Navigating Tensions in New Product Development

Sammanfattning

Before new product ideas become formal development projects, organisations must decide which uncertain initiatives deserve attention, resources and commitment. This thesis examines how actors mobilisemanagement accounting information (MAI) in the fuzzy front end (FFE) of new product development(NPD),whereideasareincomplete but still need to be made available for organisational judgement. Basedon a qualitative single-case study, the thesis draws on semi-structured interviews with actors from R&Dmanagement, project management, portfolio management, controlling, product planning, sales-relatedmanagement and external relations. The empirical material was analysed through an iterative thematicanalysis informed by literature on MAI, formalisation, uncertainty, the FFE and NPD portfolio prioritisation. The findings show that MAI becomes decision-relevant before ideas have become stable projects.Actors mobilise MAI by giving early ideas organisational form, formalising provisional information intodecision material, and positioning initiatives within portfolio-level comparisons. Through this mobilisation, early initiatives become organisationally intelligible while remaining provisional and open to revision. The analysis shows that MAI is mobilised within three tensions that shape early decision-making:between organisational structure and flexibility, as initiatives need recognisable forms without becomingprematurely fixed; formalising provisional information under uncertainty, as estimates and assumptionsmake initiatives discussable while potentially concealing the fragility of their basis; and between businesscase logic and portfolio logic, as initiatives are assessed both as individual cases and as claims on widerorganisational capacity, strategy and commitments. The thesis contributes to the literature on management accounting and NPD by showing that MAI does not merely evaluate already defined projects, butparticipates in forming early initiatives as objects of organisational judgement. It further shows that formalisation in the FFE is provisional and processual, and that MAI moves between business-case and portfoliologics as actors assess individual initiatives while positioning them within broader constraints. The studyalso contributes practically by showing how early decision material can support prioritisation and coordination while keeping provisional assumptions visible and open to challenge. The thesis concludes thatMAI supports early innovation decisions not by resolving uncertainty, but by giving uncertain initiativesa form that can support judgement while preserving the revisability needed in front-end work.