In this study, a content analysis was performed on 815 articles focused on new product development (NPD) published in 10 selected leading marketing, management, NPD, and research and development (R&D) journals from 1989 to 2004. Journals selected were a combination of leading journals in the discipline and publications that included NPD articles. NPD articles were classified by a series of key attributes including methodology employed, domains of knowledge utilized, and broad topics explored. The resulting data were then studied to discern trends over time or common characteristics within domains, methodologies, or journals. The study of NPD has grown since the Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM) was launched in 1984. This study shows strong growth in the number of articles on NPD in each category of journal selected. The research in the articles has changed: The early focus on a few selected success factors or a staged development process has evolved and broadened over the 16-year period. More variables and more sophisticated models are being studied in NPD articles. The study found a continuing evolution in research topics and increased sophistication in quantitative techniques over the 16-year period. Overall this review of the NPD literature uncovers encouraging signs of a maturing discipline. However, there are concerns about continuing issues in methodology, insufficient study of service innovation, and continued focus on process characteristics instead of other antecedents of NPD success. The service sector seems to be understudied, even as the reality of a service economy is generally acknowledged. The call in a recent metaanalysis to focus more on market and product characteristics and less on process characteristics has not yet been heeded, even by marketing researchers.

Group customer and user research methods, brainstorming, and focus groups continue to be used in innovation efforts to uncover customer needs, generate new product and service ideas, and evaluate decisions, despite extensive empirical evidence that group methods are ineffective for such purposes. This paper summarizes the strong evidence of the ineffectiveness of group research methods for these purposes, much of which has been published outside of the new product development or business literature. The paper shows that the most common rationalization for the continued use of group methods—cost and speed advantages—are questionable, and then proposes an organizational market learning framework for evaluating the use of group methods. This framework provides guidance for the proper use of these research tools and suggests areas for future research on research methods for product innovation.

This paper shows the value of an online personal learning network or community in educational innovation. It shows how theories and best practices from service and product innovation, as well the theories of learning communities, were applied using social media to facilitate the grant proposal and course development processes for a new course in social media marketing. The innovation theory and practices discussed, and the example of their application in a higher-education environment, will help guide educators to (1) create learning networks and communities and to (2) use those communities to innovate in their curriculum and classrooms.

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