An Expanded Model of Success Factors for NPD Performance

Purpose: The literature prescribing important determinants of new product development success can be grouped into six main areas addressing organization culture, strategic leadership, competitive intelligence, management of technology, specific characteristics of the company’s NPD process, and the company’s absorptive capacity to use available knowledge to produce and commercialize new products. This study expands and tests an expanded model for enhancing the company’s new product development success. Design/methodology/approach: A field test using a mailed questionnaire to collect information from 311 manufacturing companies has been used to test the proposed model. To eliminate possible multicollinearity among the independent variables, a multivariate regression analysis was used. Findings: The results provide conclusive evidence about the importance of these success factors individually and in combination to explain the inter-company variance in success performing new product development. Research limitation/implications: Despite the relatively broad scope of the proposed model, other factors may also be important, should be identified, and tested in future studies. Practical implications: The items used for measuring each of the main constructs provide more specific insights regarding how managers should go about developing these success factors within their organizations. Originality/value: While the study is grounded in the literature of what until now have been relatively isolated areas of knowledge, it proposed and empirically tested a unique and increasingly integrated model for these areas considered important to new product development.