Digital Transformation and New Product Development at Incumbent Manufacturing Firms A Case Study on the Effects of Digital Transformation on New Product Development

Abstract

Digital transformation (DT) has disrupted industry after industry through techno- logical advances, changing customer behavior and increasing competition between incumbent, born-digital and de alio entrant firms. Consequently, this rapidly chang- ing environment raises the stakes for firms to digitally transform their businesses. An example of this is the manufacturing industry. As incumbent manufacturing firms’ (IMFs) offerings become more reliant on digital technologies to sustain com- petitive advantage, both the nature of products themselves and the processes used to develop them are affected. Furthermore, the impact of DT is especially rele- vant to understand for IMFs, as their organizational legacies may cause inertia and resistance to change. As digitalization becomes more prevalent and pervasive, there is a need to better understand its effects on NPD processes that IMFs face. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how DT affects IMFs’ new product development (NPD) processes within R&D in practice and how such effects can be managed. The intersection of these academic fields has been identified as lacking empirical studies, which is where this study aims to contribute. To this end, a single case study was performed at a globally operating Sweden-based IMF. The intended audience is affected individuals and organizations in academia and firm management that are interested in the governance of R&D processes, more specifically NPD processes and how they are affected by DT. The findings from this study showed that eight main effects emerged in this re- gard, some of which were not extensively covered by current literature. Moreover, four areas of intervention were identified regarding the management of these ef- fects, and several implications for management and further research opportunities were also identified and outlined. Thereby, this thesis provides both practitioners and academia with an overview of the effects on DT on NPD processes, as well as indicates areas ripe for further investigation.