Steve Markham - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Steve Markham

Research-Technology Management, 2002

MOVING TECHNOLOGIES FROM LAB TO MARKET ... be able to steer their product idea across the “Valley... more MOVING TECHNOLOGIES FROM LAB TO MARKET ... be able to steer their product idea across the “Valley of Death” that separates discovery from commercialization. ... is important for the organization (6–8). Without official power or responsibility, they take risks beyond what would ...

Research-Technology Management, 2017

OVERVIEW: Investment in innovation training has the potential to help firms create more successfu... more OVERVIEW: Investment in innovation training has the potential to help firms create more successful product offerings, but the extent to which companies do innovation training is unknown. Although efforts to optimize formal processes and integrate Agile methods into development have led to more efficient innovation systems, a large skill gap remains that cannot be overcome by tools and processes alone. To explore the extent to which companies are (or are not) engaging in training to address those skill gaps, interviews were conducted with 30 senior R&D managers from Fortune 1000 companies. The results indicate that even though senior managers’ view of innovation success factors is more focused on human capital than in the past, innovation training rarely happens—80 percent of the companies in our sample reported rarely engaging in structured training to build innovation competencies. We offer some recommendations for addressing this gap.

Research Technology Management

OVERVIEW: This article describes how to use unstructured text analytics to support critical produ... more OVERVIEW: This article describes how to use unstructured text analytics to support critical product development decisions. It clarifies the difference between structured and unstructured data and proposes an analytical process for using big data and natural language processing tools for unstructured text analytics to support managerial decision-making. The usefulness of unstructured data for product development decisions is demonstrated in real cases. In particular, we illustrate the use of text analytics to develop services, to find new customers, and to assess new product viability. Results and outcomes are presented, and practical considerations for selecting and adopting text analytic capabilities are examined.

Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2014

ABSTRACT Drawing on marriage and family therapy (MFT), this paper introduces the concept of we-ne... more ABSTRACT Drawing on marriage and family therapy (MFT), this paper introduces the concept of we-ness to new product development (NPD). We-ness is the shared sense of togetherness family members feel toward each other. We apply we-ness to NPD as the construct through which people share knowledge at the team, between-team, and between-organization levels. The results support the hypotheses that we-ness increases knowledge sharing and that knowledge sharing increases product performance. In this study, we used regressions to analyze the hypotheses. We found that the greater in-team we-ness (H1, t = 3.786, p = .000), between-team we-ness (H2, t = 5.411, p = .000), and between-organization we-ness (H3, t = 2.940, p = .004) activities there were, the more knowledge sharing in NPD. Results also indicate that knowledge sharing is related to better NPD performance.This paper contrasts team and family as the foundation metaphor to organize people engaged in product development. We argue the team metaphor can be counterproductive in settings where difficult decisions must be made. Teams can lead to individual members suppressing their opinions to “help” the team achieve its goal. Members are expected to sacrifice for the good of the team. That can be adaptive when the task is straightforward.The family metaphor suggests that the group sacrifices for the individual. In a family environment, members protect minority opinions, and in cases where complex, ambiguous decisions must be made individual expertise and insight may come from one person. High-trust family-like settings can facilitate sharing sensitive information and norms that can be challenged. The family metaphor suggests a more flexible and tolerant approach to new ideas. At the same time, it is recognized that families can have dysfunctions that can detract from performance. Therefore, managers must carefully apply the use of family-like settings.The importance for family-like approaches across organizations seems to be more important as technology complexity increases. Between-team we-ness was revealed significantly higher in goods manufacturers than service firms in this study. Small companies need to make extra effort to increase between-team we-ness.The idea of approaching product development from a family relations perspective opens up new alternatives for managing people in teams, between teams, and even between organizations. MFT tools to address behaviors and individual performance issues increase the number and nature of managerial tools to increase product performance.

The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development, 2013

Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2012

A persistent myth in product innovation and management is that the failure rate of new products i... more A persistent myth in product innovation and management is that the failure rate of new products is 80% or higher. How does this false idea continue to displace the conclusions of empirical studies since 1977 that the new product failure rate is 40% or less? We examine the influence of a fallacy that encourages people's unthinking acceptance of ideas on new product failure rates and whose appeal rests primarily on an emotional, rather than a reasoned, argument. Self-interest also plays a major role in keeping this myth alive.

Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 1991

The emergence of champions and antagonists across 213 R&D projects within 21 firms is examined us... more The emergence of champions and antagonists across 213 R&D projects within 21 firms is examined using a role theory framework. These roles are found to emerge across multiple functions within the firm and to be systematically related to project characteristics, project resource allocations and support, and project performance. Champions are more common for projects allied with the champions' home-function interests. Championed projects also are better supported and less likely to be terminated, but may not make greater contributions to business goals. The role of the antagonist is less clear, but appears to emerge as counterpoint to the champion role.

Research-Technology Management, 2005

OVERVIEW: By providing a window on emerging tech-nologies, market opportunities, new business mod... more OVERVIEW: By providing a window on emerging tech-nologies, market opportunities, new business models, and distribution channels, corporate venturing can be an important source of technological innovation for corpo-rations. However, effective implementation requires a clear view of ...

Journal of Product Innovation Management, 1998

According to conventional wisdom, if an innovative new product development (NPD) effort is to sta... more According to conventional wisdom, if an innovative new product development (NPD) effort is to stand any chance for success, the project must have a champion. The role of the champion has taken on almost mythic proportions, through oft-told tales of the development of such disparate products as instant cameras, automobiles, and microprocessors. Notwithstanding the purportedly essential role that champions play, however, we have only anecdotal evidence of the manner in which effective champions operate and the benefits that they offer. Stephen K. Markham and Abbie Griffin suggest that before we can explore questions about how champions affect product development performance, we must address an even more fundamental issue: whether champions actually influence performance. Using data from the 1995 PDMA study of best practices in product development, they test various widely held assumptions about champions and NDP performance. Specifically, they investigate the association between championing and the following variables: NPD performance at the program, firm, and project levels; industry characteristics; and project-and firmrelated NPD characteristics. In several respects, the results of their study run counter to current beliefs about product development champions. For example, the study suggests that champions are just as likely to be found in large firms as they are in small firms. Similarly, the results indicate that the likelihood of finding a champion does not differ significantly between technology-driven firms and marketing-driven firms. For the firms in this study, champions are no more likely to support radical innovations than they are to back incremental innovations or product line extensions. The results of the study suggest that champions do not directly affect firm-level NPD performance. Instead, the results of this study associate increased championing with higher levels of NPD program performance, which positively affects firm-level performance. The results of this study also do not support the notion that a champion can directly improve the market success of a particular project.

Research-technology Management, 2002

Traversing the Valley of Death: A Practical Guide for Corporate Innovation Leaders Stephen K. Mar... more Traversing the Valley of Death: A Practical Guide for Corporate Innovation Leaders Stephen K. Markham and Paul C. Mugge (2015) How can companies successfully and sustainably manage the innovation activities that transform research discoveries into business opportunities? What should innovation leaders do in this space, between pure research and commercialization, which has become known as the Valley of Death because it is filled with so many candidates and so few winners? How can we avoid leaving good ideas to languish in the transition, doomed to under-deliver or simply be forgotten? Traversing the Valley of Death describes one approach for shepherding ideas from research to development to market delivery, the System for Industrial Innovation developed by the authors in their work with multiple organizations across various industries for the Center for Innovation iVIanagement Studies (CIMS) at North Carolina State University. The system consists of a six-step process to convert ide...

Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 2019

Today’s dynamic and complex environment means that companies are trying to develop entrepreneuria... more Today’s dynamic and complex environment means that companies are trying to develop entrepreneurial thinking as a competitive advantage. Universities around the world are simultaneously increasing entrepreneurial training across a broad array of majors. However, the entrepreneurial training is not heavily connected to industry needs. This paper focuses on how industry and universities can cooperate to prepare students for corporate entrepreneurial thinking. The research is based on extensive literature, reports, and in-depth interviews with 28 people from various parts of the RTP (Research Triangle Park), including companies, government agencies, and numerous programs at multiple universities. The major finding from this study is that the strength of entrepreneurial education in the regional innovation system reinforces the companies’ open innovation capacity and their performance. To be successful at launching campus-wide entrepreneurship education to increase understanding of corpo...

Research-Technology Management, 2007

ABSTRACT BP, one of the largest international oil companies (IOC), has been in the forefront of t... more ABSTRACT BP, one of the largest international oil companies (IOC), has been in the forefront of the industry's transformation from relatively simple geological structure on-shore, to continental shelf off-shore development, involving highly complex geological systems and computer controlled mechanical structures and equipment. The technology underpinning this transformation includes innovation in drilling, seismic acquisition and interpretation, numerical simulation of reservoir performance, engineering materials for extreme temperature pressures, and deep water robotics. BP's oil and gas production business segment strives to sustain and improve its competitiveness through innovation, both to improve its existing operations and to create new opportunities. The company also formed an Innovative Board to prosecute this agenda and tasked it with delivering innovative results in the areas of business transformation, top-line revenue growth, cost reductions, health, safety, and environment.

Journal of Product Innovation Management, 2016

Best practices data are critical for managing and researching new product development. For these ... more Best practices data are critical for managing and researching new product development. For these purposes the PDMA Research Foundation conducted the 2012 PDMA Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS). This article reports the use of the CPAS data among product development researchers and provides a complete description of the data gathering and cleaning process needed to write additional articles using these data, including other articles in this special issue. This article also reports important results of the CPAS data, makes comparisons between the Best and the Rest firms, and makes comparisons among firms by geography, industry, product/technology/market types, and company size. The results offer insights for academics and practitioners to conduct further research and to find potential new product development best practices.

Research Technology Management, 2002

OVERVIEW: Product champions need more than enthusiasm and foresight if they are to accomplish the... more OVERVIEW: Product champions need more than enthusiasm and foresight if they are to accomplish their self-appointed mission-they must be able to steer their product idea across the " Valley of Death " that separates discovery from commercialization. This requires the champion to successfully accomplish a series of discrete activities: recognize that his/her idea or research actually has commercial value, manifest the discovery as a product, communicate its potential through a compelling business case, acquire the resources necessary to realize that potential, use those resources to reduce risk, seek approval for formal development, and translate the project into the approval criteria. Following this, the champion must make his influence felt during the formal project approval stage and in the (hopefully) final development and launch. Carrying out these activities requires special skills, from influence tactics to business case writing.

Research Technology Management, Nov 1, 2002

No one wakes up in the morning deciding to be a product champion. Universities do not award degre... more No one wakes up in the morning deciding to be a product champion. Universities do not award degrees to champions; firms generally do not hire someone to be a champion, nor do they establish official "Champion" positions. Although the role of champion is well known in new product development (1-4), a champion's real contribution is often made outside the formal NPD process. Some observers have even argued that a project dies without a champion (5). Champions emerge suddenly, according to no apparent pattern, as voluntary, informal leaders determined to promote a particular project because they have become convinced that it is important for the organization (6-8). Without official power or responsibility, they take risks beyond what would be expected of someone in their position in order to influence others to support "their" project and help move it forward, outside the formal development processes if necessary (9-10). This involves working closely with teams or, if no team exists, gaining the voluntary cooperation of enough people with the necessary expertise. If a team is already in place, the champion must adapt his or her style to fit the team's style if he hopes to influence it. But regardless of the team's genesis, the champion must provide it with vision and direction, secure new resources or protect existing ones, and help the team to network throughout the organization (11). However, champions must do much more than offer enthusiasm and foresight--they must possess the skills necessary to cross a developing product's "Valley of Death." These skills and how champions can develop them are the focus of this article. Understanding the Valley of Death The Valley of Death is the gap between the technical invention or market recognition of an idea and the efforts to commercialize it (Figure 1). Most companies have the resources, personnel and organizational structure necessary for technology development (12,13). These components are present on the left side of the valley. Similarly, most companies possess the resources for such commercialization activities as marketing, sales, promotion, production, and distribution, which appear on the right side of the valley. The Valley of Death between discovery and commercialization thus represents a lack of structure, resources and expertise. It is the champion's role to drive projects across this valley. [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] There are several explanations for the Valley of Death. Technical personnel (left side) often do not understand the concerns of commercialization personnel (right side) and vice versa. The cultural gap between these groups manifests itself in the results prized by one side and devalued by the other. Networking and contract management, for example, may be important to sales people but seen as shallow and self-aggrandizing by technical people. Also, both sides often have different objectives and reward structures; technical people find value in discovery and pushing the frontiers of knowledge, while commercialization people need a product to sell and often consider the value of discovery as theoretical and useless. Both technical and commercialization people need help translating research findings into superior product offerings. Crossing the Valley of Death requires champions, resources and formal development processes. Often, the champion's role and the need for resources are unclear and interact in an ad hoc fashion. Typically, the champion approaches the person who has a needed resource, presents a vision of the opportunity, and informally asks for help. For example, a new diagnostic test to predict the onset of Type 2 diabetes may require a specific chemical reaction to be demonstrated before anyone will take the project seriously. The champion seeks the necessary lab time, chemicals and personnel to demonstrate the reaction, and if the demonstration is successful, seeks to have the project adopted into the formal development process. …

The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development