Convergent Evidence For The Composite Model From Three Studies

Conceptual models of organization and management are seldom backed-up by statistical evidence validating their feasibility and effectiveness. However, the “composite model” is an exception. This chapter provides detailed but essential evidence documenting the validity of the composite model for developing valued customer offerings. An initial study representative of US goods industries observed interdependencies among a troika of domains of practice commonly accepted as fundamental for development operations: Organization, Process, Tools/Technologies (OPT). To confirm that the practices at the operating core of the composite model have synergistic benefits, a follow-on study analyzed 92 product development groups in industrial enterprises. The extent to which the composite model was robust enough to predict successful development of new services as well as goods products was tested in a study of 70 non-industrial enterprises. Juxtaposing results from all three studies for the first time helps evaluate the extent to which the composite framework is reliably applicable for creating robust value for customers in a wide variety of goods and service enterprises.The composite model of development operations is tested two ways. First, conceptually similar measures of concurrent product development (CPD) practices are correlated with indicators of product development performance to test the observance of parallel results in Goods Studies I and II. Second, the extent to which OPT practices have parallel interaction on performance in both goods studies is investigated. Moderated regression is used to analyze the extent to which the combinatory impact of OPT domains of practice on performance exceeds the sum of each separate effect. Synergies are key for augmenting competitiveness. Enterprises gain competitive advantage by configuring throughput systems so that the value of outputs exceeds that of inputs.The triangulation of synergistic results from all three studies suggests that that deployment of the composite model is likely to improve the competitiveness of large-scale enterprises regardless of sector. Results converged from all three studies despite differences in samples, methods, and measures. Parallel outcomes demonstrate that the composite model of operations delivers multiple kinds of performance advantage, including new product features at reduced costs. These research findings provide confidence in the robust reliability of the model for driving development performance.The cornerstone of concurrency is early simultaneous influence (ESI). Evidence from all three studies affirms its importance for driving innovative performance. The benefit of engaging downstream functions, such as production and service, in front-end decisions for innovative development is strongly confirmed. Moreover, The more radical the innovation, the more important heterogeneous input from diverse specialists throughout the lifecycle becomes.Evidence on CPD by other authors is briefly summarized. Appendix Table 4 enables the reader to rate the extent to which CPD practices based on this foundational research have been implemented in their enterprises or should be implemented in the future.