Customer orientation in innovation projects and new product development success - the moderating effect of product innovativeness

The results provide strong evidence that customer orientation in innovation projects has a positive influence on NPD success and that the impact increases with the degree of product innovativeness.

Abstract

Market orientation and, specifically, customer orientation, have been intensively investigated with respect to corporate and new product development (NPD) performance at the corporate level of analysis. The objective of this research is to present a conceptual framework in order to clarify how customer orientation contributes to NPD project success - dependent on the degree of product innovativeness. Using data from over 100 product innovation projects in German industrial corporations, we tested our research hypotheses using regression analysis. Our results provide strong evidence that customer orientation in innovation projects has a positive influence on NPD success and that the impact increases with the degree of product innovativeness.