Three essays on the role of information structures on new product development strategies

The new product development (NPD) process has been long conceptualized as an intense information processing task, yet several questions about the role of information in shaping NPD decisions remain open. For instance, the persistent representation of NPD decisions as a single decision-maker outcome in existing theory; it limits our understanding of decisions that involve multiple and heterogeneous organizational stakeholders, and it appears distant from the managerial realities. This dissertation focuses on managerial decisions where information acquisition, ownership and interpretation exhibit heterogeneity. The first essay (Chapter 2) examines the role of informational asymmetries that competing firms face when investing in R&D. The second essay (Chapter 3) reveals the detrimental effects of interpretive diversity (i.e., different people may interpret differently the same information) on project termination decisions. The third essay (Chapter 4) examines how consumers' information regarding future market conditions can affect a firm's strategy on striking a balance between its primary and secondary markets.