"A Preliminary Note on Product Development in the Chemical Industry" (in Japanese)

The purpose of this paper is to specify the factors that produce successful R&D in the Japanese chemical industry. A questionnaire survey covering 51 projects in 22 Japanese chemical companies was conducted and various statistical analyses were performed. First, we divided chemical products into two categories: industrial goods and consumer goods. In a comparison of successful projects with failed projects in industrial goods, statistically significant results were obtained for some organizational patterns, namely concept development activities. In a comparison of successful projects in industrial goods and consumer goods, statistically significant results for some organizational patterns were also obtained. To date, few studies have contained comprehensive empirical analyses of R&D projects in the Japanese chemical industry. This paper addresses this gap in the literature and suggests managerial factors which influence successful R&D projects. Furthermore, this paper examined the construct of "project success". That is, a statistical analysis was conducted on the relationship between the judgment of a project as a success or failure, and the factors that influenced that judgment. In deciding project success or failure, most firms focused on marketability, but some firms also focused on the technology developed by a project or on the future synergistic potential of the developed product. Although project evaluations were conducted ex-post, this paper' s preliminary research suggests that the results may also be applicable in the project selection stage or in pre-final evaluation stage.