Key issues in new product development controllability improvement-lessons learned from European high-tech industries

The paper presents findings from analyzing new product development (NPD) practices for improving the controllability of NPD in 12 business units of 10 leading high-tech companies in Finland and France. Control is viewed broadly as any kind of goal-directed influence. Controllability can be understood as an attribute of an entity that states to which degree the entity can be controlled. An analytical framework for analyzing and improving controllability is presented. The framework tries to capture key issues on strategic, process, project and individual levels in a company. Data about NPD practices was collected via interviews. People on the strategic, process and project levels of the NPD organization were asked about a set of themes, the focus of which varied, depending on the level