New Product Dev. & Innovation Studies

Innovation is the engine of growth for most organizations. New technology, more discerning customers, global markets and shortening product life cycles all conspire to make innovation the most important activity in commercial organizations. This module gives students a thorough introduction to the concept of innovation and New Product Development. We look at how firms accumulate knowledge and utilize this to develop business opportunities. We examine how organizations manage research and development (R&D), including the main activities performed by R&D departments and the issue of project selection and evaluation. We explore the process of developing new products and examine many of the new product management issues faced by organizations, in particular the role of market research in developing successful new products and services. The course also includes a multi-disciplinary project whereby students will bring a product from its design phase to rollout as a commercial commodity. Students will have the opportunity to integrate aspects of other modules with the specific concepts examined within this module.