- 1 - Best Practices in New Product Development : Adoption Rates , Adoption Patterns , and Impact

Firms are experimenting with numerous different best practices in order to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of their new product development (NPD) process. This paper examines how widely adopted certain best practices are, if the adoptions show any pattern in terms of being simultaneously adopted within organizations, and what impact these best practices have on NPD performance. The main assumption of this study is that widely diffused best practices will lead to greater NPD effectiveness and more successful products. We developed an inventory of best practices related to NPD, and an empirical survey was administered to 39 companies. Our results indicate that best practices associated with enhancing the human resources involved in NPD, and improving the fuzzy front end of NPD appear to be getting little attention to date, despite a strong call for such attention in the management literature. Best practices associated with the strategic implementation of NPD (project selection, goals, technological leadership, product strategy, and customer involvement) are on average all more widely adopted than best practices associated with controlling the execution of NPD (process control, metrics, documentation, change control). In linking best practices with impact, our results indicate product success depends on developing strong product concepts and ensuring organizational focus on those concepts through project selection. Concurrency in project activities enhances both product and project success. Project success also depends on controlling the NPD process via project management, and ensuring team