WHAT SEPARATES JAPANESE NEW PRODUCT WINNERS FROM LOSERS

Operating in the upper echelons of highly competitive, global markets, numerous Japanese firms enjoy well-deserved reputations for excellenc e in new product development. Despite this success, however, almost no research has been conducted to explore the keys to successful new pro duct development in Japanese companies. For the most part, research in this area has focused on North American and European firms. X. Michae l Song and Mark E. parry address this gap with a study of 404 Japanese firms and 788 new product introductions. Their research explores the links between new product success and 10 factors: product advantage; m arketing synergy; technological synergy; market potential; market comp etitiveness; market and technical understanding; senior management sup port; proficiency in the predevelopment planning process and in concep t development and evaluation; proficiency in market research, market p retesting, and market launch; and technical proficiency. To avoid any cultural bias, development of the survey was preceded by in-depth case studies and focus group interviews with Japanese and American new pro duct development teams. Although time-consuming and expensive, these p reliminary steps were necessary for ensuring the validity of the surve y contents and procedures. Notwithstanding the obvious cultural differ ences, the findings from this study suggest that Japanese new products professionals view the keys to success in much the same way as their North American counterparts. For the survey respondents, the most impo rtant success factor is product advantage. Other important success fac tors include predevelopment proficiency (that is, proficiency in the p redevelopment planning process as well as in concept definition and ev aluation) and marketing and technological synergy. Consistent with pre vious research on North American firms, market competitiveness was fou nd to be the least important success factor. For managers who are tryi ng to predict whether a project will result in a product advantage, se veral survey items may be useful as a checklist for assessing potentia l product advantage. In particular these managers should consider whet her the product offers potential for reducing consumer costs and expan ding consumer capabilities, as well as the likelihood that the product offers improved quality, superior technical performance, and a superi or benefit-to-cost ratio.