A Stage‐Wise Approach to Exploring Performance Effects of Cycle Time Reduction

Abstract

Research on reducing new product development (NPD) cycle time has shown that firms tend to adopt different cycle time reduction mechanisms for different process stages. However, the vast majority of previous studies investigating the relationship between new product performance and NPD cycle time have adopted a monolithic process perspective rather than looking at cycle time for the distinct stages of the NPD process (i.e., fuzzy front end, development, and commercialization). As a result, little is known about the specific effect of the cycle times of the different stages on new product performance or how they interact to influence new product performance. This study uses a stage‐wise approach to NPD cycle time to test the main and interacting effects of fuzzy front end, development, and commercialization cycle times on new product performance using objective data for 399 NPD projects developed following a Stage‐Gate® type of process in one firm. The results reveal that at least in this firm, new product performance only increases if all three stages of the NPD process are consistently accelerated. This finding, combined with the previous research showing that firms use different mechanisms to accelerate different stages of the process, emphasizes the need to conduct performance effect studies of NPD cycle time at the stage level rather than at the monolithic process level.

Measuring the Knowns to Manage the Unknown: How to Choose the Gate Timing Strategy in NPD Projects

“…Third, our findings lend support to the notion that managing NPD cycle time in a stage‐wise manner, rather than in a process‐wise manner, better contributes to achieving an optimal cycle time reduction level (Bendoly and Chao, ; Eling et al, ). Adding to Eling et al's () findings, the current study shows that only a feasible, consistent acceleration of NPD cycle time across all stages leads to the highest new product profitability. The best‐performing scenario when new tasks are discovered during the front‐end stage (extra tasks > 0%), when not all customers are willing to postpone their purchase (wp < 100%), and when no extra tasks were discovered just before the front‐end gate, is the fixed front‐end gate strategy.…”

The Evolution, Status, and Research Agenda for the Future of Research in NPD Cycle Time

“…They find that the NPD process stage and assets at the time of founding explain differences in cycle time, but that the importance of these assets differs between software and other firms. This finding resonates with later studies conducted in established firms that find that a stage‐wise approach to NPD cycle time research is warranted (Eling, Langerak, and Griffin, ; Stanko, Molina‐Castillo, and Munuera‐Aleman, ).…”

Innovation processes: Which process for which project?

“…Ignatius et al (2012) showed the influences of technological learning on NPD performance. Eling et al (2013a) investigated the impact of the cycle times on new product performance. Cankurtaran et al (2013) employed a meta-analysis approach to address the speed of new product development, following Griffin's research trajectory on cycle time.…”