SUCCESS THROUGH CUSTOMER-DRIVEN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT - A COMPARISON OF US AND NEW-ZEALAND SMALL ENTREPRENEURIAL HIGH-TECHNOLOGY FIRMS

Although high-tech, entrepreneurial firms may be small in size, they o ften play a large role in developing innovative products and thus spur ring economic growth. Managers from firms of all sizes may gain useful insights by examining the new-product development (NPD) practices of these smalt technology-based firms. And in an era of increasingly glob al competition, those managers can benefit from understanding the NPD practices of firms from various countries. William Souder, David Buiss on, and Tony Garrett contribute to that understanding by describing th e results of a study that compares the relative NPD proficiency of sma ll, technology-based firms in the United States and New Zealand. The f irms participating in the study (26 from the U.S. and 29 from N.Z.) op erate in rapidly growing, highly competitive markets characterized by evolving customer needs. The participating companies share similar goa ls: creating technically superior products with unique features for em erging markets, with the ultimate goal of becoming the product and mar ket leaders within their respective industries. Despite these similari ties, the study reveals several important differences between the U.S. and N.Z. participants. Overall, the N.Z. respondents had higher level s of NPD performance than those of their U.S. counterparts. In particu lar the relationship marketing and customer-focused NPD practices of t he N.Z. firms set them apart from the US. firms. Top-level managers fr om the N.Z. participants report higher levels of satisfaction than the ir U.S. counterparts with the results of their NPD efforts. The result s of the study indicate that repondents from the two countries differ in terms of the focus of their NPD mangement systems and the manner in which they strive to achieve success. For the U.S. firms in the study , their NPD management systems focus on the characteristics of the pro ject manager. The N.Z. respondents place greater emphasis on marketing skills and NPD proficiencies. The results suggest that the higher lev els of NPD performance acheived by the N.Z. firms in the study arise f rom greater insights into their users' needs, together with better cap abilities for acting on those insights.