Skip to main content

A guest lecture on "Role of absorptive capacity in new high-tech product development" at IME, IIT Kanpur

A guest lecture was organized by IME department on 8th September on “Role of Absorptive Capacity in New High-tech Product Development”. The speaker was Mr Shashi Shekhar Mishra, who is a doctoral candidate in marketing area at Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, and his doctoral research is in new high-tech product development process.

The seminar began with an introduction to technological innovations and their transformation into successful new products, which is indispensable for high-tech firms. Mr. Mishra said that the researchers and practioners have well recognized the importance of firm-level technology acquisition intent (TAI) for successful realization of new products across various high-tech industries. Extant literature suggests the role of firm’s dynamic capabilities on new high-tech product development (NPD) process. Higher firm-level absorptive capacity is prescribed to stimulate firm’s external knowledge acquisition and overall performance. However, he also said that hardly has any research ever been attempted to explain the effects of absorptive capacity on TAI in the NPD process. His study tries to address this research gap in the extant literature by first developing a theoretical framework through a focused literature survey that explains the relationships between absorptive capacity and TAI, and subsequent consequence of TAI on NPD process. This is followed by empirical validation of the theoretical framework by conducting a survey on 215 high-tech product marketing firms across the globe.

The results of the path analysis indicate that while absorptive capacity and organizational learning directly influences the firm’s TAI, there is no evidence from the results supporting the direct influence of firm size on the same. Furthermore, TAI positively affects readiness-to-design and found to mediate the relationship between its organizational antecedents and readiness-to-deign. In addition, the results of hierarchical regression analysis reveal that, contrary to prevailing wisdom, absorptive capacity reduces the perception of organizational learning from the acquisition of a new know-how. However absorptive capacity is found not to affect the firm size-TAI relationship in any way. The study results clearly established that the TAI by the firm leads to smooth readiness-to-design in new high-tech product development processes.

In all, the present research contributes significantly to the existing marketing literature by explaining the role of absorptive capacity on NPD process, and provided useful insights to the managers who are involved in the development of new high-tech products. The seminar ended with a vote of thanks from Prof S.C Mishra.

Contributed by:

Saurabh Awasthi,
MBA 1st Year, IIT Kanpur

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Consilium'08: The Consulting Conclave

MBA batch under the aegis of Department of IME is going to organize the annual consulting conclave of IIT Kanpur, Consilium’08. The objective of this event is to create a platform where confluence of leading professionals from consultancy and vast student community can take place. As consultancy has become one of the most preferred career choice for IITians , Consilium'08 will provide them the opportunity to learn about the nunaces of consultancy in various domains. From a humble start, it has been envisaged that Consilium will become the platform in coming years where representatives from across the spectrum of consultancy will share their knowledge, experience and insight with students. The event has generated enthusiasm among all sections of IITK students and students from other major B-Schools who are also expected to participate. Case solving competition is one of the attraction of Consilium '08 in which winners shall get certificates and attractive cash prizes. Apart...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE HIGH OCTANE RIDE: FRESHERS NIGHT ‘12

“Dance like nobody's watching, Love like you've never been hurt, Sing like nobody's listening, Live like it's heaven on earth”  -Mark Twain An apt quote to describe the sumptuous freshers' party for the MBA batch of 2012-14, organised by the seniors on 17 th August, 2012. As with all freshers' parties, the gist of this night was to make every Y’14 MBA student feel like being an integral part of the IIT-K family, younger and ever new to take the challenge of the years ahead, ever fresh through the year and carrying the legacy ahead. The proceedings started as early as 7pm, as all the students geared up for an evening of fun, enjoyment and relaxation. After ambiguity, predicament and lots of discussions over what to wear for the occasion, almost everyone reached the venue for the night, old SAC ground, by 7.15pm where the party finally began at around 7.45pm. The event, compered by Sagar and Kanwardeep, kicked off with the Y’14 students being called on ...
4 comments
Read more

A Talk on Project Management and Strategic Planning

A guest lecture was delivered by Mr. Aditya Kumar, Solution Transformation Leader, Schneider Electric on 11th Jan, 2013. He has specialized in Project Planning, Contract & Risk Management, Turnkey Projects, Business Processes, Energy Management, Building Project organization and thus his talk was focused on these aspects. He discussed that how the strategy and project management go hand in hand. Just as strategies and ideas lead to new projects, similarly, project results drive changes and give rise to new strategies and innovations. He explained that a project is a venture undertaken to produce a product or service. Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, procuring and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of project by the application of skills, knowledge, tools and techniques and meet the need and expectations of all the parties who are directly or indirectly interested in the project. The main challenge with project management is to...
4 comments
Read more