Cooper, R.G. & Kleinschmidt, E.J. (2007). Winning Business in Product Development: The Critical Success Factors. Research Technology Management, 50(3), 52-66.
Format: Peer-reviewed article
Type: Research — Non-experimental
Experience level of reader: Fundamental
Annotation: The authors studied 161 business units from large companies across Europe and North America to determine the critical success factors that are related to successfully performing new products. The study set out to measure success using ten performance metrics, which were plotted along two performance dimensions- impact on the business unit and profitability. The study identified nine distinguishing factors related to success, four of which were considered key success factors, including: high quality new product process; defined new product strategy for the business unit; sufficient resources (including people and money); and R&D spending. However, the authors were careful to caution that the simple existence of a high quality new product process is not sufficient to create success. It must involve up-front technical and market assessments; require tough go/kill decision points; and be thoroughly executed at a sufficient level of quality.
Setting(s) to which the reported activities/findings are relevant: Large business, Small business (less than 500 employees)
Knowledge user(s) to whom the piece of literature may be relevant: Manufacturers, Policy Makers
Knowledge user level addressed by the literature: Organization
This article uses the Commercial Devices and Services version of the NtK Model
Measure: To measure the performance of individual business units, ten performance metrics were boiled down into two measures of performance: profitability of the business's total new product efforts; and impact of the total new product effort on the business.
Survey of 161 business units.
Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 9.3