The new product learning cycle Article

Maidique, MA, Zirger, BJ. (1985). The new product learning cycle . RESEARCH POLICY, 14(6), 299-313. 10.1016/0048-7333(85)90001-0

cited authors

  • Maidique, MA; Zirger, BJ

authors

abstract

  • This paper summarizes our extensive study (n = 158) of new product success and failure in the electronics industry. Conventional "external factor" explanations of commercial product failure based on the state of the economy, foreign competition and lack of funding, were found not to be major contributors to product failure in this industry. On the other hand, factors that can be strongly influenced by management such as coordination of the create, make and market functions, the quality and frequency of customers' communications, value of the product to the customer, and the quality and efficiency of technical management explained the majority of the variance between successful and unsuccessful products. From these findings a framework for understanding and managing the new product development process that places learning and communication in the center stage was developed. Successes and failures in our sample were strongly interrelated. The knowledge gained from failures was often instrumental in achieving subsequent successes, while success in turn often resulted in unlearning the very process that led to the original success. This observation has led us to postulate a new product "learning cycle model" in which commercial successes and failures alternate in an irregular pattern of learning and unlearning. © 1985.

publication date

  • January 1, 1985

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 299

end page

  • 313

volume

  • 14

issue

  • 6