Design Focus: a Strategic Alternative for Managing Product Development

Firms faced with a portfolio of inconsistent design tasks often fail to get the best out of their investment in product design efforts. We present the concept of design focus as a strategic alternative for gaining competitive advantage through product design. The concept is based on the premise that design task homogeneity facilitates effective information processing and efficient utilization of R&D resources. It induces faster learning, which leads to substantial gain in an organization’s competence in dealing with product development challenges. In addition, a focused design strategy benefits from the advantages of managing a smaller portfolio. Design focus is an extension of the concept of focus from the business strategy literature to the new product development literature and it is complementary to the concept of manufacturing and marketing focus. A cross sectional study of forty-four new product development projects provides preliminary empirical evidence supporting the proposed concept, and emphasizes the need for further investigation design focus as a strategic alternative for managing product design. The concept provides a fresh perspective on the management of product design and opens up new directions for future research. NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION, COMPLEXITY AND UNCERTAINTY, OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT.