New product development (NPD) has become a critical determinant of firm performance. There is a considerable body of research examining the factors that influence a firm's ability to successfully develop and introduce new products. Vital to this success is the creation and management of NPD teams. While the evidence for the use of NPD teams and the factors that determine their success is accumulating, there is still a lack of clarity on the team‐level variables that are most impactful on NPD success. This meta‐analytic study examines the effects of NPD team characteristics on three different measures of success: effectiveness (market success), efficiency (meeting budgets and schedules), and speed‐to‐market, requiring incorporation of a broader set of team variables than previous studies in order to capture more factors explaining NPD outcomes. Unlike a typical empirical study that considered no more than two team variables to predict NPD performance, this study combines research spanning eight team variables including team input variables (team tenure, functional diversity, team ability, and team leadership) and team process variables (internal and external team communication, group cohesiveness, and goal clarity). Results from 38 studies were aggregated to estimate the meta‐analytic effect sizes for each of the variables. Using the meta‐analytic results, a path analytic model of NPD success was estimated to isolate the unique effects of team characteristics on NPD effectiveness and efficiency. Results indicate that team leadership, team ability, external communication, goal clarity, and group cohesiveness are the critical determinants of NPD team performance. NPD teams with considerable experience and led by a transformational leader are more successful at developing new products. Effective boundary spanning within and outside the organization and a shared understanding of project objectives are paramount to success. Group cohesiveness is also an important predictor of NPD outcomes confirming the importance of esprit de corps within the team. The findings provide product development managers with a blueprint for creating high‐performance NPD teams.

Because the majority of the American population presently lives within family structures, this area is one of vital concern to marketers. The purpose of this article is to review the present state of research in family decision making and to provide suggestions for future research. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

One of the drivers of both strategy and success in the marketplace is the role of market intelligence. Samples a broad cross section of firms regarding their level of MI activity; MI data sources and MI accountability. Regarding MI activity and its value to consumer/competitive intelligence, two‐thirds of the companies indicated a dramatic increase in level of activity and nearly three‐fifths (54 per cent) said the impact of MI contributes heavily to tactical and strategic decision making. One third said activity was level, while none indicated a reduction. 44 per cent indicated MI contributed somewhat to decision making and only 2 per cent felt MI contributed little to strategy and success in the marketplace. Regarding MI data sources, customers, manufacturing, and R&D are the central source. Regarding MI accountability, about half held marketing accountable for MI.

Investigates the functional relationship between organizational learning and the new product development process. The two major learning styles studied included Duetero and Non‐Duetero. After surveying key employees involved in new product development from 212 diversified businesses, the results showed that businesses employing Duetero learning were more: knowledgeable about the factors that drive successful and failed products; inclined to establish business goals and employ balanced measures when benchmarking new product performance. All of which suggests that organizational learning does impact new product performance, and should be considered a critical component to the NPD process.

Introduces the concept of comprehensive brand presentation (CBP), a formalized approach to align manufacturing and communications functions in the business firm. The linchpins of CBP are total quality management (TQM) principles and integrated marketing communications. The CBP enhances success through synergistic execution of the manufacturing and marketing processes via increased focus on measuring customer response to both manufactured product and promotional efforts supporting that product. CBP defines the TQM principle of “out of control” as the variance between actual brand image and customer specifications as rated by the target customers. CBP’s operational objective is to minimize that variance and, thereby, maximize the expected probability of product acceptance and subsequent target market brand loyalty.