| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立雲林科技大學 === 企業管理系碩士班 === 94 === Abstract
After Smith and Reinertsen(1991) proposed the term of “Fuzzy front end”, managers and researchers gradually thought that the fuzzy front end is a key factor in the successful new product development projects. Therefore, in this thesis, I report on the results of an exploratory and confirmatory case study including four new product development projects carried out by four Taiwan companies. This research observed a range of activities to reduce project’s fuzzy front end uncertainties and revealed differences in the practice of new product development in all companies. The focus of this research was the so-called “fuzzy front end” activities and typical deliverables in the new product development, which might be affected by front end management practice.
This research’s major findings included：(1) Top managers’ related prior knowledge will be helpful to enhance opportunity recognition of new products; (2) The bigger of company''s scale, the more easier to gain resources and technical ability, then it will improve the company’s fuzzy front end activities in new product development; (3)The innovative culture will encourage organization members to have more ideas in the fuzzy front end. (4)Cross-functional cooperation, top managers’ support and the business goal that is consistent with new product development strategy might be beneficial to reduce uncertainties of fuzzy front end. (5)To reduce the uncertainties in fuzzy front end effectively, companies must deeply understand market and technology’s demands which new product development require. (6)Since uncertainties of fuzzy front end are affected by the degree of new product innovation, then it might affect companies’ new product development processes.
Key words：Fuzzy front end, New product development, Fuzzy front end’s activities
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