Product development drivers in literature and practice

Abstract

Today’s product development must address often conflicting needs of multiple stakeholder groups. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the main product development drivers and how their importance is perceived in different types of companies and projects. This paper presents a synthesising list of main product development drivers based on literature and studies how these drivers are valued at the managerial level in NPD-intensive companies. The literature tends to give a simplified categorisation for product development drivers to fully acknowledge the complexities that product development managers face. The results of this study indicate 18 significant product development drivers, the most important ones being profitability targets, revenue targets, offering the right product mix, company brand and image, strategy and competition. However, there were big differences in driver importance for different project types and companies. Industrial managers can utilise the findings in clarifying their drivers to improve decision-making and reduce unnecessary ambiguities.

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