Success, failure and organisational competence: a case study of the new product development process

Abstract

The concept of organisational competence is employed to develop a theoretical and practical critique of the new product development (NPD) process. Competence concepts seek to explain whole firm, rather than individual product success and exploring the impact of this different 'unit of analysis' suggests that traditional definitions of NPD success and failure might be inappropriate. Exploring the proposition that it is the complex, unique 'aspects' of an organisation that create long-lasting advantage suggests that it might be theoretically inaccurate to try and identify common (i.e. across multiple firms) success factors. Equally, because these sources of competitive advantage are often unobservable firm 'attributes' (i.e. complex relationships, skills, experience, etc.) it is methodologically problematic to expect large-scale survey instruments to access such fine organisational detail. Two product development case studies (one a success and the other a failure) are described (using quantitative and qualitative measures) and the findings from these cases add empirical weight to the critique. The case discussions further develop the theoretical basis of the competence construct and the models' practical value is also explored. The findings indicate that there is considerable scope for richer, more longitudinal investigations of NPD, based upon alternative units of analysis.