Predevelopment Activities and New Product Performance

Effectively managing predevelopment activities is one of the most important and difficult challenges facing innovation managers. Its importance lies in the fact that effectively performing predevelopment activities can contribute directly to the success of a new product. Unfortunately, research and framework-building in this area has been limited. In fact, difficulties occur in studying the predevelopment stage as it is dynamic, often unstructured, has traditionally been characterized by low levels of formalization and it is extraordinarily difficult to evaluate its performance. With these arguments in mind, this study aims to analyze the relationship between predevelopment and project performance. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 207 manufacturing firms, applying the technique of structural equation modelling. Our results demonstrate the importance of predevelopment activities on new product performance.