Technology novelty, project complexity, and product development project execution success: a deeper look at task uncertainty in product innovation

This paper applies the construct of task uncertainty to study relationships between product development project characteristics and project outcomes. We characterize product development projects in terms of their technology novelty and project complexity levels. This characterization is based on product development literature and organizational information processing theory. We hypothesize that technology novelty and project complexity characteristics contribute to project task uncertainty and are in turn associated with project execution outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of 120 new product development projects for assembled goods was employed to test relationships between project characteristics and project success. Success measures include achievement of individual project goals, such as technical performance, unit-cost, and time-to-market, and overall achievement of project goals. Results suggest that projects with high levels of technology novelty or project complexity are not associated with overall project failure, but are associated with specific project outcome elements. Technology novelty is strongly associated with poor unit-cost and time-to-market results, and project complexity is strongly associated with poor unit-cost outcomes. Looking deeper into the technology novelty and project complexity dimensions, we find that process technology novelty is more problematic than product technology novelty and that the relative newness of a project's objectives to the firm is more problematic than other project complexity characteristics. Results suggest that technology novelty and project complexity do not interact to influence project outcomes and so can be seen as potential managerial tradeoffs. These findings suggest that future research should investigate detailed project task characteristics and specific project goals rather than solely address aggregate task factors and overall outcomes. In addition, these findings can help firms improve product development effectiveness through better estimates of outcomes for different types of projects, guidance into which projects to undertake, and insight into appropriate structuring of the task content of product development projects.