Impact of the business innovation strategy on new product development success measurement

The ability to develop new products to compete in existing or new markets is a core competency of many successful companies. Companies can assess their success from different perspectives, including the overall innovation strategy at company level. This paper evaluates 56 success metrics through the course of product lifecycle (PLC), by considering the influence of the company´s business innovation strategy. Data is collected by using survey questionnaires with experienced product development managers of 21 Canadian and Danish companies, mainly practicing in mechatronics and aerospace industry. Outcomes show no statistically significant difference among innovation strategy attributes. `Financial´ and `market share´ are the most important success indicators in early PLC with `product´ and `process management performance´ being more important in the late phase. Moreover, sets of success metrics are proposed during course of the PLC. These aim to guide companies in determining critical success factors and set ideal practices in measuring the success of their products.