NB: The application deadline has been extended to May 15th. If enough participants register, the course will be held as a distance learning course 6.7. to 17.7.
Time & place: 9:00-17:00, 6.7. – 10 .7.2020, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki.
Learning goal and objectives
The goal of this seminar is to introduce doctoral program students the breadth of new product development (NPD) and innovation strategy topics by reading and discussing important articles in leading journals ranging from a historical to contemporary perspective. The domain of topics contained within NPD and innovation strategy is quite diverse as its interdisciplinary roots come from related fields including management, marketing, economics, psychology and sociology. You will be encouraged to explore areas beyond our formal readings in preparation of papers, discussion leadership and your presentation. You are encouraged to stay current in your reading in marketing, strategy, and related journals. By reading and discussing journal articles, students will learn to analyze the key ideas, identify the gaps in the literature, and develop their own research ideas toward original scholarly papers in NPD and innovation strategy. The ultimate goal of this class is to help you learn how to write “a research paper” that can be published in a premium journal.
- Even though students will not have enough time to conduct quantitative research, students are encouraged to build a research model that can be tested by quantitative research using survey, experiment, or archival data.
The objectives for this course are as follows:
- To understand important streams of new product development and innovation strategy research and its theoretical backgrounds from other disciplines such as economics, psychology, and organizational behavior.
- To develop and understand an in-depth understanding of process-oriented framework for NPD research in order to further develop research topics as an academic.
- To learn the importance of NPD-related knowledge management by acquiring and applying market information and data to develop a future research topics.
- To develop analytical skills needed to analyze the market information and data by examining and discussing empirical studies in product development and management.
- To develop and enhance business communication skills through preparation and presentation of NPD and innovation research ideas and paper as well as existing research papers.
Instruction and examination
This Ph.D. seminar course includes 35 (20) hours in a five-day intensive format.
The course consists of three parts: 1. Read articles in the pre-reading package, 2. Participate in lectures, presentations, discussions and critiques of articles, and group brainstorming for future research ideas, 3. Write a research proposal/theory paper as the examination of the course.
Our role as instructors is to set the stage by designing the seminar and leading the collective brainstorming for future research questions. We will start each class with sharing own insights into the specific theme for the class. We foresee our role as discussion facilitators, moderators, and evaluators of students’ written assignments. The beauty of this upper-level seminar is to discover what a given topic helps you develop your own research ideas through interactive process of criticizing and learning other scholars’ ideas from the readings, and sharing students’ own ideas with others in class. Here is the suggested time frame for each of three hour sessions:
- Topic Overview by Instructor: 15 minutes
- Article 1 Reviews: 40 minutes (10-minute presentation by an article pilot, 15-minute critique and discussion of the article by the articleco-pilot, 15-minute brainstorming for future research questions as a group)
- Article 2 Reviews (Same format): 40 minutes
- Break: 15 minutes
- Article 3 Reviews (Same format): 40 minutes
- Collective brainstorming for future research questions: 15-30 minutes
- Additional time: Individual consultation for research and career development.
Requirements:
- Reading of key assigned articles (3-5 articles each day) in the pre-reading package. Prepare a summary and a critique for the assigned article.
- Lectures by instructors, active participation in presentation, discussion, and critique of an article.
- Research proposal: A written proposal (up to 5 pages, double-spaced) should be submitted within 1 week after class as the final examination for grading.
Credits: 6 ECTS
Grading: 1-5
Grades will be a function of the following components:
- Class participation (10%):
- Article presentation/Summary of articles as an article pilot (25%)
- Future research ideas and directions by a co-pilot (10%)
- Research proposal and a short 5-minute presentation (10%)
- Literature Review (10%)
- Final paper (30%) and a short 7 minute presentation (5%)
- Class participation (10%): This assessment will be based on consistent preparation via readings, and regular contributions to class discussion. Attending every class is strongly recommended if one wants to succeed in this course. We encourage students to actively participate in the class discussion even though you are not an article owner. We expect that student participation is based on careful reading of each of assigned articles. Please be ready to participate actively in the discussion as this really makes our learning lively and interactively.
- Article presentation/Summary of articles (25%): As an article pilot, one is in charge of presenting an assigned article and providing a summary to other students before class. You also will serve to direct the group discussion and brainstorming for future research ideas after coming up with 2 discussion questions from the assigned reading.
- Future research ideas and directions as a co-pilot (10%): As an article co-pilot, student needs to come up with at least 2 research questions to discuss in the class.
- Research proposal and presentation (10%) (2-page max, single-spaced, 12-font, Email Attachment): This short proposal includes (1) Title, (2) A quick review of current research in the form of synopsis of ~4 key articles (~2 sentences each), (3) Research motivation and gaps: what is missing from the current literature?, (4) Objective of the paper, (5) Research questions of the paper, (6) Potential contributions of the paper, and (7) a short reference. After coming back from the mid-term break, each of you will do a 5-minute research proposal presentation with 10 minute critique.
- Literature Review (10%) (~4-page, single-spaced, 12-font, soft and hard copy due): After extensive literature review of about 8 papers related to the chosen research topic, one needs to write a “Theoretical Background and Literature Review” section. This section MUST include (1) explanation of theories to support research model and research questions, (2) explanation of streams of research that support the research model and research questions
- Final paper (30%) and a short 7-minute presentation (5%): 8-page, double-spaced paper excluding single-spaced abstract, figures, tables, and references (12-font, soft and hard copy due): This final paper includes the refined version of (1) ~(6) in the Research Proposal above, then must add refined literature review followed by the model and hypothesis development section, and implications and full references. The main section for this paper is the “model and hypothesis development section,” as other sections can be refined from previous reports. As you already have written other parts of the paper for the proposal, you can focus on writing this section as a priority.
- Final report specifically states the research problems you believe should be addressed by identifying the “independent” and “dependent variables” in the research model in figures. One should include the research model in a figure – as a picture worth thousand words.
- It should indicate what contribution to the marketing literature that would result from addressing your proposed topic/model/research hypotheses.
- Spell out the potential implications for academics and practitioners in the event this research question was addressed and your anticipated results were achieved
Prerequisites: Doctoral students in marketing and strategy/management.
Admittance: Please apply through the following Google Worksheet https://forms.gle/MNf7bYTGERHNR1P68
by May 15th, 2020. The participants will be selected on the basis of KATAJA’s general guideline.
Instructors:
Subin Im, Ph.D.
Professor of Marketing, Yonsei Business School
Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cxS3KNkAAAAJ&hl=en
Yonsei Website:https://ysb.yonsei.ac.kr/faculty.asp?mid=n02&sOpt=&uid=104
Sanna-Katriina Asikainen, D.Sc. (Tech.)
Associate Professor, Marketing, School of Business, Aalto University, sanna-katriina.asikainen@aalto.fi
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.fi/citations?user=itegQgQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Aalto Website: https://people.aalto.fi/sanna-katriina.asikainen
Course coordinator and contact information: Professor Sanna-Katriina Asikainen, sanna-katriina.asikainen@aalto.fi