotional arousal and cognitive flexibility, play a mediating effect.

To test the assertions, the authors conduct three experimental studies. The authors' first study assesses the main effect between advertisement humor and purchase intentions. In the second study, the authors show the mediating effects of emotional pleasure, emotional arousal, and cognitive flexibility on the relationship between advertisement humor and purchase intentions. In the first two experiments, the authors study incremental new products. In the third study, the authors study the same mediating relationships for radically new products.

This study's results show consumers that watch humorous ads are more likely to choose new products than those who watch non-humorous ads (Study 1); compared with non-humorous ads, humorous ads can enhance emotional arousal, thus promoting cognitive flexibility and making consumers more inclined to choose new products (Study 2 and Study 3). That said, the authors find that these mediation effects are only partial.

This study's results have important implications for firms vying to enhance consumers' new product purchase intentions by deploying humorous ads.

Research on market information use in product innovation suggests that firms utilize two key strategic decision-making processes: incremental and comprehensive. Drawing from organizational information processing theory, literature implies that these processes operate differently. However, this assumption remains untested. Moreover, the degree to which a comprehensive process affects the innovation strategy outcomes depends on market information time sensitivity (MITS) and analyzability. To-date, no study has tested these assertions, either. Finally, it is suggested that meaningful market strategy is a key driver of new product success and it is important to understand how decision-making processes influence it under differing time sensitivity and analyzability.

Based on survey data from 250 Chinese firms, authors use structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses.

The results generally support authors’ contentions. More specifically, marketing strategy outcomes are influenced by marketing strategy incrementality (MSI) and marketing strategy comprehensiveness (MSC) differently. Further, time sensitivity moderates the effect of both MSI and MSC on outcomes, except for the effect of MSI on decision quality. Finally, analyzability moderates the relationships between decision making processes and certain strategy outcomes such as between MSI and meaningfulness.

Drawing from information processing theory, authors argue that incremental and comprehensive marketing strategy decision making for new product operate differentially under the same conditions. Further, the effects of these decision processes on outcomes depend on time sensitivity and analyzability of market information. Finally, auhtors argue that meaningful market strategy is a driver of success. The authors find support for most of our hypotheses and provide directions for future research.

Firms spend considerable amount of money on information technology (IT) to improve their processes, thereby reducing costs, enhancing quality and getting to market faster. Consequently, understanding the effective relationship between the IT department and new product development (NPD) teams can inform whether firms reap the expected benefits from their IT. The purpose of this paper is to provide an initial observation that helps in recognizing the unique relationship between the IT department and NPD teams.

Mail surveys resulted in 21 dyads (IT department head and NPD team leader) from manufacturing firms in 14 different industries. These data are analyzed by correlations, Wilcoxon's paired signed‐rank tests and crosstabs.

The results demonstrate that IT department and NPD team leaders share similar understanding regarding the role of IT in NPD. Moreover, the results provide evidence that more IT is better for NPD flexibility, but it also increases product development costs.

Future research would investigate why increased IT results in amplified costs. Among the potential reasons discussed in this paper is the assimilation of IT, that is, the degree of success achieved by a firm in making use of the capabilities of IT.

It is useful for practitioners to know that IT department and NPD team leaders share similar understanding regarding the role of IT in NPD because shared understanding enhances innovativeness. Managers should also be cautious about relying too much on IT for coordinating NPD activities and must find a balance between the two.

This paper examines the alignment of perceptions of the IT department and NPD teams while also revealing the effect of IT on several NPD outcomes.

The purpose of this paper it to investigate how sophistication of top management view on information technology (IT) infrastructure influences the firm's IT infrastructure capability and the effect of IT infrastructure capability on new product development (NPD) process outcomes such as cost, cycle time, and quality.

Drawing from research‐based and knowledge‐based theories, a conceptual model on how IT infrastructure influences NPD process efficiency is developed.

The paper demonstrates that sophistication of top management view on IT Infrastructure enhances NPD process through its effect on IT infrastructure capability. IT infrastructure capability enhances the NPD process efficiency by reducing the cycle time and cost of NPD projects and improving the NPD process quality.

It is useful for practitioners to know that by adopting an enabling IT infrastructure view, managers can create IT infrastructure capabilities that could improve their NPD processes significantly.

Future research should conduct empirical analysis of this paper's propositions and could examine what moderates the relationship between the sophistication of the top management's view on the firm's IT infrastructure and IT infrastructure capability. Scholars could also include firm performance as the final outcome of the influence of IT infrastructure view when testing the proposed model empirically.

Recent research pointed out that IT enabled the development of efficient new processes. This paper extends this argument by conceptually investigating how IT infrastructure enhances NPD process of a firm.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the opinions of owners/managers of Turkish furniture firms on country image effects of expected improvements in Turkey's democratic, economic, and political life resulting from Turkey's likely EU membership.

Survey‐based empirical data are analyzed via multiple regression analysis.

The paper finds that political and economic influences of EU negotiations will improve country image, whereas democratic influences will not have a significant effect.

The study is conducted in one industry and findings may not be generalizable. As opinions on country image are affected by discussions in the media or temporary situations between EU countries and Turkey, the study should be repeated at regular intervals. Official bodies need to make sure that reforms made in the democratic arena are well communicated to business communities. Also, business communities can promote implementation of democratic adjustment efforts by joining democratic establishments.

Most previous studies on country of origin (COO) effects were conducted with high risk or very low risk product groups. In this paper, a mid‐level risk product category, furniture, is examined with respect to country image.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Firms aiming to develop and execute effective marketing strategies for new products have the option to adopt an incremental or more comprehensive approach to their examination of key market information. When determining the action to take, decision-makers should also consider the degree to which the information can be accurately analyzed and how time-sensitive it is.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.