Erin Lin
Dr. Magdy Abdel-Kader
Senior Lecturer, Department of Accounting, Brunel UK I. Research Motivation
Taiwan is a place of contradictions; a small island called Formosa 240 miles long, home to 22.7 million people (January 2005 est.). From a population standpoint, Taiwan is a
‘small’ country. In contrast to Taiwan, the USA has 293 million people, Japan has 127.3 million people, and Mainland China has 1,298.8 million people. Using China as an example, China has an immense population, so it has the capability to manufacture products for other countries such as the USA, Taiwan, using low-skilled Chinese workers. In contrast to China, Taiwan is extremely small and even if all 22.7 million people work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, Taiwan cannot compete with China in manufacturing (production) capacity. Thus, Taiwan must transform into a high-technology industry in order to remain competitive in the international market.
New product development (NPD) teams are the key of success in high-technology sectors. Also, NPD project teams perform in dynamic environments that are not easy to appropriately align team-members and shareholders’ interests as well as to find out the dominant incentive which properly motivates members of NPD project teams to produce successful new products. As a result incentive related problems, such as the free-rider problem, the principle-agent problem, and so on, can emerge.
In Lin’s (2006) dissertation, a qualitative case study is identified as an appropriate research strategy due to its capability of exploring the holistic quality of project teams and the practices of human actors. The interview was a principal preference for this multiple case study research because such work can provide both critical insights and lay a foundation for further research on the topic as many authors argued. Documentation could notify what was going on and what has been done in organisations, but provide little insight into issues of how and why. Therefore, documentary information played an ensuing role in data collection in conducting this case study research. Briefly, interviews asked what informants do and what informants perceive; and then documents examined whether what informants perceived was correspondent.
The multiple case study presents, in all material respects, the texts of interviews by preserving the specific history of each unique case and focuses only on the background of each company, the structure of each team, the interaction of its NPD process and its breakthrough product project team, performance measurements applied to each team, and
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what motivates each team. Within-case analysis is based on a series of themes, including values and corporate culture, leadership and vision, teamwork setting, success and failure, which look directly at the causal relationship of team performance measurement systems and new product success/failure. The researcher utilises the linkage effect to view the causality so that the credibility of such claims are increased. After performing within-case analysis, the researcher advocates a replication strategy for cross-case analysis to see whether the finding could be duplicated.
Findings of Lin’s (2006) Ph.D. dissertation show that some so-called ‘new product success factors’ are basic considerations when approving NPD projects and structuring NPD project teams. Lin’s (2006) study does not seek to validate either agency theory or stewardship theory as the one-best-way of thinking. Instead, Lin’s (2006) study contributes additional insight into the role that organizational architecture could play in invisibly influencing employees’ performance within NPD project teams. Also, Lin’s (2006) study explores that an open and non-discriminatory performance measurement system as the dominant incentive which invisibly motivates employees of teams, influences performance of members of teams and in turn affects new product success or failure in four cases.
II. 論文後續修改方向及參與研習營心得
Globalisation and technological revolutions have made companies’ capabilities to R&D and launch new products an essential factor for survival in a dynamic and highly competitive environment, especially within high technology sector. Accordingly, the process of New Product Development (NPD) represents a crucial activity for business success. Such activity is, normally, performed by a project team whose members come from different functions and have diverse backgrounds.
It is argued that introducing teamwork and team-based activities into an organisation is a complex process which involves multifunctional, interactive processes that are frequently complicated to control. It also is difficult to appropriately align team-members and shareholders’ interests. To overcome such difficulty companies should have an incentive scheme that can properly motivates the team’s members to achieve the company’s purpose; i.e.
to produce a successful new product. The incentive scheme should also avoid incentive related problems, such as the free-rider problem and the principle-agent problem, which may emerge.
The aim of this paper is to explore which incentive scheme properly motivates members of NPD project teams, influences effort and performance of teams’ members and in turn affects new product success/failure. Our aim is not to dispute whether incentives work or not but to find out what constitutes an appropriate incentive scheme and to understand how it
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works. As human behaviour is complicated and difficult to predict from a single perspective, we use theories from economic, sociological, and psychological perspectives including positive agency, stewardship, self-categorisation, and social identity theories to capture the complexity of human behaviour. In particular, we examine the relationship between the level of self-categorisation and team identification of project teams and the outputs of NPD process in four Taiwanese high-tech companies.
We employ a case study approach due to its capability of exploring the holistic quality of project teams and the practices of human actors. The primary method of data collection was a series of in-depth interviews. Issues related to project teams such as the organisation of project teams, new product strategy and corporate resources for project teams were discussed with presidents, CEOs, project managers, and key team members, such as sales mangers and engineers, who attempt to match customer needs with the company’s technical capabilities.
Additionally, issues related to the operation of performance measurement systems, the use of measurement results, and the impact of measurement results on project teams and functions were discussed with human resource managers. Then, a within-case analysis was undertaken to investigate the causal relationship of self-categoisation and team identification and new product success/failure. This analysis was based on a series of themes, including values and corporate culture, leadership and vision, and teamwork setting.
Key findings show that adopting either agency theory or stewardship theory depends on corporate culture and executives’ management philosophy and beliefs. The results indicate that strong self-categorisation and team identification are the dominant incentive of the success/failure of the new product in the four cases. Findings of this study contribute to the wider understanding on the relationship between characteristics of the incentive scheme and success/failure of NPD process.
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j投稿不要太匆促，不要怕投稿。
kCo-authors 選擇找志同道合。
(3)黃鈺昌
j 找 co-authors：研究個性合不合，每個人專精之處。好的 mentor 是不會搶功勞，
心胸寬大。<個人名言：寧願不虧欠別人，而在晚上睡得著>
k 到 workshop 去報告時，就可以了解。
l 懂得人生規畫，不要害羞提問。
m 多和不同領域交流，相互腦力激盪。
(4)吳安妮
j找 co-authors：很慎重、小心的事，team-work 是互補。
k找此領域之 key man。
l建議閱讀「腦內革命」。
m當做博班學生的精神，要謙虛，知自已不足，不斷學習。
n策略思維。
3、 有些 papers 會投到管理期刋？有些會投到會計期刊？要怎麼包裝？
黃鈺昌
j投稿至管理期刊，要找到其領域專家，按照其領域思維撰寫。
k考慮自已與 co-author 彼此之長處。當投稿到管理期刊，最好找一個人，對管理 期刊了解的，並建議由對該領域較熟悉之 co-author 為主軸。