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Firms report varied levels of success in relation to using alliances to aid in new product development (NPD). This study aims to investigate internal processes that might influence the experience of alliance success. Specifically, this study investigates the role of mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying the alliance orientation (AO)–new product success relationship, while also investigating the impact of the level and consistency of AO. The primary goal is to understand the importance of a firm’s maintaining a consistent focus upon alliance scanning, coordination and learning.

A survey was conducted to collect data from 141 Taiwanese electronics companies. The proposed model and hypotheses were tested using path analysis in analysis of moment structures.

AO improves the success of new products indirectly through the enhancement of product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility. The positive effect of AO on product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility is heightened when a firm consistently carries out a series of alliance management activities, including alliance scanning, coordination and learning. Market turbulence and the intensity of competition differentially affect the association between product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility and new product success.

The measures were self-reported and may result in the threat of common method bias. While this study focused upon protecting against and assessing this bias, collecting data from multiple sources would have helped to eliminate the bias. Further, the sample consisted of Taiwanese electronics firms. This makes it difficult to generalize this study’s findings to other industrial contexts.

While AO may be viewed as a dynamic capability, product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility represent competitive advantage in NPD program and process, respectively. Managers should not focus only on competitive advantage in NPD while overlooking the development of dynamic capabilities, as this study’s results demonstrate that both elements must work in tandem. AO is relevant at higher levels of the organizational hierarchy, while product program innovativeness and decision-making flexibility are operational, demanding cross-functional coordination and involvement within a firm. Senior executives ought to not only confirm the appropriate provision of their resources to activities and actions associated with product program innovativeness and decision-making flexibility in NPD but also continually monitor and assess whether the inputs of AO lead to desirable competitive advantage in the context of NPD.

This study sheds light on the underlying mechanism through which AO improves new product success. This research proposes two different aspects of AO, level and consistency, and empirically identifies their interactive effect in the context of NPD. The findings offer specific guidelines for the assessment and implementation of AO to improve new product success. Consistency, especially, has not been investigated in relation to alliance-generated new product success.

Bases itself on the findings of Project NewProd — which was an investigation of almost 200 new product cases to probe what separates winners from losers. Presents results from the managerial perspective, showing how selection of new products and particularly that of potential 'winners' is undertaken. Outlines key factors that underlie new projects and the influence of these on product success. Examines merits of emphasizing certain new product activities, using information that helps to launch, with impact, product launch success. States that product development is critical to the firm strategically, beside its cost. Documents that of every 58 product ideas that enter the process just two reach commercialisation stage, and only one is a success. Proclaims that new product failure rates are estimated at between 30 and 60 per cent and of 100 products developed 21.9% are killed prior to launch, 18.7% are commercial failures and 59.4% are successful. Investigates and explores the reasons for failures and successes in great detail with use of figures and tables for further explanation. Concludes that Project NewProd has identified specific properties and dimensions differentiating industrial new product success and failure.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the moderating impact of product innovativeness on the new product market success‐organizational integration relationship. Design/methodology/approach – A mail survey research approach was used that gathered 131 completed survey instruments from NPD managers in the electrical products, medical devices, and the heavy construction equipment industries. Findings – This research confirmed that organizational integration during NPD processes and the innovativeness of new products are associated with new product market success. This study also discovered that product innovativeness does not moderate the organizational integration‐new product market success relationship.

This study's findings may not be generalizable to industries beyond those studied, the studied relationships may change when new product projects are appended to one another, and it may be necessary to take into account several dimensions of product innovativeness to ascertain the relationship between product innovativeness and new product market success.

This study's results imply organizational integration can be increased to increase the market success of new products; new product developers should integrate marketing and R&D during NPD projects; and the innovativeness of new products can be increased without affecting the organizational integration‐new product market success relationship. Originality/value – The investigation of the following research questions contributes to NPD knowledge. How is new product market success related to NPD organizational integration? How is new product market success related to a product's innovativeness? To what extent does the innovativeness of new products moderate the relationship between new product market success and organizational integration?

The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is one of the means that can be employed in the pursuit of effectiveness.

This paper aims to measure new product success within a Dutch mailing company and to hypothesize that there exists no definition of new product success which is generally applicable, or valid in all circumstances. It seeks to opine that the best that can be achieved is a “local” definition: a definition valid only in a specific local context. In this article, a method is described on how to develop such a local measure.

To prevent this framing bias, a multidimensional scaling approach is used, in which data collection and analysis have relevant new product success features as output instead of input.

The method was applied to a Dutch mailing company, and it was found that in this case only two dimensions of new product success were prevalent. These were ROI and customer acceptance. From this, it was inferred that local valid measures in this particular situation were only a subset of all measures of new product success mentioned in the literature. Originality/value – In summary, the method used could shed light on the difficulties that sometimes do arise when different parties are working together. As a consequence, not only researchers but also practitioners should become aware of the indefiniteness of the concept of new product success.

This paper seeks to investigate with reference to which factors the innovation processes of new and improved products differ and how these factors relate to the products' success on the market, with a specific focus on technology‐ and market‐related factors.

Data were collected on 129 products of the Dutch food and beverages (F&B) industry announced in professional journals in 1998. Questionnaires were used in 2000 to evaluate product innovativeness, product innovation process factors and short‐term market performance; whereas in 2005 long‐term market performance was measured.

The results show that there are considerable differences in the innovation processes of new versus improved products and in the role of process‐related aspects in the short‐ and long‐term market success of these products. Interestingly, taking the current emphasis on market orientation in the F&B industry into account, technology‐related aspects are especially crucial for long‐term market success.

The study distinguishes between product development processes of new versus improved products and relates innovation process factors to the success not of the company as a whole but of the specific product that is under development. This is a new approach. Moreover, the success of products is measured not only soon after market launch, but also after several years. It fills an important research gap by investigating success factors of products that have become cash cows of F&B companies.

Developing new products for international markets offers great growth opportunities for companies by positively influencing company performance. Specifically, the research purpose is to determine the effects of new product success factors on the measures of company export performance, namely export sales, export growth and export profitability.

The study examines the new product success factors, discriminating successful new products from unsuccessful ones in international markets. A pre-tested structured questionnaire is employed for collecting data from the companies. The population frame consists of exporting manufacturing companies and was determined from the records of the Export Promotion Centre of Turkey (IGEME). Of the 250 questionnaires sent out, 116 were completed and returned yielding a response rate of 46.4 percent. The study analysed data from 202 new product projects.

The research determined that various new product success factors have different levels of effect on company performance in international markets, mainly measured in terms of sales, market share and profitability. Specifically, it identified that pre-development and development activities, a large and fast-growing foreign market with huge demand, order of entry and large and well-executed advertising activities differentiate successful new products from unsuccessful ones. Product characteristics are, on the other hand, not found to be a strong factor differentiating successful new products from unsuccessful ones in international markets.

The main objective of the study is to integrate knowledge from two disciplines and expand new product success factors for international markets. The paper aims to bring together all the factors leading to the success of new products in international markets, and to test the effects of those factors on company performance. It is hoped that the findings will help managers and policy makers.

The purpose of this empirical research is to identify the key success factors engrained in the new product development (NPD) practices of companies that belong to the Italian sport shoe cluster of Montebelluna.

Statistical analyses were undertaken on data collected through a questionnaire submitted to a conveniently selected group of the population of firms localized in Montebelluna. A series of one‐way ANOVAs was run on the NPD performance metric. We then measured the Pearson correlation between the degree of new product success and the factors that were found to be statistically significant. We converted the response variable into a dummy and then we tested the hypotheses with the normalized Cramer's V‐square to discriminate between the best performers and the rest. Finally, we performed a regression analysis to build a model that explains a large part of the variation in new product success.

Three macro factors have a positive influence on new product success: extended team approach (also cross‐company); customer orientation; and the use of advanced ICTs for new product development.

Further investigation is needed on the role of networking with suppliers in new product development.

Sport shoe manufacturers should: proactively develop close relationships with their customers aimed at NPD; integrate lead users in the NPD process; and implement strategies to overcome their inhibition from investing in advanced ICTs for NPD.

Some factors that have been found as being important drivers of new product success in other researches do not seem to play a relevant role in the companies we analyzed. The study highlights the strategic role of lead users in contributing to the enhanced performance of successful companies.

Context characteristics of emerging economies differ significantly from those in developed economies. Considering this substantial difference, this study aims to identify the drivers and barriers for new product development (NPD) success in the context of an emerging economy by drawing on the resource-based view.

Data was collected from firms in different sectors in the Aegean Region of Turkey using the Wageningen Innovation Assessment Tool. Of 189 responses, 94 fit the criteria and used for statistical analysis. The data is analyzed using a two-step procedure, namely, a confirmatory factor analysis followed by a binary logistic regression that is used to model the probability in the study of the success of NPD.

The results reveal that along with the context characteristics of an emerging economy setting, internal capabilities matter for NPD success. Based on interviews with NPD managers, it was found that, among other factors, the close relationship with local customers is key for new product success, while introducing high innovative products to the market of an emerging economy may not be appropriate due to the specific conditions of such economies.

This study will be useful to the managers to understand the extent to which the degree of newness of a product affects NPD success in an emerging economy setting. It also highlights the importance of securing firm resources before starting an innovation activity in this setting where resources such as financial resources, knowledge and physical resources are limited. From a policy perspective, this study provides certain insights as well. That is, government officials in emerging economies should be very careful about their informal actions that might disrupt the investment and innovation environment.

Emerging economies are important for large firms seeking growth. They initiate manufacturing activities and increasingly perform innovation activities in those countries. However, the conditions to innovate are different from those in developed economies. Research into the factors that drive innovation is largely in an embryonic state. This study offers NPD researchers a deeper understanding of the drivers and barriers to innovation, particularly internal ones that may affect the NPD success in an emerging economy setting, in this case, that of Turkey. The results provide suggestions for policymakers to consider during the development of new innovation policies. For practitioners, this study outlines novel combinations of internal factors that lead to NPD success.

The purpose of this paper is to explore critical success factors of new product development in Taiwan's electronics industry which uses the approach of re‐innovation.

Focus group research was conducted. In total 71 participants from Taiwan's electronics industry were allocated into eight different groups ranging from minimum eight to maximum ten participants in a group.

Suggested critical success factors of re‐innovation include time reduction in development process, cost reduction in product manufacture, products with high levels of customization, relative advantage, or added value, efficiently internal coordination and external cooperation, appropriate product introduction timing, and less aggressive competitors responses.

A main limitation of this study is that the field data were all from Taiwanese‐based companies in certain industries. Generalization could be increased by collecting data from other countries and industries.

Firms using the approach of re‐innovation should take into account various characteristics of different innovation types so as to adjust their approaches of new product development.

The first contribution of this study is to provide information regarding the critical success factors of product re‐innovation in Taiwan's electronics industry. Second, the knowledge of new product development can be added because of an increase in the understanding of re‐innovation in the Asia‐Pacific region which has received much less attention than North America and Europe by innovation researchers.