Dear Colleagues,

Here is an interesting project on teaching new product development.
While the perspective of this journal and its editors tends to be
management education, this also involves courses in the design disciplines
and other fields.

This is an important opportunity to share design knowledge and to
enhance awareness of design among management educators and the
future executives who study in their courses.

Please share this with colleagues who are teaching new product
development and encourage them to participate.

If you are a member of the studio faculty teaching a successful NPD
course with an approach that might be valuable in a special issue
such as this but you have not yet had experience writing for refereed
journals,
I'd suggest finding an interested colleague in the business school or the
engineering department and writing as co-authors.

As you will see, this call also invites contributions from practitioners with
significant NPD experience.

Ken Friedman

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Announcement and Call for Papers

Journal of Product Innovation Management Special Issue:
Teaching New Product Development

Organizations struggle to implement New Product Development (NPD)
processes that help yield competitive advantage. Research has helped deepen
our understanding of how these processes are optimally managed. Yet
organizations still find the need to implement their own training programs
in NPD processes.

The purpose of this special issue is to provide a forum for
articles related to effective innovation in curriculum design and teaching
methods that have impacted the way students and managers understand and
implement NPD. It's objective is to advance the field by helping develop
and disseminate methods of teaching NPD that are rigorous, effective, and
relevant to commercial enterprise. We invite articles from both academics
and practitioners.

JPIM is in a unique position to provide a forum for papers focused on the
learning and teaching of NPD. It's readership of both academics and
practitioners provide the opportunity for a rich exchange of information on
how we might continue to improve the dissemination and implementation of
our learning about the NPD process.

Papers dealing with any of the following or related issues are welcome:

------> What is the appropriate content of an excellent NPD course? Are
students more effective at doing NPD in their professional lives if they've
taken NPD courses, or not? Does NPD education improve a person's ability to
develop new products?

What are the most effective learning methods for NPD? Are different
pedagogical tools appropriate for teaching various parts of NPD?

------> What interdisciplinary issues emerge when teaching NPD? What are
effective mechanisms for handling interdisciplinary teaching in university
systems?

------> What bodies of theory contribute to our thinking about teaching
NPD?

------> What are organizations doing towards training? What are the
knowledge gaps that organizations try to fill? Is NPD better taught in an
on the job training context rather than in an educational context of the
university?

Papers must be built on at least one of the following foundations:

1.Empirical Data and Analysis: There is very little empirical work
that captures measurable improvements in student understanding as a result
of curriculum innovation. Special consideration will be given to those able
to link changes and improvements to improved outcomes, in terms of learning
or increased project success.

2. Papers that advance Theory Development with respect to learning in
the NPD context.

3. Cases: Reporting of individual cases of course innovations based on
theoretical frameworks or learning from interaction with industry is
welcomed.

4. Commentary: We welcome submissions from industry practitioners that
highlight methods used to train individuals in NPD within firms, and that
identify gaps in the new employees' understanding of NPD which could be
improved upon in educational curricula. The "From Experience" section of
the journal will be used for these submissions.

Papers other than commentaries will be held to the normal standards of
academic rigor with respect to methodological and data analytic issues. All
manuscripts must be original, unpublished works that have not been
submitted for publication elsewhere.  Submit a typed double-spaced original
and two copies of the manuscript by January 15, 2001.   The title page
should include names and addresses of authors, academic or professional
affiliations and the complete address of the corresponding author. JPIM
maintains a "double-blind" review policy.  Authors should avoid revealing
their identity in the body of the manuscript.

Special Issue Co-Editors

Prof. Abbie Griffin
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne

Prof. Gina Colarelli O'Connor
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Correspondence to:

Dr. Gina Colarelli O'Connor
Assistant Professor, Marketing and Product Development
Lally School of Management and Technology
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, NY 12180-3590
USA

Voice: (518)276-6842
Fax:    (518)276-8661

e-mail: [log in to unmask]


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