Influence of the Time Perspective on New Product Development Success Indicators

Understanding the underlying reasons for new product development success is central to effective new product management. However, difficulties related to estimating to what extent the objectives are being fulfilled and assessing the trade-offs between different project goals makes the new product development process challenging and risky.

It is hence crucial for companies to be able to effectively measure their success. Much conceptual and empirical research has been carried out to identify the critical success indicators of the NPD processes. However, these success indicators might be dynamic as they change depending on where a product is in its lifecycle.

The influence of this time perspective on success indicators of new product developments has not been explored very extensively. In this paper, we investigate the success criteria during different phases of the product lifecycle. The goal of this research is to determine the appropriate sets of metrics to be used for assessing success during each phase of a product lifecycle.

A practical case study was carried out by investigating 28 companies from Canadian and Danish industries. The companies are various industrial sectors. The data collection was carried out through the use of a survey and interviews with relevant product development managers. The outcomes of this research showed that managers do perceive the success of new product development differently depending on the time perspective.

A summary of specific metrics for measuring success during each product lifecycle phase is given.