1.1.Introduction and Significance

Innovation is a topic which needs to be researched out in detail. The companies who have understood the importance of innovation are enjoying great return. For this reason the topic is selected which is “the impact of innovation in product development on organisational performance: a case of Samsung Galaxy”.

1.2.Rationale

The rationale of the research is twofold. One is that through this research the technological companies can understand the importance of innovation in product development and how the financial performance of the organisation can be increased. Samsung galaxy case will be selected because this company is continuously innovating and enjoying market leadership. The innovation strategy of this company will be studied out. The research will be helpful for the industry as well as it will add in to literature.

1.3.Research Aim

The aim of the research is to unveil the impact of innovation in product development on organisational performance in Samsung.

1.4.Research objectives

The objectives of the research will be

• To investigate the innovation strategies used in the product development.
• To identify the positive and negative effects of innovation in product development on the organisational performance.
• To analyse the impact of impact of innovation in product development on organisational performance in Samsung.

 

1.5.Research Questions

The questions which will be answered in the forthcoming research are mentioned in following points

1. What is the impact of innovation in product development on organisational performance in literature?
2. How innovation can be integrated in product development to gain financial performance?
3. What are the types of innovation in product development?
4. What is the impact of innovation in product development on organisational performance in the selected organisation?
5. What are the actionable ways through which the organisation can further improve its innovation process and gain profits?

 

 

 

 

With the evolving time, business environment has changed. Now it is not a set of mere activities to manufacture and sell the product. Business scenarios have changed a lot since last two decades. There are no more concepts of regional markets rather business world has shifted to a global market (Iwe, 2010). Global market presents a different scene and has different requirements for the businesses to be fulfilled in order to compete competitively and successfully. Moreover, companies have to attain and retain competitive advantage over competitors in market. To achieve business success companies have to pursue the processes related to the development of innovative products. Innovation in products and services has become a crucial considerable factor for present business (Drucker, 1997). Employees of companies in particular companies in manufacturing sector are at their toes to adapt and compete effectively in this changing environment (Page, 1993).

According to Robertson & Tu (2001) definition of innovation is any new idea that can be transformed into a product or service; in short, it should be feasible. Innovation is the newly perceived idea and if accordingly to the individuals perception idea is new it is called an innovation. Robertson & Tu (2001) stated that innovation is composed of technical knowledge that can be integrated by transforming the way things are currently performed to a new and better way of performing such things. More explicitly, innovation is defined, as a capability of creating, generating a new idea, set of processes, a new product or adding something unique in services convincing other peers to accept the new idea and implementing it.

Innovation is of a great significance and brings higher margins of profitability to an organisation. it gear up an organisation to transform its prevailing opportunities into its strengths, pursue growth and expansion of business activities in existing as well as new areas, grab competitive advantage and accumulate a large chunk of capital in term of profits (Iwe, 2010). Process of innovation cannot run over night but it requires strong link with happenings around the globe, other business sectors, it demands acquiring, getting hold of new knowledge of major fields that have an impact on all business activities irrespective of the fact these tasks are minor or major, distribution of this knowledge among all members of the . In addition to this it requires approval of all members and an effective implementation across the whole organization (Amabile et al, 1996).

Excellent performance of any business entity links with the product line of an entity, ability of company to search and identify the newly arising or are not catered needs of customers, niche market   and most importantly to design and create products and services to cater those needs (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). Brown & Eisenhardt (1995) and Iwe (2010) stated that product development acts as lifeline for any business organization. Thus, a strong bonding between innovation, product development and product line of a business entity can be seen. Product development is described by (Ulrich & Eppinger, 1995). As a cross disciplinary set of activities, it involves equal level of contribution from all functioning departments of the organization however, critical departments and their contribution are research and development, designing, manufacturing and marketing (Ulrich & Eppinger, 1995).

Innovation and product development have become the core drivers of organizational success. These two factors act as a catalyst in enabling a business entity to perform better than other business entities in the market place(Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995) and shoe high levels of performance in terms of sales, credibility, building brand associations and positive attitude. Moreover, there is a strong association between acquisition of changing knowledge that leads to innovation and increased organizational performance. It requires a strong alignment of game plan that is a strategy of growth and expansion with technology related innovative policy. Aims and objectives of these policies and strategies should be made explicit in order to involve all workforces in process of innovative product development (Yannele, 2005).

According to many researchers Amabile et al (1996) and Page (1993) innovations that are of noteworthy nature             provide business entities to create gain and retain competitive positions among other companies on the market place. For new companies entering into a market it act as a strong pillar to launch a healthy competition in market and acquire an advantage. Innovation consist of many other dimensions like innovation in work practices, in human resource management practices, marketing practices, manufacturing process innovation and product innovation. Product innovation is from a customer perspective while other innovations are associated internally with organization. However, for effective implementation of both perspectives of innovation management has to consider internal as well external scenarios in market.

Development of a great and unique product is hard; it requires a lot of concentration, deep knowledge, and keen insight of targeted customers. All teams in an organisation but in particular team assigned task of product development faces a huge challenge of success of their product. These challenges include time constraints, cost effectiveness, major and minor details, other dynamics, satisfying societal needs while following all rules and regulations of government, team spirit and diversity among team, members. Only few of the companies bear this massive burden and become successful in unique product development (Petrella, 1996).

Numbers of researches have been conducted in order to find the impact of integration between innovation and product development on organizational performance. Research conducted by Roger & Zhao (2002) showed that approved the pattern of product development and innovation on organizational performance. Results of these researches have indicated that there is a healthy positive impact on organizational performance if a company adopts the trend of innovation in product development Robertson & Tu (2001); Liu et al., (2002); Zirger et al, (1990) and Roger & Zhao (2002) in other researchers found that high level of quality in innovation and creativity in product line has a definite and positive affect on consumer perceptions leading to the purchase intention, customer satisfaction, loyalty towards a business entity, profitability, volume of capital and ultimately organizational performance.

 

3.1.Research Methods

In the literature two types of research methods have been explained namely quantitative and qualitative (Cooper and Schindler, 2001) and the combination of both these methods is known as mixed method. The first research method mentioned is quantitative and in this method the information is collected in the form of numbers through the close ended questionnaires. There are scales set for each question and these are coded. The information further is processed by applying mathematical modelling or statistical tools (Hartley and Barling, 1998). The positive point of this method is that clear information is gathered and then processed to reveal consistent results which can be easily interpreted in the computer programs such as Microsoft Excel and SPSS (Whipp, 1998). Large amount of data is gathered in this method which is not easy to handle (Cohen et al 2000; Saunders et al 2003).

The second research method mentioned is qualitative and in this method descriptive techniques are employed. Through the interviews, documents and observations raw data is collected and after that it is analysed by employing the techniques such as content analysis and thematic analysis (Whipp, 1998). The positive point of this method is that the research problem can be unveiled in detail with the help of this method but a negative aspect of the method is that raw data is difficult to analyse (Tashakorri & Teddlie, 2010). The themes are highlighted with difficulty because while taking information useless information is also provided (Coe, 2004; Bell, 2010).

In the research for which the proposal is developed, the quantitative and the qualitative research methods will both be used. This makes the research using mixed methods. Since the topic is related to innovation in product development, therefore interviews from the product development department will be conducted. The impact of innovation in product development on organisation performance is the topic. Organisational performance is the second variable. In order to research out this variable the financial reports will be consulted to review a recent innovation in product development. The results will be presented in the form of tables and charts.

3.2.Approaches

 

There are two types of research approaches as according to Saunders et al (2009) namely deductive and inductive approach. The deductive approach uses the principle of “specific to general”. In this approach the researcher uses the information from the previous research work meaning thereby it uses secondary data to build the theoretical base of the research work and then come to the problem as according to Trochim (1999).

The inductive approach uses the principle of “general to specific”. In this approach the researcher uses theories and models and the prior research work and then defines the problem and further research the problem as according to Clark (2009). In the research for which the proposal is developed, the deductive approach will be used. The problem here is defined and the literature will be consulted. After that the company will be researched out and the results will be evaluated.

3.3.Strategies

Many strategies are identified from time to time in literature through which the research can be completed. The names of the strategies identified are case study, survey, ethnography, experimental research, grounded theory and action strategies (Gumenson, 2000; Sekaran, 2003). These are explained one by one in the forthcoming paragraph.

The case study strategy is used in the researches where only one event or one organisation is taken into account as according to Yardley and Bishop (Undated). In the experimental research the experiments are conducted in controlled settings as according to Bryman (2004) and it used by scientific, psychological and behavioural studies researches. Ethnography is another research strategy employed by anthropology (Sekaran and Bougie, 2009). The grounded theory is a research strategy which is used in the hypotheses testing researches. Action strategy is causal research wherein cause and effects of an event are studies out (Sekaran and Bougie, 2009).

In the research for which the proposal is developed, the case study method is used in which the case of Samsung galaxy will be taken into account. Samsung is a company which continuously innovating its products and the organisational performance can be easily reviewed in this company.

3.4.Data Collection Method

Two types of data collected are identified in the literature namely primary and the secondary data collection. In the primary data collection the researcher collects data from the respondents or the subject of the research and the data is only collected for the research which is conducted. It cannot be found out in the past researches or any other forum (Smith, 2008; Craswell, 2009). The methods through which data primary data can be collected are experiments, questionnaires, documentary analysis, financial reports, interviews and statistical reports.

The secondary data is an already existing data. It can be retrieved from researches, books, newspapers, journal articles, internet sources, blogs and magazines (Sekaran and Bougie, 2009). In the research for which the proposal is developed, both the methods will be used. From the secondary method, literature will be consulted to build the theoretical base of the research. The primary data will be collected from interviews from the product development department and the financial reports will be consulted to study both the variables.

3.5.Sampling Method

The sampling method selected for the future research will be random and convenience sampling in which everyone has equal chances of selection. Also there will be no specific requirements for the respondents except the employees of product development department will be interviewed. These two methods are selected for research convenience.

3.6.Accessibility issues

In order to collect data, there are accessibility issues which will come in the way. First of all, to collect data in the form of interviews is difficult. The respondents feel hesitant and show unavailability. In order to tackle this issue, the meeting time will be taken from the respondents before showing them up. The collection of data for literature can be a difficult task. For this the research will use university digital library and also will take access to VPN account so that secondary data is always present.

3.7.Ethical Considerations

According to Tharenou et al (2007), ethics are the important step in the development of the methodology of the research. The right and wrong is considered and mentioned for the research. The ethics which will be taken in consideration for the future research are mentioned below:

• The names of the people from whom data will be collected will not be revealed to the company or to the general public.
• The research will be wholly conducted for the academic reasons and that it will not be used for commercial purposes.
• Consent and company permission will be taken before the collection of data.
• The research will not intend to harm any person or organisation.

The data will be analysed using the thematic technique in which the themes from the interviews will be identified and then analysed. The financial information will be presented in the form of tables. Both of the information will then be compared and contrasted so as to reach the final results.

The time plan to be followed in the research is shown below

Chapters	May-14	Jun-14	July-14
Introduction
Literature review
Methodology
Data analysis
Conclusion
Recommendations
Review and submission

 

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