Measuring and managing uncertainty in new product development

Uncertainty pervades product development. Recently, there has been increasing consensus that uncertainty may not be wholly disadvantageous: firms may benefit by introducing higher levels of uncertainty into their product development efforts. But this new appraisal of uncertainty in product development creates a managerial dilemma: rather than unconditionally reducing uncertainty, a manager must somehow decide whether more or less uncertainty is appropriate given his firm's industry and competitive position. The goal of this dissertation is to address this managerial issue and to help focus the debate in the academic literature regarding when uncertainty in product development is valuable.