There is increasing recognition among new product development (NPD) scholars that not all drivers of faster product development are equally impactful under different conditions and that a universal approach to accelerating NPD is not very useful. This study investigates how project innovativeness, a major source of uncertainty in NPD, influences acceleration strategy choice, while also taking into account the extent of acceleration that is being sought to achieve. In the light of extant work on acceleration strategies, we distinguish between two alternative theoretical models (compression strategy, which involves the use of practices such as supplier involvement, computer-aided design (CAD) and overlapping steps; and experiential strategy, which resides on the implementation of multiple design iteration and testing cycles, frequent project milestones and a powerful project leader) with which to accelerate product development. We follow a 2x2 experimental design based on a hypothetical decision task in which participants are projected into the role of a product development manager embarking on a new project, and conduct two sets of Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) on data obtained from 88 NPD practitioners. The results offer support for our hypothesis that incremental NPD projects would utilise compression to a greater extent than highly innovative projects. As expected, the acceleration strategy of choice for highly innovative projects is the experiential strategy. We find that incremental and highly innovative projects respond differently to the hike in uncertainty due to an ambitious time reduction objective. Specifically, incremental projects merely increase their reliance on their default strategy of compression, highly innovative projects make complementary use of both experiential and compression strategies.@en

Subverting scripts can be critical to successful service innovation. However, deviating from firmly embedded scripts can be risky, because doing so can confuse and frustrate customers. Through an ethnographic study of a specialist coffee shop, we investigate customers’ responses to the introduction of a script that countervailed dominant category norms. Drawing upon the constitutive elements of design thinking, we find that three practices— destabilization, control, and adaptation—led to the successful subversion and replacement of the dominant scripts. While this initially disoriented customers, the three identified practices enabled adoption by supporting customers’ transition to the new script. This study is novel in examining the practices and processes necessary for effective script subversion, and reveals the importance of thorough understanding of both the dominant script and customers’ experience of it. Moreover, it provides evidence of design thinking’s role in prompting and enacting service innovation.@en