Title: Product development in the automotive industry: crucial success drivers for technological innovations

Authors: Daniel Gerhard, Alexander Brem, Kai-Ingo Voigt

Addresses: Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Lange Gasse 20, 90403 Nuremberg, Germany. ' Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Lange Gasse 20, 90403 Nuremberg, Germany. ' Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Lange Gasse 20, 90403 Nuremberg, Germany

Abstract: Developing new innovative products in the automotive industry means investing huge sums in advance, as one does not know if the product will be successful on the market after launch. Hence, companies are interested in knowing and measuring the critical success drivers within the development steps. The paper discusses the results of a qualitative meta-analysis of 16 empirical studies on New Product Development (NPD) success, which was carried out to gain deeper insight into these success drivers. Furthermore, based on the identification of three main dimensions (development process, resources and strategy), an explorative study in the German automotive industry shows that the findings are confirmed in practice as well. However, the results also indicate that there is still a gap between knowledge about practical relevance of those dimensions and the systematic assessment of these in the process. The study shows interesting approaches of best practices, such as the assessment of product advantage in combination with scenario analysis or the identification of appropriate innovations.

Keywords: new product development; NPD; product innovation; innovation management; automobile industry; R&D; technology marketing; technological innovation; research and development; automotive products; Germany.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2008.019922

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2008 Vol.3 No.3, pp.203 - 222

Published online: 15 Aug 2008 *