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Approaches to the "fuzzy front end" of innovation

Author

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  • Verworn, Birgit
  • Herstatt, Cornelius

Abstract

In new product development (NPD) unacceptably high failure rates have often been related to insufficiencies during the early development phases. Nevertheless, only little effort is devoted to the early phases, in theory as well as in practice, and managers often indicate the front end as being one of the greatest weaknesses in product innovation. Therefore, it is surprising that only little research has treated the so called fuzzy front end of innovation. In this paper we discuss if process models lead to success in the early development phases. Therefore, the discussion about process models for the whole innovation process is briefly summarized and findings applied to the fuzzy front end. Due to high uncertainties with a wide range between different innovations in the early phases, process models are found to lead to success for incremental innovations with low market and technological uncertainty only. For innovations with a high market and/or technological uncertainty, a learning-based approach is suggested.

Suggested Citation

  • Verworn, Birgit & Herstatt, Cornelius, 1999. "Approaches to the "fuzzy front end" of innovation," Working Papers 2, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:tuhtim:2
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    Cited by:

    1. VAN CAMP, Jelle & BRAET, Johan, 2013. "Proposing a taxonomy for performance measurement systems' failures," Working Papers 2013004, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.

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