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Toward a theory to study the use of collaborative product commerce for product development

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Abstract

Collaborative product commerce (CPC) solutions span software and services which permit individuals to share product data to improve the design, development, and management of products throughout the product development lifecycle. Drawing upon prior developments in adaptive structuration theory (AST) and media richness theory, I develop a theoretical framework to better understand the role of CPC in enabling collaboration in a product development environment. I study the impact of CPC on product design and development processes using a cross-sectional survey of 36 firms. The study reveals that CPC usage varies across different phases of the product development lifecycle. Preliminary results indicate that CPC has enabled firms to collaborate effectively with external stakeholders, which has resulted in tangible business benefits. I conclude by developing several research propositions which provide a roadmap for conducting future empirical research to measure the impact of CPC on product development, and highlight potential research topics that can be explored.

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Notes

  1. The act of bringing rules and resources from an advanced technology or other structural source into action is called structuration [10].

  2. These systems have also been termed product lifecycle management (PLM) systems since they go beyond the realm of product data management and enable inter-organizational collaboration for product development [41, 42].

  3. I refer readers to Fig. 2 in Vickery et al. [40], which explains the relationship between information richness and the complexity of task characteristics (measured as uncertainty, difficulty, variability, and interdependence) in retail/consumer and business-to-business (B2B) industrial services.

  4. Although the sample size is relatively small, it is comparable to other studies reported in the product design and software development literatures [8, 11, 14].

  5. This step was necessary to ensure that there was no ambiguity in the definition of CPC and that companies had a clear understanding of the types of software that comprised CPC.

  6. In fact, these business processes may straddle multiple phases of the product lifecycle.

  7. The wide range of cost savings is explained by the size of the company and scope of CPC implementation.

  8. I have compressed the layout and language of the actual questionnaire to meet the page limitations of a journal paper.

  9. In reality, the survey questionnaire provided one page per process for respondents to provide their completed responses to the questions pertaining to each process.

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Acknowledgements

Helpful comments by the associate editor and both referees are gratefully acknowledged. I gratefully acknowledge the reviewers and participants of the Ninth INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology held in October 2004 in Denver, Colorado.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, SM 41, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

    Indranil R. Bardhan

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  1. Indranil R. Bardhan
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Correspondence to Indranil R. Bardhan.

Appendix: Survey Questionnaire

Appendix: Survey Questionnaire

Collaborative Product Commerce (CPC) is a class of collaboration software and tools that use internet technologies to permit individuals to collaboratively share intellectual data for the design, development, and management of product data throughout the product design and development lifecycle. CPC includes workflow tools that enable real-time exchange of product design data using structured business processes.

SECTION A: CONTEXTUAL QUESTIONS

  1. 1.

    What is your job title?

  2. 2.

    With respect to your knowledge of CPC as used by your company on a day-to-day basis, would you say that you are very knowledgeable, somewhat knowledgeable, or not at all knowledgeable?

    (CONTINUE ONLY IF VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE)

  3. 3.

    With respect to your knowledge about the products and processes your company used for product design and development, prior to installing CPC, would you say that you are very knowledgeable, somewhat knowledgeable, or not at all knowledgeable.

    (CONTINUE ONLY IF VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE)

  4. 4.

    How long has it been since your company went live using the CPC solution?

    Years

    		 

    Months

    		 

    (TERMINATE IF LESS THAN 6 MONTHS)

  5. 5.

    Why did your company purchase the CPC solution?

  6. 6.

    Did your company use any product data management software prior to the purchase of the CPC solution? What was it?

  7. 7.

    How does your company train employees in the use of the CPC solution?

    1. a.

      To date, how many employees have been trained?

    2. b.

      What is the average time it takes to train an employee in the use of CPC?

  8. 8.

    Could you refer me to a person in your company that would be able to answer high-level business questions around product development such as how your company tracks the size of a product development project, and business goals to collaborate internally and externally?

SECTION B

  1. 1.

    To the best of your knowledge what is your company’s annual sales revenue?

    Annual Revenue

    Place an ‘X’ next to the appropriate row

    a.

    Less than $1 million

    		 

    b.

    $1 million to $10 million

    		 

    c.

    $10 million to $24.9 million

    		 

    d.

    $25 million to $49.9 million

    		 

    e.

    $50 million to $99.9 million

    		 

    f.

    $100 million to $249 million

    		 

    g.

    $250 million to $500 million

    		 

    h.

    $501 million to $1 billion

    		 

    i.

    $1.1 billion to $10 billion

    		 

    j.

    $10.1 billion to $25 billion

    		 

    k.

    $25.1 billion to $50 billion

    		 

    l.

    Greater than $50 billion

    		 
  2. 2.

    What is the total annual product development budget of your company?

    Product Development Budget

    Place an ‘X’ next to the appropriate row

    a.

    Less than $1 million

    		 

    b.

    $1 million to $10 million

    		 

    c.

    $10 million to $24.9 million

    		 

    d.

    $25 million to $49.9 million

    		 

    e.

    $50 million to $99.9 million

    		 

    f.

    $100 million to $249 million

    		 

    g.

    $250 million to $500 million

    		 

    h.

    $501 million to $1 billion

    		 

    i.

    $1.1 billion to $5 billion

    		 

    j.

    Greater than 5 billion

    		 
  3. 3.

    What is the primary business your company is in?

    Industry

    Place an ‘X’ next to the appropriate row

    a.

    Automotive manufacturing

    		 

    b.

    Hi-tech manufacturing (computers, storage, semiconductors, telecom, electronics)

    		 

    c.

    Aerospace and Defense

    		 

    d.

    Consumer Products (non electronics)

    		 

    e.

    Machinery, Industrial Equipment

    		 

    f.

    Pharmaceuticals & Medical Equipment

    		 

    g.

    Chemicals

    		 

    h.

    Oil & Gas, Energy

    		 

    i.

    Construction

    		 

    j.

    Other (please specify)

    		 

SECTION C

  1. 1.

    What does your company use CPC software for? Check (X) all that apply.

    [by external collaboration we mean with partners, customers, or suppliers]

    a. Product Data Management

    		 

    b. Product Design Management

    		 

    c. New Product Introduction

    		 

    d. Engineering Change Order Evaluation

    		 

    e. Engineering Change Implementation

    		 

    f. Product Re-work (due to product errors)

    		 

    g. Design Re-use

    		 

    h. Inventory Management

    		 

    i. Internal Collaboration

    		 

    j. External Collaboration

    		 

    k. Other (Please Specify)

    		 
  2. 2.

    In which of the following six phases of product design and development does CPC software play a role in? Check (x) all that apply.

    Functional Process

    		 

    a.

    Product Concept and Initiation

    		 

    b.

    Product Development Proposal

    		 

    c.

    Research and Development

    		 

    d.

    Product Development and Manufacturing Design

    		 

    e.

    Product Design Verification and Manufacturing Development

    		 

    f.

    Pilot Production and Product Introduction

    		 
  3. 3.

    External Collaboration

    Please respond to the following statements based on your observations from a typical product design and development project after CPC has been implemented and used for a period of at least six months.

    Question

    Yes/No

    SUPPLIERS

    Has your company been able to open up the design phase to suppliers?

    		 

    Are you working earlier in the design collaboration cycle with suppliers?

    		 

    What was the overall % reduction in percentage of development time based on working with suppliers?

    %

    What percentage of your total product development are your suppliers responsible for?

    %

    CUSTOMERS

    Has your company been able to open up the design phase to customers?

    		 

    Are you working earlier in the design collaboration cycle with customers?

    		 

    What was the overall reduction in percentage of development time based on working with customers?

    %

    What percentage of your total product development are your customers responsible for?

    %

    PARTNERS

    Has your company been able to open up the design phase to partners?

    		 

    Are you working earlier in the design collaboration cycle with partners?

    		 

    What was the overall reduction in percentage of development time based on working with partners?

    %

    What percentage of your total product development are your partners responsible for?

    %

  4. 4.

    BENEFITS TO BUSINESS GROWTH Which of the following business benefits has e-Matrix collaboration software produced for your company? [SELECT ALL THAT APPLY]

    Business Benefit

    Yes or No

    Dollar value of reported benefits

    Faster Time to Market

    		  

    First to Market

    		  

    More Innovation

    		  

    Product Quality

    		  

    Process Improvements

    		  

    Earlier Supplier Involvement in Design Cycle

    		  

    Collaborating with Suppliers

    		  

    Collaborating with Customers

    		  

    Collaboration Internally

    		  

    Collaboration with Partners

    		  

    Facilitation of cross enterprise concurrent engineering

    		  

    Leverage existing internal resources to greater efficiency

    		  

    Employee performance/productivity

    		  

    Customer satisfaction

    		  

SECTION D

  1. 1.

    For each of the following \({\underline{\hbox{functional}}}\) processes, please provide your responses to the following questions. Footnote 8

    • Product Concept and Initiation

    • Product Development Proposal

    • Research & Development

    • Product Development & Manufacturing Design

    • Product Design Verification & Manufacturing Development

    • Pilot Production & Product Introduction

For each question, please provide sufficient details regarding the impact of CPC, what specific actions were taken, what activities were affected, the magnitude of the impact, and the key process benefits.

  1. a.

    How has CPC changed the way your company manages this business process?

  2. b.

    Thinking about the way CPC has changed how your company manages this process, could you estimate the cost savings associated with that?

  3. c.

    Have you been able to reduce staff or staff time on this issue?

  4. d.

    Have you been able to save money from process or procedural tasks?

  1. 2.

    For each of the following \({\underline{\hbox{business}}}\) processes, please provide your responses to the following questions. Footnote 9

    • Product Data Management

    • Product Design Management

    • Product Development Cycle Management

    • New product Introduction

    • Engineering Change Order Evaluation

    • Engineering Change Order Implementation

    • Product Reworks

    • Design Reuse

    • Inventory Management

    • Internal Collaboration

    • External Collaboration

For each question, please provide sufficient details regarding the impact of CPC, what specific actions were taken, what activities were affected, the magnitude of the impact, and the key process benefits.

  1. a.

    How has CPC changed the way your company manages this business process?

  2. b.

    Thinking about the way CPC has changed how your company manages this process, could you estimate the cost savings associated with that?

  3. c.

    Have you been able to reduce staff or staff time on this issue?

  4. d.

    Have you been able to save money from process or procedural tasks?

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Bardhan, I.R. Toward a theory to study the use of collaborative product commerce for product development. Inf Technol Manage 8, 167–184 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10799-007-0013-y

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