IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v47y2001i1p52-68.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Appropriateness and Impact of Platform-Based Product Development

Author

Listed:
  • V. Krishnan

    (The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Management, Austin, Texas 78712)

  • Saurabh Gupta

    (i2 Technologies, 11701 Luna Road, Dallas, Texas 75234)

Abstract

In their quest to manage the complexity of offering greater product variety, firms in many industries are considering platform-based product development. Product platforms, which are component and subsystem assets shared across a product-family, enable a firm to better leverage investments in product design and development. While the platform approach offers a number of benefits, it also imposes certain additional costs that have not received adequate research attention. In this paper, we use an industrial example both to illustrate some of the costs and benefits of platform-based product development and to motivate the development of a mathematical model. The model is formulated to better understand the appropriateness of product platforms and their impact on product-planning decisions. Our results indicate that platforms are not appropriate for extreme levels of market diversity or high levels of nonplatform scale economies. Also, a firm's product positioning and introduction sequence decisions made during the product-planning phase are significantly impacted by the presence of platforms. Specifically, a platform increases the separation among products and offers a multitude of product introduction strategies. We translate our model findings into a managerial framework.

Suggested Citation

  • V. Krishnan & Saurabh Gupta, 2001. "Appropriateness and Impact of Platform-Based Product Development," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 52-68, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:47:y:2001:i:1:p:52-68
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.47.1.52.10665
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.47.1.52.10665
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.47.1.52.10665?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gregory Dobson & Shlomo Kalish, 1988. "Positioning and Pricing a Product Line," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(2), pages 107-125.
    2. V. Krishnan & Rahul Singh & Devanath Tirupati, 1999. "A Model-Based Approach for Planning and Developing a Family of Technology-Based Products," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 1(2), pages 132-156.
    3. K. Sridhar Moorthy & I. P. L. Png, 1992. "Market Segmentation, Cannibalization, and the Timing of Product Introductions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(3), pages 345-359, March.
    4. K. Sridhar Moorthy, 1984. "Market Segmentation, Self-Selection, and Product Line Design," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(4), pages 288-307.
    5. Mussa, Michael & Rosen, Sherwin, 1978. "Monopoly and product quality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 301-317, August.
    6. Marc H. Meyer & Peter Tertzakian & James M. Utterback, 1997. "Metrics for Managing Research and Development in the Context of the Product Family," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(1), pages 88-111, January.
    7. Sunder Kekre & Kannan Srinivasan, 1990. "Broader Product Line: A Necessity to Achieve Success?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(10), pages 1216-1232, October.
    8. Paul E. Green & Abba M. Krieger, 1985. "Models and Heuristics for Product Line Selection," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(1), pages 1-19.
    9. Ulrich, Karl, 1995. "The role of product architecture in the manufacturing firm," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 419-440, May.
    10. Marshall Fisher & Kamalini Ramdas & Karl Ulrich, 1999. "Component Sharing in the Management of Product Variety: A Study of Automotive Braking Systems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(3), pages 297-315, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. V. Krishnan & Karl T. Ulrich, 2001. "Product Development Decisions: A Review of the Literature," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 1-21, January.
    2. Palsule-Desai, Omkar D. & Tirupati, Devanath & Shah, Janat, 2015. "Product line design and positioning using add-on services," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 16-33.
    3. Wilhelm, Wilbert E. & Xu, Kaihong, 2002. "Prescribing product upgrades, prices and production levels over time in a stochastic environment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(3), pages 601-621, May.
    4. Wong, Hartanto & Lesmono, Dharma & Chhajed, Dilip & Kim, Kilsun, 2019. "On the evaluation of commonality strategy in product line design: The effect of valuation change and distribution channel structure," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 14-25.
    5. Kamalini Ramdas & Mohanbir S. Sawhney, 2001. "A Cross-Functional Approach to Evaluating Multiple Line Extensions for Assembled Products," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 47(1), pages 22-36, January.
    6. Karthik Ramachandran & V. Krishnan, 2008. "Design Architecture and Introduction Timing for Rapidly Improving Industrial Products," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 10(1), pages 149-171, December.
    7. Kopalle, Praveen K. & Pauwels, Koen & Akella, Laxminarayana Yashaswy & Gangwar, Manish, 2023. "Dynamic pricing: Definition, implications for managers, and future research directions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 99(4), pages 580-593.
    8. Yan, Xiaoming & Zhao, Wenhan & Yu, Yugang, 2022. "Optimal product line design with reference price effects," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 302(3), pages 1045-1062.
    9. Wong, Hartanto & Kim, Kilsun & Chhajed, Dilip, 2021. "Reducing channel inefficiency in product line design," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    10. V. Krishnan & Rahul Singh & Devanath Tirupati, 1999. "A Model-Based Approach for Planning and Developing a Family of Technology-Based Products," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 1(2), pages 132-156.
    11. Serguei Netessine & Terry A. Taylor, 2007. "Product Line Design and Production Technology," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(1), pages 101-117, 01-02.
    12. Ali A. Yassine & Luke A. Wissmann, 2007. "The Implications of Product Architecture on the Firm," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(2), pages 118-137, June.
    13. Donald Ngwe, 2017. "Why Outlet Stores Exist: Averting Cannibalization in Product Line Extensions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(4), pages 523-541, July.
    14. Steven M. Shugan & Jihwan Moon & JQiaoni Shi & Nanda S. Kumar, 2017. "Product Line Bundling: Why Airlines Bundle High-End While Hotels Bundle Low-End," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(1), pages 124-139, January.
    15. Hans Sebastian Heese & Jayashankar M. Swaminathan, 2006. "Product Line Design with Component Commonality and Cost-Reduction Effort," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 8(2), pages 206-219, May.
    16. Hongmin Li & Scott Webster & Gwangjae Yu, 2020. "Product Design Under Multinomial Logit Choices: Optimization of Quality and Prices in an Evolving Product Line," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 22(5), pages 1011-1025, September.
    17. V. Krishnan & W. Zhu, 2006. "Designing a Family of Development-Intensive Products," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(6), pages 813-825, June.
    18. Yenipazarli, A. & Vakharia, A., 2015. "Pricing, market coverage and capacity: Can green and brown products co-exist?," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 242(1), pages 304-315.
    19. Jonnalagedda, Sreelata & Saranga, Haritha, 2017. "Commonality decisions when designing for multiple markets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(3), pages 902-911.
    20. P. K. Kannan & Barbara Kline Pope & Sanjay Jain, 2009. "—Pricing Digital Content Product Lines: A Model and Application for the National Academies Press," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 620-636, 07-08.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:47:y:2001:i:1:p:52-68. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.