Adoption, use and influence of computer based information systems for product development : qualitative studies of small firms within the wood industry

Research about small firm product development has increased. Firm internal forces have earlier been mentioned to be crucial for success in product development management. A more recent approach has been to focus on firm external forces concerning product development. Studies have focused on sources for product development, and only very few studies focus on the information systems used for addressing external parties in product development related work. Techniques and methods for enhancing the management and work with product development are central, why it is argued to be important to concentrate on the role of the media for information and communication between the firms that develops new products and its environment. It has been argued that the media Computer Based Information Systems (henceforth CBIS) can improve business processes, although the fast emergence of the research area leaves few studies supporting their arguments and propositions with empirical material. Furthermore, few have come to address the small firm context. As a response, this licentiate thesis includes a pre-study, which questions how and why small firms use CBIS for product development. A part of the purpose with the pre-study is also to identify how further research, in the form of the main study, can address this research area. The results, from interviews with 36 CEOs of small firms in the wood industry, reveal two distinct usage areas of CBIS for product development: unilateral (i.e. information gathering) and multilateral (i.e. communicative) usage. The main study sets out to address questions such as: Why do some small firms use CBIS for product development? How do these small firms use CBIS for product development? How does these small firms use of CBIS influence their product development? The main interest in the main study is to have an in-depth focus of the empirical material; wherefore interviews with informants from two firms have been conducted. Interview technique resembling narratives have been used to focus on histories and processes of product development within the firms. The results are divided into three areas. 1) The adoption of CBIS in the firm and for product development. This seems to be influenced by the perceived necessity to use CBIS, the perceived benefits with using CBIS and the CBIS competence possessed or accessed. 2) The use and influences of CBIS on product development, which can be divided into unilateral and multilateral use of CBIS. Media selection theories are argued as important for understanding why CBIS is used, and the influence CBIS has on product development is related to the reasons for selection the specific media. 3) Contextual influences are discussed as influencing the use of CBIS for product development in the contexts of the product, the firm and the firm's environment.<p>Godkänd; 2005; 20070103 (haneit)