Cross-national comparisons of product development in manufacturing

In this study product development strategies and practices of five companies in the durable goods industries are compared: one each in the United States (equipment), Sweden (aerospace), Germany (electic motors), Hungary (transportation equipment), and Japan (business machines, cameras/video). In particular the focus is on the concept development phase of new product development and the attend to the aspects of the design process that may be influenced by culture. To the extent that the five cases are representative of their home countries, there appears to be ample variance across cultures to justify further, more extensive research in this arena. A model is presented which differentiates the amount of cultural influence by stage of the product development process in high technology versus low technology industries.