Title: Factors influencing NPD process type: analysis of leading Croatian enterprises

Authors: Sonja Radas

Addresses: Institute of Economics, Trg J.F. Kennedy 7, Zagreb, 10000, Croatia

Abstract: Transfer of know-how, such as advanced business practices, may be as important for successful performance of companies as transfer of technology. This paper focuses on adoption of new product development process (NPD process for short), the business practice used for improving innovation development. This paper offers insights into what drives companies to adopt various NPD type processes and it does so by considering several NPD process antecedents and examining their impact on the choice of the NPD process type. The factors that this study considers are firm size, ownership structure, competitive intensity, percent of income derived from new products, importance of product/market characteristics, business function importance and need for business function improvement. This study aims to find which of these factors are significant in relation to NPD process type and seeks to explain why. The paper attempts to link factors influencing NPD process type adoption to specific characteristics of Croatian transition context. The paper shows that expressed need for improvement of business functions is significantly related to NPD process type. The study also shows that those companies that find speed to market, product novelty and large product variety important for their new product success are more likely to have adopted NPD process.

Keywords: new product development; NPD; innovation; Croatia; transition economies; speed to market; product novelty; product variety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTTC.2011.039134

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 2011 Vol.10 No.2, pp.198 - 216

Published online: 31 Jan 2015 *

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